Ancient Greece |
Ancient Rome |
Military Power |
Direct taxation was not well-developed in ancient Greece. There was a tax on the wealth of the very rich, but it was levied only when needed — usually in times of war.
On the other hand, indirect taxes were quite important. Taxes were levied on houses, slaves, herds and flocks, wines, and hay, among others. However, this was not true of all cities. Thasos' gold mines and Athens' taxes on business allowed them to eliminate these indirect taxes. |
Taxation |
City-States were independent of one another. Citizens in these city-states would have been ruled differently. Sparta was different than Athens where women might have had more freedom in Sparta.
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State Authority |
Most families owned slaves as household servants and laborers, and even poor families might have owned a few slaves. Owners were not allowed to beat or kill their slaves. Owners often promised to free slaves in the future to encourage slaves to work hard.
City-states legally owned slaves. These public slaves had a larger measure of independence than slaves owned by families, living on their own and performing specialized tasks. In Athens, public slaves were trained to look out for counterfeit coinage, while temple slaves acted as servants of the temple's deity and Scythian slaves were employed in Athens as a police force corralling citizens to political functions. |
Slavery |