From: Sarah Evans
To: Mr Sheldrick
Sent: Fri, 12 March, 2010 5:46:22 PM
Subject:
sir, i was wondering- the "athens at the time of cleisthenes" booklet says the demes were already in existence when cleisthenes came along, he just adopted them as the basic unit for the new system. would it be wrong to say then that he divided the people into small towns and districts called demes? it also mentions that he did divide athens itself into demes as none previously existed there. bit of a minor detail but i don't want to inadvertantly say the wrong thing.
thanks sir
Answer:
From wiki-
"In Ancient Greece, a deme (δῆμος) was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC. In those reforms, enrollment in the citizen-lists of a deme became the requirement for citizenship; prior to that time, citizenship had been based on membership in a phratry, or family group. At this same time, demes were established in the city of Athens itself, where they had not previously existed; in all, at the end of Cleisthenes' reforms, Attica was divided into 139 demes. The establishment of demes as the fundamental units of the state weakened the gene, or aristocratic family groups, that had dominated the phratries.[1]"
Cheers,
Mr S
hi sir =). nickey says that: "Sir! You should know better than to use Wikipedia as a reference source! Says other teachers. DONT QUOTE ME =DDD".
ReplyDeletei see nothing wrong with wiki, though. god only knows how many times it's saved my life.
aiyeeeeeeerh test is tomorrow and i'm still on here....i'm going to regret it tomorrow :DD.
Well Nickey I have to disagree with those other teachers. I do agree that you should never quote it as a source, because you are never quite sure who wrote the material... but it doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of good stuff in there!
ReplyDeleteTo be truthful I have known some teachers who have told their students not even to look at it, but mainly because they used it so much for the source of their notes.
I know that Donald Kagan, Wallace Hadrill & heaps of other big name historian have all contributed anonymously to wiki... but there are also people who write things that canned pretty quickly.
So my verdict is use it but don't quote it in an essay. Never say "wiki says" lol