Definition of Citizen in Ancient Greece

The limitations of citizenship were very strict: one had to be a man of the city-state one's parents had to be of the city-state as well, and one had to be an adult male, which meant that four kinds of people could not become citizens: one was a woman, the second was a slave, the third was a foreigner, and the fourth was a minor male of the city-state.

So although there were about 200,000 people in the city-state of Athens, there were only about 40,000 real citizens, so the democracy in ancient Greece, although it was very developed, was only the democracy of a few, and it was called the "male citizens' club".

Expanded:

Athenian democracy was based on the principle of democracy. p>The basic features of Athenian democracy were that all citizens were rulers, participated in politics, and collectively held supreme power in the state; relative equality within the collective citizenry; and the supremacy of the law. However, the essence and limitations of Athenian democratic politics is Athenian democratic politics to maintain the dominance and interests of the slave-owning aristocracy, its essence is built on the basis of slavery, is the democracy of the minority.

Athenian democracy was only a political system in which "adult male citizens were the masters of their own house", and democracy was out of reach for women, gentiles, and slaves in general, which was different from modern democracy, and which stifled and limited the ability of another part of the society to develop on its own, and which had a great deal of limitations.

The Greek city-state was a very unique form of state. Its outward appearance was characterized by its small size, and its essential character by its socio-political structure, i.e., it was a self-governing body of citizens, a political system in which citizens shared *** same life and rights and duties under *** same laws. Aristotle has classically summarized the Greek city-states.

He pointed out that a city-state is not to be judged by its population, its walls, etc., but by whether it is composed of citizens. "A city-state is precisely the combination of a number of citizens." "A number of citizens assembled within a political group becomes a city-state." (1) Citizens, therefore, are the essential elements that make up a city-state; they are "those who belong to the city-state."

Subjects under a monarchy also belong to the state, but because the state belongs to the monarch, they are ultimately the monarch's vassals, whereas the state to which the citizens belong is the civic ****same body, of which they are members rather than vassals of any individual. This is the original meaning of the concept of citizenship.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Ancient Greek Democracy