What were some political achievements for ancient Greece?

Answer 1

The great achievement of the Early republic was to integrate the rich plebeians into a patrician-plebeian oligarchy. The plebeians were the commoners, both rich and poor. The patricians were the aristocracy. The patricians monoplosided the senate and the offices of state. The poor plebeians rebelled several times and formed the (poor) plebeian movement, which fought for the economic grievances of the poor. This started the 200 year long Conflict of the Orders. The rich plebeians assumed leadership of this movement and used it to press for power-sharing with the patricians. After a long series of agitations and reforms, the rich plebeians eventually gained access to the senate and the offices of state and shared power with the patricians. They were also given equite status (cavalryman), which was the lower tier of he aristocracy.

The failure of the Conflict of the Orders was that the economic grievances of the poor was never addressed properly. Over time the plight of the poor became worse and become one of he factors which led to the civil wars of the Late Republic which were the downfall of the Republic.

There were diplomatic achievements as well. When republican Rome expanded into Central and southern Italy in the 4th century BC and early 2nd century BC, she turned the peoples of this area into allies. The allies provided soldiers who fought in auxiliary troops which supported the Roman legions in exchange for a share of the spoils of war. Some of these peoples were forced into alliances, some volunteered. These alliances greatly increased the pool of military manpower available to Rome, which became the largest in the Mediterranean. The allies supplied 60% of this pool.

The Republic also made alliances with some Greek states who sought her protection in the conflicts between Greek states. She made an alliance with the Numidians of modern Algeria towards the end of he Second Punic War (218-201 BC). She also turned Armenia, Syria and Judea into client states.

Answer 2

The practiced the various types of politics - monarchy, oligarchy, tyranny, democracy, finding out the benefits and disabilities of each system.