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with "being the cradle of democracy". That's largely a myth though, invented by British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. He made it up in the 19th century when Greece was fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire, in order to drum up support for the Greek cause with the world powers of the time, Great Britain and France.

Very effective it was, too: Britain and France started to support Greece and finally forced the Turks to grant Greece its independence.

As to the 'cradle' thing: the Greek city-States (including Athens) for almost all its existence were ruled as a Oligarchy, so run by a small group of powerful families.

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8y ago

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