authority. In some Greek city-states a radical new idea emerged of the free male who was fundamentally equal in status to his peers, even if he possessed no inherited wealth or aristocratic identity whatsoever. The free Greek man was able to call, moreover, upon men of the same status to show solidarity with him in defense of his rights and privileges. By the late sixth century this vision of the ideal citizen of the polis (city-state) was to lead, after grueling struggles, to democracy.
