social organization: Greece 1031 Goths (who split into the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths), the Alamanni, the Vandals, the Suebi, and the Burgundians The Visigoths and the Ostrogoths organized themselves into actual kingdoms in the third century c.e Their social organization was heavily influenced by Roman culture over the next century The two groups of Goths had kings and genuine governments and adopted Christianity, which added a church hierarchy to their society within society was defined by birth and family connections, property or other wealth, and status, particularly with respect to citizenship Social structures varied from one polis (city-state) to the next but tended to fall into certain basic categories; they were, moreover, subject to manipulation and change over time; as always, ideology (of class, equality, or freedom) could cover over the actual social conditions under which people lived THRACIANS FREEDOM The region north of Greece was home to various peoples who spoke Thracian languages This area encompassed modern Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, and Slovakia Homer wrote about the Tracians in the Iliad, describing Thrace as including the region bordered by the Black Sea and Hellespont to the east and the Vardar River to the west According to the ancient Greeks, the people who lived in Thrace organized themselves into tribes led by kings or chiefs These tribes were defined by kinship, military power, and geography Most people in Th race lived in small villages and did not venture far from home Thrace had no cities or large social groups The region is mountainous, and travel was very difficult during ancient times Therefore, groups of people were isolated from one another The Greeks thought that the mountain tribes were the most warlike and uncivilized of the Thracian peoples Tracians who lived in lower, flatter areas close to Greece were more peaceful and better informed about the larger world than those who lived in the mountains The only organized Thracian nation was the Odrysian Kingdom, which existed in Bulgaria, Romania, northern Greece, and the European portion of Turkey between the fift h century b.c.e and the third century b.c.e Its first capital was located in Edirne, Turkey This kingdom was formed by King Teres (r 480–440 b.c.e.), who gathered several tribes together in a rough union Not all Thracian tribes joined the union, and though contemporary Greeks occasionally mentioned kings of Thrace, these kings did not control all tribes living in the region Kings tried to unify the tribes, to increase both their own power within the kingdom and the power of the Thracians against kingdoms to the south, such as the Macedonians, but they had little success In the fourth century b.c.e the Thracian Kingdom divided into three smaller kingdoms These smaller kingdoms proved easier for rulers to run One of them moved its capital to Seuthopolis, Bulgaria, where its rulers kept it together for the century The Greeks and Romans gradually colonized the area, influencing social structures By 400 c.e Thracian languages had disappeared, and the tribal structure had been replaced by Greek and Roman customs and styles of administration The most basic social distinction at all times in ancient Greece was between the free person and the slave Greeks prided themselves on freedom, and this freedom was defined by contrast with those who lacked it: slaves in Greek cities and the inhabitants of other, non-Greek nations Slaves made up a large percentage of the population during the Classical Period (fift h and fourth centuries b.c.e.), perhaps as high as one-third in Athens and somewhat lower elsewhere Inscriptions show the categories of liberty that the slave was denied: freedom to live where one chooses (including the possibility of migrating to another polis), freedom to act on one’s own behalf in legal matters, freedom from arbitrary capture or seizure, and freedom of action Greeks believed that other peoples, in particular, the Persians, also lacked such freedoms It was common to portray the inhabitants of the vast Persian Empire as slaves to the Great King while the Greeks were their own masters As is always the case with ideological constructs, the simple free-slave, Greek-barbarian dichotomies masked a more nuanced reality Eleutheria (freedom) became the rallying cry of Sparta in its imperialist struggles with Athens, despite the fact that citizens of Athens enjoyed far greater personal liberty than did Spartans Nor was the distinction between slave and free always hard and fast In addition to chattel slavery, a variety of types of limited servitude existed (such as debt bondage and serfdom) As Aristotle points out, the Greek ideal of freedom also included not having to work for the benefit of another person; however, a relatively small percentage of the population could make this claim, and many free laborers must have led lives more difficult and more constrained than those of some slaves (and in some instances may even have enjoyed lesser social status) In addition, the freedoms denied slaves were also denied women, and women of higher status were more subject to male scrutiny and control and thus enjoyed less freedom than did lower-class women GREECE BY J EFFREY S CARNES Greek societies were hierarchical, with clearly marked social classes and kinship groups The place of an individual SOCIETY AND SLAVERY IN THE HOMERIC AGE The poems of Homer (ca ninth to eighth centuries b.c.e.) present a vivid, if idealized picture of early Greek society as it existed in the years prior to the eighth century b.c.e., told from the viewpoint of the upper classes (though with a great deal of sympathy for others) The Odyssey shows a world in which the self-sufficient household (oikos) is the basic social and economic unit Landholders with relatively large estates dominate the political and social landscape; Odysseus, as the