Aristotle was not much loved by the Athenians. This might have been because he was a tricky customer or because he was a metic: a resident alien, an ancient green card holder; Greek, but decidedly not an Athenian citizen. Aristotle left Athens shortly after Plato’s death and stayed away for around 12 years.

As citizenship was a matter of inheritance and not of place of birth, a metic could be either an immigrant or the descendant of one. Regardless of how many generations of the family had lived in the city, metics did not become citizens unless the city chose to bestow citizenship on them as a gift.

Citizens. To be classed as a citizen in fifth-century Athens you had to be male, born from two Athenian parents, over eighteen years old, and complete your military service. Women, slaves, metics and children under the age of 20 were not allowed to become citizens.

It is noteworthy that although Aristotle praises the politically active life, he spent most of his own life in Athens, where he was not a citizen and would not have been allowed to participate directly in politics (although of course anyone who wrote as extensively and well about politics as Aristotle did was likely to …

Metics were a class of free non-citizens, often employed on more menial, but nevertheless vital, tasks – including trireme building, rowing and maintenance. Metics were usually Greeks from other city-states. Women of non-Athenian origin could often rise to positions of considerable influence as courtesans.

While having no citizen rights, of which Athenians were very jealous, they did have access to the courts; but they were unable to own property, so were always lodgers, had to serve in the military, pay a metic tax and, if they became wealthy, were liable for taxes on the rich.

Metics were prevented from having any part in politics. They could not attend the Ekklesia or take part in decisions which generally affected their lives. They were also forced to pay a liturgy which was a special tax. Men were made to pay twelve drachmai and woman were made to pay six.

Citizens had rights and privileges that non-citizens did not have, including the right to vote. Citizens also had responsibilities, or duties, they had to perform, like paying taxes. If citizens failed to perform these duties, they would be punished. One such punishment was being marked with red paint!

How did Pericles’s building program help attract people to Athens? It meant other cities in the classical world viewed Athens as a new thinking city. It was a symbol of Athens wealth and Power and would have attracted many great Tradesmen and labourers.

People whose family came from outside of Athens, either an individual or one whose parents came from a foreign land. Metics came to Athens mostly for trade; citizenship was sometimes awarded for distinguished service. Metics accounted for about 25% of the population of Attica. Most were well educated.

The common picture of Descartes is as one who proposed that all science become demonstrative in the way Euclid made geometry demonstrative, namely as a series of valid deductions from self-evident truths, rather than as something rooted in observation and experiment.

Throughout his entire life, Socrates questioned everything from Athenian government to Greek religion and the gods themselves. His ultimate goal was finding the truth, which he believed could be reached through reason and knowledge.