On the subject of Athens, since the quote pertains to them and is somehow relevant:
There are some interesting things about Ancient Athens. For one thing, to be a citizen and vote, you had to have completed military training and, be enrolled in the army, and own panoply. That is, spear, hoplon (sheild), sword, helmet, and body armor. Back then, the cost would put you roughly in the neighborhood of having to purchase your own uparmored humvee with TOW launcher today. You had to be in the city-state phalanx, basically, their army. That's why you had to own panoply. Not only were you required to defend your city-state, but you had to foot the bill for it as well. And if you became a POW, well, too bad for you. You would usually be sold into slavery and your fine panoply would outfit some lucky warrior's son one day. And many times, votes were held requiring wealthy men to build and outfit warships---with money out of their own pocket. Basically, it would be like telling today's billionaires that each one of them has to supply two fighter-bomber wings to the air force on their own dime. And train and feed the pilots and ground crew on their own dime. Oh, and buy all the ordnance, too, as long as the squadrons existed. Hmmm...this isn't a bad idea...
Women could not own property, had no rights, and were not supposed to appear in public unchaperoned, nor did they usually eat with the menfolk. Kind of like Saudi Arabia today. Hetarai (look up the word) had more personal freedom to go places than married women. Men often walked around in public nude; it was considered normal. Unwanted infants could be left to die by exposure outside the city walls. This was considered the right of the father. Slavery was common and slaves, noncitizens, and foreigners had no rights as they were not citizens. Some fun, huh? So much for taking the wife out for dinner at the Athenian equivalent of Cracker Barrel, eh?
If you became unpopular, said things people didn't like, or incurred the displeasure of powerful people, they could hold an election where people could vote to ostracize you. In other words, you would be exiled, many times for life. This is what happened to Alcibiades and others. Or if you said something that could be construed as blasphemy, you could be put to death, as happened to Socrates. They hadn't heard of freedom of speech, see.
Ancient Egypt had a run of nearly 3,000 years. They were one of the world's greatest civilizations. Just because they aren't "the West" does not make them (or Ancient China, for that matter) of no consequence. Egypt accomplished things Greece never did. Greece was too busy fighting amongst themslves in various civil wars like the Peloponnesian War. Rome had that problem, too, with Julius Caesar and then on and on through Marc Antony. Yes, Rome was a republic and their snate as corrupt as the day was long. Which was one reason Caesar crossed the Rubicon. You might also research the Byzantine Empire and the Mayans.
I love history.
