Best wishes, John Green. When we think about the high point of Greek culture, exemplified by the Parthenon and the plays of Aeschylus, what we're really thinking about is Athens in the 4th century BCE, right after the Persian Wars. But Greece was way more than Athens. Greeks lived in city-states, which consisted of a city and its surrounding area. Most of these city-states featured at least some form of slavery, and in all of them, citizenship was limited to males. Sorry, ladies. Also, each of these city-states had its own form of government, ranging from very democratic unless you were a woman or a slave, to completely dictatorial.