Greek Life
Every day life in Ancient Greece differed depending on ones social status. Xenophon was a student of Socrates and he wrote a dialogue between Socrates and a man by the name of Ischomaches. The dialogue is about how Ischomaches spends his morning, and it explains how most aristocrats occupied themselves during the 4th century B.C. in Greece.
According to Ischomaches, the average aristocrat leads a very busy life. The typical morning would start out by waking up and going into town if there was anything that needed to be done. If there was no need to go into town, then he would go to his farm to make sure all of his servants are doing the job they are supposed to do. Ischomaches talks about how if anything was going wrong, he would offer his feedback on the situation.
After checking on his men at the farm, Ischomaches would go out on his horse for a while, he didn’t care where he is going, he would just ride. When he was finished with that, he would jog back to his house. While he headed home, his serving boy would take the horse and go into town to get anything that was needed. Ischomaches would go to his house, take a bath, and eat breakfast. He was then ready for the day to begin.
After reading this dialogue, it is easier for me to picture the way that some people lived in ancient Greece. This makes it very clear that a lot had to be done before the day even began. It’s hard to imagine what life would be like as a lower classman during this time, if an aristocrat had so much to do.