Ecclesia (ancient Greece)

The ecclesia or ekklesia (Greek: ἐκκλησία) was the assembly of the citizens in city-states of ancient Greece.

The assembly was responsible for declaring war, military strategy and electing the strategoi and other officials.

A police force of 300 Scythian slaves carried red ochre-stained ropes to induce the citizens who loitered in the agora of Athens to attend the meetings of the assembly.

In ancient Greece, an ekklesiasterion was a building specifically built for the purpose of holding the supreme meetings of the ecclesia.

The meetings of the assembly could attract large audiences: 6,000 citizens might have attended in Athens during the fifth century BC.

Constitution of the Athenians, 4th century BC. The ecclesia is represented by the small blue box in the top center of the image. This diagram is based on Aristotle's Constitution of the Athenians .
The ekklesia in Athens convened on a hill called the Pnyx