ABSTRACT
Many of the civil liberties people enjoy in the United States were initiated in Athens, Greece. There is little evidence of meaningful civil liberties in other Greek city-states. Only adult males who were born of two Athenians could be citizens, though prior to Pericles they required only one parent. If a citizen caught his wife having sex with another man, the husband had to divorce her to retain his civil rights. Civil liberties for US citizens are contained in the Bill of Rights and in subsequent constitutional amendments. Such civil liberties include the freedom of speech, of religion, and of the press. Athens did not have a Bill of Rights as such. In the United States, as in Athens, the actual scope of any civil liberty is determined in practice as new cases arise.
