Government and rights

Rome and Greece are terrible examples of of government protecting the rights of people, for as you said they only did this for their citizens. The poor, serf type classes, slaves, subsistence farmers, and others were not afforded the protection of the great City-States and were left at the mercy of roving bandits, invading barbarians and neighboring city-states. The history of Athens during the Peloponesian wars shows how the citizens would often hole up in the city during the campaign season while invaders would lay waste to the surrounding country side. The same for Rome during wars with Carthage. When Hannibal crossed the alps into northern Italy those who had paid tribute to Rome for her "protection" were abandoned and Rome kept much of its army in Spain fighting over the spoils and leaving their closest neighbors, many of whom were considered "allies" with two choices. Side with Hannibal and suffer Rome's wrath when Hannibal was finally ejected or voluntarily left, or remain on Rome's side and be destroyed by Hannibal now. Proverbial rock and a hard place. This is how the poor were treated under the "enlightened" Romans and Greeks. This has been the case for countless countries throughout history. Weather its local police refusing to protect factory workers from strike breakers in the US, or decades of oppression of the Irish (or the Scots) by the English, or any one of a couple of hundred other examples of the poor not being protected by the state, despite promises to do so.