History has witnessed the rise and fall of many powerful cities, starting with Ur and Babylon and continuing into present day with cities such as New York City. Two of these cities, ancient Athens and ancient Rome, stand out from other cities of their time due to their culture, politics, and influence, both on the world around them and on future civilizations. These strengths qualify them as world cities, and despite their eventual losses of power, their legacies live on. Athens obtained hegemony around 448 BC, right after the war-like city-state of Sparta. Athens’ Golden Age was under the rule of Pericles, who initiated a large number of public works projects and encouraged the arts and literature. With the help of rulers such as Pericles and the silver mined in southeastern Attica, Athens quickly became known as a city of wealth and prosperity. It was also notable as a center of philosophy, being the home of Plato’s Akademia and Aristotle’s Lyceum. One of its most significant contributions is that of the beginning of democracy, a system of government that set a standard for many to come, most notably the United States of America. Though by no means a completely egalitarian system, as only free adult males could participate as citizens, Athenian democracy was still a completely revolutionary way of running a government. Overall, Athens became a city of enormous power, which it displayed through its numerous marble buildings, including the Parthenon. The grandeur Athens exhibited made it the envy of all other cities at its time. Athens’ dominance found its end when it was defeated in the Peloponnesian War, and the once traditional and honored city lost its independence, though it still maintained its rich culture and w... ... middle of paper ... ... world cities due to their power and influence in regards to matters both political and cultural. In modern times, New York City provides another example of such a world city. In addition to being the most populous city of the world-power that is the United States, New York City shows itself to have an important impact on fashion, entertainment, culture, and finance across the world. Wall Street has been a financial center for decades, and the city itself has given birth to many cultural movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance. The Empire State Building could be likened to the Parthenon or the Coliseum, being a representation of the city’s architecture and one of the tallest buildings in the world. Overall, all three cities have proved themselves to have enormous worldwide influence, which ultimately designates them as three important world cities in history.
The effects of this go far beyond the imbalance of military power between Athens and her tributaries, however. The Old Oligarch lists four main areas where the existence of the Empire benefits the common people of Athens, thus giving impetus to radicalize democracy and justify the expansion and strengthening of the Empire, and giving is reason to find an ongoing justification for its existence. The first is the building of the disproportionately large Athenian navy. Second is the overall flattening of the Athenian social pyramid, raising the relative status of the lowest classes of society, and exemplified by the way that Athens becomes a magnet for aliens to live and work, and gives unusual freedom and opportunity to slaves. Third is that the allies are compelled to have their court cases tried in Athenian courts, bringing both prestige and financial reward to Athens. Finally, the centralizing effect of these things, and the obvious maritime nature of the Empire, make Athens a trading center, m...
Athens was a much more superior polis compared to Sparta because the Athenians invented new ideas and creations that supported the people, such as democracy, the Athenians led the Delian League, and Sparta created the Peloponnesian League after the Athenians created their alliance, and the Athenians changed the ways of their government many times to suit the people, and the Spartans did not.
While Sparta was “admired in peace and dreaded in war”(102), Athens was admired for their values of education and intellect. The two cities surely obtained different values and lifestyles, but did so with one ultimate goal: to attain as much power as possible, which led them to conducting drastic procedures, such as Spartan’s being trained from birth to become hoplites and Athenian girls being devalued and even eliminated from their inability to earn power. In conclusion, both cities framed their culture and system with the sole purpose of gaining power.
Athens was one of the largest Greek city states. (Stockton, 4). It was about one thousand square miles (Stockton, 4). Athens was founded in the 8th century BC (Muller). It was at first ruled by the college of archons. (Muller). After a term of one year, the archons became members of the Council of Elders (Muller). The people had a voice in the popular assembly, the Ekklesia (Muller). However, it did not have real power until 600 BC. By then, it was an established institution of Athens (Muller). It became the central policy making body in the 5th century. There were two main governmental bodies, the Assembly and the Council. (Acropolis). The Assembly was responsible for policy making. (Acropolis) The Council was responsible for administration and implementing the Assembly’s policies. Not everyone could participate in Athenian politics. Slaves, resident aliens, and women were excluded.
The Ancient Greeks were nothing if not influential. Ever since it 's formation in the 8th century B.C., Greek civilization has impacted many of the world 's greatest thinkers and shaped the landscape of Western Civilization. Aside from their art and philosophy, the Ancient Greeks were particularly interested in politics and, in the case of Athens, a new system of government known as: democracy! Long before the American founding fathers declared their independence from Britain, Athenian citizens governed their own state and voted to solve political turmoil. However, ancient Athens was no perfect twin to American democracy, and being an upstanding Athenian citizen meant more than simply voting and going about one 's business. A standout Athenian
Ancient Greece city-states, Athens and Sparta, were quite different from one another. They both had a different government, education, and female rights, to top it all off they also loathed one another.
When thinking about Greece and Rome, it’s known that they were similar but also were very different in many ways, down to philosophers to architectural building styles, all the way to clothing styles. But which was better at keeping a balanced civilization?
Throughout history, civilizations have organized their members and incentives in citizenship systems. Athens and Rome, both portray the traits of semi-perfect systems of their time. While Rome may have been the greater civilization, Athens had the better citizenship system, for having protective, unbiased, and open minded tradeoffs.
The march towards developing a democratic society is often obstructed with societal unrest due to the influence of the status quo on the instruments of power. Before the rule of Solon, Athens underwent this same rule, as there was much discontent among the social classes in Athens. The society suffered financial disparity that often was the trigger for the war among the rich and poor in the society. This was a major factor that forced Solon into power to institute policies that would see a reformed Athens. By so doing, the society was looking for an avenue that would guarantee democracy and a society that is fair for everyone. The city-state of Athens was the epicenter of the revolution for the Athenian democracy during the fifth century BC. In the Athenian democracy, the electorate voted for the legislation of bills instead of a direct democracy where the electorates are tasked with electing representatives who later developed the bill. Among the first people who made significant contributions to the development of the Athenian democracy were Solon (594 BC), Cleisthenes (508/7 BC), Pericles (495 – 429 BC) and Ephialtes (462 BC). Pericles was the longest serving democratic leader who contributed much development in democracy in the city. This paper will give an account of the age of the Pericles.
New York City is one of the most significant city in the world. It started out as a small Dutch city and grew to what it has become today. It didn’t “just happen” right away but instead, it took a long time to be called as “The Big Apple” or “The City that Never Sleeps.” The character of the place has gradually changed over time and really came to become a global power city during the early twentieth century. For example, 1783 to 1835 was also an important time period in the history of New York City that laid a strong foundation to become an industrialized city. However, considering the developments that happened from 1898 to 1945 to be more organized and effective, the most iconic and quintessential period was from 1898 to 1945 in the history of New York, which we haven’t reached it in our course so far.
Athens’ victory over Persia led to its Golden Age that had a tremendous influence on today’s world. The win led to the period of Athens’ great prosperity due to a strong government, economy and military. Athenians’ had a great love for their city-state at the time due to it being the central of Greece, and this led to their numerous cultural achievements. Both architecturally and literately, Athens’ Golden Age sis the foundation of the present-day’s culture.
“The polis itself became a major economic factor in terms of public employment on juries or in large public building projects, like Acropolis, or the famous Athenian navy ( Augustana university, n.d.)” Democracy provided significant benefits in an economically sense as office holders, jurymen members and administrative council of 500 as people where paid for their time served (Cartledge, 2011). “Power to the people, all the people, especially the poor majority, remained the guiding principle of Athenian democracy (Cartledge, 2011).” This government also paid the citizens to attend assembly, this enabled the poor to be able to attend the assembly (Blackwell, 2003). Democracy also contributed to a stronger army and navy” it was evident that the Athenian army and navy were more powerful because their men believed they were fighting for their own democracy and for their own freedom” ( Augustana university, n.d.). Athens this evidence clearly establishes that democracy gave many Athenian citizens employment and it also lead to victory in the wars. This system of government was a revolutionary idea, overall it provided a just government and formed a system were the whole citizen body can actively participate in the political system. This lead to the economic and political success of the democratic system in Athens that has since developed
Before democracy, Athens was a city-state no different than any other. A few powerful, aristocratic families controlled all governing power. Most of the population held little or no role in the political life of the city. Athenians changed this, and created a system where participation was encouraged and opinions were valued. While some other Greek cities were also setting up democracies, none were as stable or well documented as that of Athens. The reason for why the Athenians moved toward a democratic society instead of an oligarchy or monarchy is still debated by historians. However, one common belief is that it rose due to a rapid population growth in their lower class, which may have caused them to have more power in the government compared to other Greek poleis during the Lyric Age. This time period took place between 800 and 500 B.C.; it represents a very vibrant, evolutionary stage in Greek history. The rise of the lower class in Athens probably did help spark ideas of democracy, yet the significant contributions of the political leadership of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles can undisputedly be credited for the primary development of Athenian democracy. In 594 B.C., the first major political and economic reformer Solon came into power. The next reformer was Cleisthenes; he lived from 570 to 508 B.C. The final, and most revolutionary of the three was Pericles. Pericles is responsible for the last and most glorious stage of Athens. By expanding its power and building patriotic pride, he forever changed the system of democracy.
In the years following the Persian Wars in 479 B.C., Athens had come out on top being the most dominantly powerful of any Greek city with a navy that had superior strength that increased day by day. The Athenians “ruled with heavy-handed, even brutal force as well as with reason” (Kagan 2). This was due largely to the fact that Athens had a stable and effective government, which only increased their advantage in proving themselv...
Athens and Sparta were both city-states in Classical Greece. While Athens embraced democracy, Sparta was a dictatorial fierce warrior state. Sparta was a militaristic community, Athens was a freethinking, and commerce minded city-state. Modern societies have modeled their government organizational structure and military discipline practices from lessons learned of these ancient city-states. There is much is to be praised regarding Classical Greece for their courage, their progressive thinking and the birth of democracy. However, I think it is important to remember that in both cases, Athens and Sparta were able to sustain their lifestyle on the backs of countless slaves, non-citizens and women and that there is a darker and less romantic side to the past.