The governments of these two city-states were not alike in many ways. “It is true that our government is called a democracy, because its administration is in the hands, not of the few, but of the many,” (Document 3). Athens’ government was what we would consider today a direct democracy. This means that their government was run by the people, or in other words “the many”, rather than a couple government officials, or “the few”. Although Athens was running their city as a government by the people, Sparta had a different form of government. “it is made up of oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy,
Government is an important aspect in every civilization, different civilizations have some similarities and some differences. Ancient Greece had different types of government in each city-state, Sparta had monarchy, which was run by two kings. Both kings came from
Alexander had conquered many lands during his reign. His success changed the then-known world as he spread Greek culture throughout the empires he had won. However, after the death of Alexander, the Hellenistic period proper began, as his territories were split radically altering the political landscape. Greek politics were organized around the city-state or alliances of city states into larger political units. The Hellenistic period began a time of organization into kingdoms, where cities within a territory owed allegiance, taxes, and military support to the central government. City states that did not want to be allied were unable to compete with the powerful Hellenistic kingdoms and were forced to ally themselves to one of them for defense.
4. “Explain the different political systems in Athens and Sparta.”: The Athens had a controlled political life but very little power. However, by the seventh century the Athens got under control by the aristocrats and weren't controlled by a king. Sparta had two kings, five men who were the ephors. The Spartans are a military state.
In 431 BCE a tragic war began, the Peloponnesian War. This war took place in Greece and was fought between Sparta and Athens. Athens had a powerful navy while Sparta had a strong army. Sparta saw Athens as a threat because Athens was stealing money from the Delian League, which was an alliance formed by about 200 Greek city-states, including Sparta. Athens was the head of the Delian League because they started it and when Sparta saw that they were stealing money to glorify their city, the Spartans didn’t like it. Both city-states believed they would have the upper hand if they fought, so they both pushed for war. Eventually, Sparta declared war on Athens. Since Sparta had a strong army they wanted to fight a land war. However, Pericles, Athens’ leader, wanted to wait for the precise moment to attack by water. In the end Sparta was able to fight the war the way they wanted to, but the aftermath of the war was worse than the war itself.
The Greeks preferred the Spartan system of government over Athenian democracy in many ways, such as authority, military, and social policies. Characteristics of each significantly shaped there form of society. Spartan government was so appealing because of its rule by few policy. Allowing much lesser of a say from its common people. Creating a almost perfect system for the elitists. How could this not be appealing. The Spartans also had this concept of a perfect race. In which they were trying to build the grandest race of people in the universe, by training and fighting. Which is why their military forces were so strong. Both forms of government however did support the idea of every person is within the law, yet both also rejected the idea
“Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states”
Greek geography was something of a different animal to the rest of the world. These “city-states” were formed communities that governed themselves in one of three types of government. Monarch, Oligarchy, or Democracy. The monarchy was ruled by a king, while the oligarchy was made up of a small group of men to run the government, and democracy was made up of ordinary citizens. This last form was a newer way of attempting to give a voice to the people. “Whatever the mode of government, the crucial idea was the sense of belonging to a political community.” (Ibid) Unlike other regime’s, there was no absolute ruler over all of Greece. Each city-state managed its own territory, which may have been nothing more than a farming
Ancient Greece was home to two of the most influential cities of its time, Athens and Sparta. Athens was known for its thinkers, art, and architecture while Sparta was the “warrior’s society”. While both cities ended tragically, they were successful for an extended period of time. This could be attributed to their forms of government. In Athens, the power was in the hands of the people in what is now known as a democracy. Sparta went the way of militarism, pursuing military policy. Another difference was the way they treated their women. Given different forms of government, Athens and Sparta were successful in their time.
As an introduction, Greece had a vast number of ancient city-states as one can easily gather from the map above. Many of these include Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Megara, Argos, Macedonia, Epeiros, Sicily and so many more. A lot is said about Athens and Sparta, but very little is spoken of the others. How were the government structures set up? Which of the city states had a monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and which city-state had a democracy? How were they similar? And how were they different? These are the issues I'd like to address. To begin each section and thoroughly answer everything, first I plan to define what each term is, and then I plan to speak on which city-states the term applied to.
The roots of the Peloponnesian War can be traced back to as early as the Persian Wars, where the Athenians had found their home burned by the hands of the Persians. That disaster left the Athenians with no home and no sanctuary. Even though it was a defeated battle amidst a victorious war, they still had reason to believe that the Persians will come back for more. Apprehensive at the thought of having their city burned yet another time, the Athenians knew they had to do something. Naturally, they chose to get help. Gathering up the neighboring city-states around them, the Athenians formed the Delian League; an alliance working directly to defend the whole of Greece from Persian attacks (Kagan 8). In the beginning, this worked out well; everybody got their say on what went on in the league, and everybody was satisfied. However, the Athenians saw that if they were to take more power, the members of the league would not be strong enough to resist. Therefore, that was exactly what they did; they took more and more power until what was the Delian League became the Athenian Empire (Kagan 8). As they grew even more powerful and wealthy, their neighbors of Sparta and the Peloponnesian League, Sparta's alliance, could not help but notice (Kagan 13). In 431 BCE, lighted by the fire of jealousy and rage, the Spartans attacked ...
There were a few differences between the government of Persian and the Greeks. The Persian empire was ruled by a King, and ,as stated in the book, “the only requirements were to be loyal to the king and pay tribute” (textbook pg 132). The Greek government was more democratic base ruling, where the citizens each had a voice due to each cities being separated. The Persian Empire, each provinces were ruled by satrapies, and they were either relative or close associate of the king (textbook pg 132). In the Greek government, each city states were ruled separately by a governor, and they were were independent of each other.
Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states.
The Peloponnesian war involved Greece’s two most prominent city-states, Athens and Sparta, between 431-404 BC. Both Athens and Sparta held numerous alliances, causing essentially the entire ancient Greek world to be engulfed in war. The Peloponnesian war was perhaps one of the most momentous wars of its time and is meticulously documented in the historian Thucydides contemporary account History. Thucydides stated that the most prominent cause of the war was Sparta’s unease at the rapidly growing power and capital of Athens. Other events caused friction between the city-states, notably Athens intervening in a dispute between Spartans ally, Corinth, and her colony Corcyra over the city of Epidaurus. The revolt of Potidaea against Athens and the Peloponnesian Leagues interference in the event caused an undeniable tension across the Greek world. It was perhaps Athens hostile decrees against Sparta’s ally Megara that made war inevitable.
In ancient time Greece was not one country, but it was composed of several hundred city-states (Brand, n.d.). Each of these city-states spoke the same language, but each of them was independent and distinctively from others. Their organization, it sets of laws, and forms of government were unique to each polis. The power in politics rested in the hands of either a single, or a few people, or several people. Even though there were hundreds of city-states the five most known forms of government used in several city-states were a monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy (Cartledge, 2011).