Athenian Government: Sparta Vs. Athens

Throughout every major empire, there are two opposing ideas of how to run a government. In ancient Greece the two ancient city-states, Sparta and Athens, both had very different ideas on how to run a civilization. Athens model was democracy and rhetoric speaking. Sparta had an oligarchy and everyone worked for the state. Today, most modern governments have modeled off of the Athenian democracy but what would the modern day look like if we modeled after the Spartans? The Athenians were at the center of philosophy, were great traders, had an extremely strong navy with many citizens. Eventually though greed led Athens to bullying other city-states into given them money and plague came when too many people populated the city. Spartans were trained

Sparta had two kings and twenty-eight elders. This system was very important to maintaining their orderly, stable society since if a king died in battle away from home or was sick the other king would govern the country keeping it in order. There were not only the two kings but the twenty-eight elders who would also help govern the country and make laws. Within the oligarchy there was the citizen assembly. WIthout the citizen assembly laws could be passed that would not benefit the state or those who lived in the community. The citizen assembly ensured that the laws would benefit all except the slaves. (Helots) All citizens were men thirty years and older. At this age men were able to become citizens due to the facts that they had survived wars and were considered wiser from their experiences. Lastly but not least there are the five Ephors. The five Ephors were elected by the citizen assembly and their jobs were to make sure that the government was just and not corrupted. Their job was to observe laws and help maintain the king's authority. This is more effective than Athens political system since, rhetoric speakers in Athens would write their speeches somewhat based on people's emotions to be elected. While in Sparta you had to be elected and earn your place within government. In conclusion their oligarchy was important to the city-state's survival by

The Spartans had extremely strong land battle tactics, each soldier was elite, and the soldiers learned to survive with very little and no luxuries. The Spartans battle tactics were extremely efficient and even though small, the army was able to bulldoze through much larger armies. Each soldier was trained to be the best of the best, the elite. Meanwhile in other city-states a soldier was given a sword and a shield and told to fight. Spartans had years of training with weapons and surviving with little food and no luxuries. This lead to the boys being forced to live with nearly nothing. This encouraged the boys to steal food and clothes for warmth. This would help with skills such as stealth. In conclusion the Spartans strong military power prevented other city-states from attacking them and allowed them to conquer other territories for needed