Olives and Oligarchy: A Modern Comparison of Athens and Sparta
The ancient world has always been clouded in mist, but one region broke through: Greece. Two great civilizations specifically shone through, and are taken as examples of what “good” society is by peoples, nations, and civilizations. They were looked back upon by every major era as pillars of civility, honour, and intellectuality, and through this helped form the foundation of Western European thought. These two empires were Ancient Athens and Sparta. The two show the dichotomy that existed within Hellas, through contrasting political systems, the treatment of their respective empires, and upon what their economy was based and with what it flourished.
Both city-states have left
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Ephiatles became a leader of the people and assigned guardianship of the constitution written by Aristotle to an elected council. Athens’ political system was the first to introduce the principle of pay for political office, allowing “all citizens, even the poorest, to perform time consuming public tasks which they would otherwise not have had the leisure to fulfil”. It also played a lottery to assign members of the citizenry to public office. Athens also had a senate called the boulē that was representative of its citizenry. This resulted in the creation of a fair system, allowing citizens of all socioeconomic classes to participate in it. Athens viewed the courts as traditional oligarchic devices designed to oppress the poor and their system to amend this was to institute a mass jury, further enfranchising its citizenry to be active in all political life. Alternatively, Sparta utilized the political system of oligarchy, or the rule of the few. It is a political system enjoyed today by those nations that have strongmen leading them, who attempt to emulate Spartan values. Sparta can be viewed as the …show more content…
Sparta, similarly to strongmen oligarchic nations today, superficially had institutions that resembled democracy such as allowing all male citizens to vote in a general assembly, and appointing poor Spartan citizens to high ranking positions in Spartan government. This was all a falsehood, as bribery was rampant due to the officials in Spartan government being poor outside of title. Citizenship in Sparta was conferred by receiving a certain amount of income from land, further disenfranchising members of society and increasing the political power of a few wealthy families and individuals. Sparta also had a rarity in oligarchic governments in the form of a dual monarchy which weld immense power in domestic and foreign affair of the Spartan state shared between two extremely wealthy, royal families named the Agiads and the Eurypontids. Spartan
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,
Ancient Greece today is most known for the culture: the gods, the dramas, how people lived. What most people do not realize is that there were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different civilizations spread throughout Greece that all had different forms of government. The three main ones were Athens, Sparta, and Miletus. Each was very different from the other. The most powerful out of all three was Sparta: a military based society. The Spartan government had a strong foundation that was all torn down by one bad leader.
The Athenian government started out as a Monarchy and switched into an Aristocratic Oligarchy, then to Areopagus, nine Archons, and finally an Ecclesia. An Archon was used during the aristocratic society, in other words, a king. He ruled through the Areopagus, the chief judicial and policy-making of the government [Andrews]. At the beginning of Aristocratic, there was nine Archons that ruled for life and held office for ten years. In 682 B.C., the rule of office became annual. The years progressed and two more senior Archons were added, the Archon Basileus, Chief Archon and the Polemarch [Demand 141]. By the seventh century, all adult male citizens of Athens had the right to attend Ecclesia. The Ecclesia is an assembly of citizens who prepared the agenda for the Areopagus. Draco allowed the Strategoi to possess no debt and not own land less than 100 minas. Among the classes of Solon, the Boule is elected third class citizens who make up the council of 400. The
Sparta was a war-like Greek city-state that had 2 main ranks of society. There were the Spartans, who were citizens that would receive an education that emphasized self-control, courage, obedience, and discipline. They both have the upper class, which are the citizens of the city-state. They were usually wealthy, and they didn’t spend much time at home or around their families.
Compare and contrast a prominent political and cultural element of the Athenian and Spartan poleis and how this was reflected by the Athenian Army at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC and the 300 Spartan hoplites at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.
The restoration of Athenian democracy around the fifth century BC in the city-states referred to as the polis evidence the value of political autonomy. An Athenian democracy that was entitled to the city f Athens as well as surrounding regions likes Attica was the foremost autonomy across the universe. It inspired other cities in Greece to foster democracies (Ober & Weingast, 2017). A significant number of Greek cities followed Athenian theory. However, none of the cities were documented like Athens. Athenian autonomy was a structure of direct democracy. Athens residents were permitted to directly select their legislations well as executive bills through direct votes. Nonetheless, all Athens residents were not allowed to participate in the voting exercise. Voting qualifications included being an adult and a male citizen of
The Spartan government had two kings and a council of elders who advised the monarchs. An assembly made up of all citizens approved all major decisions. From child-hood, a Spartan prepared to be part of the military. All newborn were examined and the healthy lived and the sickly were left to die. Spartans wanted future soldiers or mothers of soldiers to be healthy.
Athens in Plato’s time provides an apt description of turmoil and numerous political shifts in a short period of time. The Peloponnesian War ended with Sparta as the victor, while Athens became a picture of the devastation of the war. The disparity of Athens became heightened by an onslaught of the plague, the devastating loss of humanity, as well as economic difficulties due to of the cost of the war. Furthermore, the political arena of Athens became controlled by the Thirty Tyrants, who “appointed a Council of 500 to serve the judicial functions formerly belonging to all the citizens” (Gill). Critias and Theramenes, the leaders of the Thirty Tyrants, eliminated the powers of a democracy and began to rule as an oligarchy, executing any who opposed their rule. Plato juxtaposes the oligarchic regime with the concept of justice in his vision of a perfect society. He understands that the imperfections of the human need to be subdued or hidden by organizational efforts. Plato highlights structure and organization by dividing the population into three spheres: guardians, auxiliaries and producers. Each class structure is designated a task, the leader must make fair decisions and decide fairly amongst the population, the guards m...
Sparta contained a four branch government system that was considered among the most unique in all of Greece. Unlike the democracy of Athens, Sparta was based on an oligarchy structure. The diarchy, which consisted of two kings, was the first division of this government. These figures held little influence over the state and served more as a symbol of royal heritage (Kennell 83). The second branch was the Gerousia council which acted as an advising body and hel...
In Sparta, only citizens could be members of the assembly. Sparta’s assembly was not a democracy it was a dictatorship. Sparta was a unique dual kingship, one king went to war and the other king stayed home. I would venture to describe them more like Generals
Sparta and Athens both had Oligarchies between the 7th century B.C and 5th century B.C. Until Cleisthenes reformed Athens and installed a new council of 500, that proposed laws that the assembly would vote on. Spartan oligarchy had a council of elders that consisted of two kings and 28 men over the age of 60 who had served in the Spartan military. This differed from a democracy because the assembly did not make laws, but just passed them. There was also no open debate or discussion. These governments and political institutions although we're both expressions of hellenic culture, manifested because of the virtues and cultures of Athens and Sparta as well as their history. Athens became a democracy because of its openness to new ideas and great education, as well as the enslavement of the Athenian farmers via debt. In the Age of Pericles, Athens flourished culturally and politically. They had a direct democracy and had seen the growth of the arts and intellect divisions. When the
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.
Governing has never been an easy task during the times of ancient Athens and Sparta. Both equally were ahead of their time by giving their people an actual voice and weight when making decisions. Unfortunately, neither of these civilizations lasted the great length of time.
Sparta was a city-state based on strict military ruling, at the age of seven a young Spartan would start out training and be trained into killing machines. When a Spartan baby is born, high elite Spartan soldiers would observe the baby to see if it was healthy and strong, if not the baby was ill and weak so it would be taken up a mountain and left there to die. This is just one example that shows how Sparta only wants a strong army and doesn't care about anything else. Strict rules of the government made it so that every Sp...
Ancient Greece was made up of individual city states, known as a Polis, which relied heavily on citizen participation in politics. The idea of self-rule was an entirely new way of governing. Citizenship was unheard of at the time. Although still considered citizens not everybody was allowed to participate. In Athens only adult males who had military training were allowed to vote. The majority of the population, namely slaves, children, metics (free noncitizens) and women were excluded from participation in politics. “[Metics] and women were not citizens and did not enjoy any of the privileges of citizenship.”(Sayre, 137) Athenian citizens had to be descended from citizens, excluding the children of Athenian men and foreign women. Individuals could be granted citizenship in to Athens by the assembly this was usually as a reward for some service to the state. Ancient Greece paved the way for the representative democratic style of government that is practiced by many countries today. Much like how voting rights started out in America, originally only the wealthy land owners were allowed to vote and call themselves citizens, but soon all men were allowed to have a vote and a voice in their states politics. Essentially the Greeks were the first to introduce citizen rights and freedom similar to what’s seen today.