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Democracy in the classical period of Greece
Differences in athens and sparta governmental structure
Differences in athens and sparta governmental structure
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Historical Overview Of The Peloponnesian War (431 - 404 BC)
Introduction
The Peloponnesian War is widely known as the second war between the Athenian and Spartan coalitions. In Thucydides'narratives on the war, he described that the war took place during a period when the Greek world was divided into two great alignments each led by either Athens or Sparta, with both sides at the height of their powers.
Two Diametric Powerful Greek City-States
At the start of the war, Athens wielded great political and economic power in the Greek world. Athens was perceived to be the "unifying force" in the Greek territories against the Persian invasions. After the Greco-Persian wars ended, Athens led the Delian League (See Figure 2) and protected its members with its powerful naval fleet the largest fleet then.
Athens was a thriving metropolis and commercial society with a ethnically homogenous population. By the 5th century BC, it already democratized her institutions establishing a sovereign Assembly whose majority formed the government that directly made all the vital decisions.
In contrast, Sparta was largely an agrarian society and more isolated. Sparta's political system was oligarchic and militant. Sparta's hereditary monarchy of two kings held the right to military leadership. Five ephors elected by the Assembly served as the executing agent with wide powers. The Assembly acted only by acclamation, unlike the Athenian Assembly that depended on debate.
Sparta possessed great land power. Its hoplites were the most feared and effective fighters in the Greek world. Because of Sparta's respected land power, other Greek city-states also chose to form alliances with Sparta (the Peloponnesian League) to balance Athens' influence.
Athens was a bastion of Greek democracy, with a foreign policy of regularly intervening to help fellow democratic allies. Spartans, who favored oligarchies like their own, resented and feared the imperialistic and cultural ascendancies of Athens. There were thus constant disdain and rivalry simmering between the two cities.
The First Peloponnesian War
The first Peloponnesian war, which began in 460BC, resulted as Sparta's allies (Megara and Corinth) dragged her into a long campaign against the dominating threat of Athens. In 446BC, Athens and Sparta signed a "Thirty-Years Peace" in which both agreed to negotiate disputes and not to interfere in the affairs of each other's allies. But incessant disputes between Spartan's allies and Athens inevitably led to a Second Peloponnesian War.
In the later cases of Corinth and Megara, it was Athens unwillingness to agree on independence that triggered the Peloponnesian War. In effect, I believe that Athens had helped to end a war, onto to start another whilst in pursuit of her personal desire for imperialism.
In conclusion, these two Greek city-states clearly differ among their governments, economies, and cultures. Given these differences, they would cause Athens and Sparta to have their disagreements from time to time. Although it seems like these cities would never get along, Sparta and Athens did unify together after the Persian
The rocky relationship between the two became irreperable when Sparta asked Athens for aid against the helots. When the large Athenian army arrived, Sparta had a change of heart, and dismissed the force, fearing that the Athenians would side with the helots against them. Insulted, Athens broke off relations with Sparta, striking an alliance with A...
Both Sparta and Athens were Greek city-states. Sparta was a strict military ruled city-state where the people established themselves as a military power early. However Athens was more of a political city-state that was more involved with their economical stature than their military forces. Still changes from the Persian wars would change the powers of the city-state and somewhat unite them.
The roots of the Peloponnesian war can be traced long before 431 BCE, when it officially started. It 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 that 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 b...
The Peloponnesian War was between the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta due to the growing tensions that continued to grow between the two cities that eventually came to a breaking point. The Peloponnesian War, which can be divided into three phases known as: The Archidamian War, The Sicilian Expedition and The Decelean War, is one of the greatest event in Greek history and an analysis of the causes and effects of this war will give us a better understanding for how the cities of Athens and Sparta came to war and the impact it left behind.
This action, in turn, caused the Spartans to be pressured into going in battle with Athens. With the combined support of Corinth, Sparta was able to claim victory over Athens. Under the dictated treaty called “King’s Peace”, Theban and Athens resisted Persia’s orders (n.d., p.3) . At Leuctra in 37l B.C.E, Theban was able to defeat Spartan, and once again called for the making of a second Delian League with promises of not to return to old ways. Unfortunately, within a short period of time, the Athenians were back to their old ways. A social war in 355 B.C.E., ended the Delian League for the final time.
Dating back to 449 B.C., Sparta and Athens always had an alliance, but as time grew that balance slowly began to fall as one felt threatened by another. Before any sight of unsteadiness the Spartans and Athenians had a bound partnership. Beginning after their domination of the Persian war, the two states slowly became aware of one another’s growing power. More time went by, and the Spartans began to grow conscious of the other states, feeling wary and paranoid around them (Fox, 170). No state was particularly to blame for the strain on their peace treaty, nor for the war, it came as the two states developed. Eventually the two states had clashed enough and declared war. Although the Spartans gave the Athenians a chance to back down and temporarily stall war, the two states would never be equal, their allies resented one another far too much. The growing urge for power was bound to take over sooner or later. Finally, after 7 years of uneasy tension, Sparta could wait no longer and declared war against Athens (Fox, 167). Although the Athenians and Spartans lived together in peace for so long, they existed in a fragile balance that was bound to eventually lead to war.
The Persian War was a war between the Greeks and the Persians. Even though the Greeks were still not united they fought to defend each territory that was theirs. The Peloponnesian war was a war among the Greek city states. That is the difference among the two; one was fought against an enemy who attacked the Greece land and the other was fought among the Greeks themselves. The Persian War begun because the Greeks made a military rebellion in Asia Minor which caused the Persians to face more conflicts themselves. This was known as the Ionian Revolt. After the Ionian Revolt, the Persians more than ever wanted to take over Greece Eventually leading to the Persian War. This was the reason why the Persian war began, basically of revenge. The major parties involved in the conflict of this war were the Persians and the Greek city states.
They had several differences and as they did, their governments had a different style of ruling. To start with, they had different form of government. Athenian had a governmental form called limited democracy while the Spartan had a form called oligarchy with an element of monarchy, democracy and aristocracy. (Athens vs. Sparta, n.d.) Democracy created by the Athens past leader named Cleisthenes, meant rule of the people.
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.
These governments came in different styles such as a monarchy which was led by a king. Another form of government that was seen among the Greeks was aristocracy in which the polis was ruled by a small group of noble, land owning families. One of the more notable polis of ancient Greek was that of Sparta in which they used the oligarchy as there form of government. This type of government is where the people are ruled by a few powerful people. Finally, there was democracy which means “rule of the people” (The Legacy of Ancient Greece and Rome 1-7). This was the government that Athens utilized and helped establish. These varying types of government can be seen throughout governments today, however, it is the government established by the Athenians and their political structure that had a greater impact on the west than that of its Greek polis counterparts.
The Peloponnesian War and the Decline of Leadership in Athens Thucydides set out to narrate the events of what he believed would be a great war—one requiring great power amassed on both sides and great states to carry out. Greatness, for Thucydides, was measured most fundamentally in capital and military strength, but his history delves into almost every aspect of the war, including, quite prominently, its leaders. In Athens especially, leadership was vital to the war effort because the city’s leaders were chosen by its people and thus, both shaped Athens and reflected its character during their lifetimes. The leaders themselves, however, are vastly different in their abilities and their effects on the city. Thucydides featured both Pericles and Alcibiades prominently in his history, and each had a distinct place in the evolution of Athenian empire and the war it sparked between Athens and Sparta.
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) was a conflict between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta that resulted in the end of the Golden Age of Athens. The events of the war were catalogued by the ancient historian Thucydides in The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ writings showed the ancient Greek belief that there is a parallel between the city-state and the character of its citizens; in order for the city-state to be successful, its citizens must be virtuous. Thucydides did not believe that the true cause of the Peloponnesian War were the immediate policies of the Athenian Empire against the city-states in the Peloponnesian League but rather the fundamental differences in the character of the two city-states
However, being in a weakened state caused the Greek city- states (mainly Athens against Sparta) to fight amongst themselves in order to have more influence over the rest of the city-states. This type of war was termed the Peloponnesian War and continued from 431 B.C. to 404 B.C. in the year. History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece and Muntone. The Peloponnesian War began around 431 B.C. and persisted for twenty-seven years.