Ancient Greece: The Five Different Forms Of Government

The city-states of Ancient Greek provide examples of different types of government structures that, even

In Greece, monarchies were found when the Mycenaeans ruled Greece during the period 2000 to 1100 BC. Monarchy is defined as a system of government where a single ruler has supreme power. The word “monarchy” comes from the Greek words “monos” meaning “single” and “archo” meaning “rule”. This single ruler, known as a king, ruled for life and passed the rule on to his heir when he died. The most famous monarchy was that of King Alexandra of Macedonia who ruled all of Greece from 336 BC.

It was usually a tyranny, a form of monarchy or a select group of people. The Greek states could either be ruled by a single individual, such as monarchs and tyrants, or a select group of people, an oligarchy, or every male citizen, which was a democracy. Also the idea of a democracy was regarded as the Greeks' greatest contribution to civilizations of today. But actually monarchies were rare and often not distinguished from a tyranny unless the hereditary ruler was really kind and ruled in the interest of his people rather than himself. But tyrants were not necessarily considered evil, rather they were considered rulers that were just looking out for themselves.“The most famous monarchies were the states of Macedonia and Epiros, where the ruler shared power with an assembly of people” (Cartwright). The Ancient Greek government went through a lot of changes, but, unlike the government, the military stayed

Let’s see what is Monarchy? It is a king or queen who gets all the powers of authority from inheritance and power stays in the same family, usually the bloodline from father to son. In Ancient Greeks, there weren’t too many monarchies, but there was some present and even Athens went under the monarchy at the end of the classical period which ended with the death of Alexander the Great. His father Phillip II of Macedon who became king after the deaths of his two brothers conquered Athens after the Peloponnesian war and ended democracy in the great city of Athens. (Wasson, 2014)

Monarchies in Greece were hereditary. Kings often had many advisers and officials from the upper class to help them make decisions. Depending on the city­state,8ers had varying amounts of power. Oligarchy-The natural isolation of the Greek city-states meant they each developed independently. Eventually, the people overthrew the kings, and around 800 BCE they established oligarchies, or governments where only a few people hold power.

(Cartledge, 2011.) Though Sparta was considered on some level to be an imperial state with a monarchy, this is not strictly true. (Cartledge, 2011.) Not only did having dual kings disqualify it from being known as a strict monarchy, but the kings really did not hold the most power in the Spartan state as most common monarchies would. (Brand, 2010)

In ancient Greece, there are different political regimes. Democracy is lead by representatives of all people while monarchy is a one person. There is an

Monarchy: means the government of a person. In the context of ancient Greece it was hereditary and the power was exercised by a king, a Polis whose government was a monarchy was the city-state of Corinth. The power was recognized and had been taken in a legal manner. In ancient Greece this form of government was rare and was distinguished from tyranny by the benevolence of the hereditary ruler (Cartwright, 2018).

It is a form of in which the people are led by a king. He takes power legally and his sovereignty hereditary. The ruler is empowered to remain in power for life. One city-state whose government was a monarchy was the city-state of Corinth. Blackwell, C. (2003).

Governments of ancient civilizations like Sparta and Athens were alike and different in many ways. Sparta’s government was based on their military. The government was ruled by two kings making an oligarchy, meaning a small group of people had control over sparta. Athens government was a democracy meaning everyone could vote. But it technically wasn’t a true democracy because they still had slaves and treated women unfairly.

In ancient Greece small city-states acted as their own countries with their government and traditions. Interestingly enough, in that time we can see so many different types of government from tyranny to democracy. Ancient Greek’s political structure wasn’t very stable and governments could be overthrown and changed a lot causing violence, chaos and economic hardship for their citizens. Oligarchy was very popular across Ancient Greece city-state. Oligarchy from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía) exactly means “few” and “to rule or to command” (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Keywords: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, democracy Ancient Greece's Forms of Government There were five main forms of government in Ancient Greece, these included; monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. While each had similar qualities, they were also vastly different; both in procedure and quality. A monarchy is a type of government which

This paper will compare monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient city-states. Monarchy is rule by a king or queen, and Sparta had a diarchy. Two kings ruled there with equal authority. They were responsible for administrating religious, military and judicial affairs of the region.

Monarchy: In the ancient Greek, monarchy was a common system in the city-states to rule the community. But before talking about examples of monarchy in the ancient Greek states, let’s define monarchy first.

In Ancient Greece there were not really a lot of monarchies, there was of course Sparta with its unique two King system. The two Kings come from the direct descendants of the founders of Sparta, they weren’t really absolute monarchs because they had the ephors stopping them from taking too many decisions that could be harmful to the state (Cartwright, 2013). There were other monarchies in the times of Ancient Greece, most notably Macedonia, that went on to conquer Greece in 336 BCE (Brand, n.d. ,p36).