Athens And Gerousia Case Study

To be eligible to be a part of the Gerousia, one had to be a Homoioi over 60 or a king. The elections were done by acclamation by the Apella.

My first point is that the people of Athens held annual meets to vote people in and out of their government. “In other words, the Athenians not only voted people into office, but they had a regular procedure for voting one person per year out of office. “(Doc E) This was only done when they believed it be necessary. If they voted someone out of office, they were exiled from any political area. This also supports my second point.

The Spartans were a military force to be rekon with, in part their entire lives were focused upon developing and training their people into excellent soldiers. In order to have a society that had such a presence, their way of life was drastically different from any other city- state of this time. Politically, there was no hierarchy within Sparta, all men were seen as legally equal. The government leaders were made up of two hereditary kings, who would often be prominent leaders within their military. There was a council that was referred as, the “Gerousia”. The council was only made up of men who had reached a certain age, around sixty years. This was to ensure that only men with experience and knowledge would be able to deliberate the important issues that were being discussed. These men also were retired from the Spartan military, thus having knowledge in military strategy. This group mainly reviews foreign and domestic issues, which ultimately is preparation for the council made up of Spartan citizens(73-74).

How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community? Who held public office? What rules governed the selection of public office holders?

Ancient citizens from Athens and Sparta are representatives of what the ideal polis is. For the citizens as representatives, to be contingent in an ideal polis there must be loyalty and pride. The Spartans, between itself and Athens has a stronger polis due to their fearless citizens. Athens has an ever changing constitution that does not allow for consistency to flow. A constitution that continuously revamps itself every time there is someone or a new group of people in power does not set the credentials for there to be a respected polis. With an emphasis on the word polis there is an emphasis on the word “equality”, because in order to have the same goals on a large scale there needs to be an equal respective treatment between citizens

The government in Sparta followed a very different coarse than that of the Athenians. It was controlled by an oligarchy in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. Working below the ephors was the Council of Elders and an Assembly. Male citizens over age sixty could serve on the Council while anyone, male or female, over the age of twenty could be a member of the Assembly. Though the citizens had little say in the decisions made by the government, the system worked effectively. Over the years, the Spartan's brutal reputation in war grew so great that other nations and city-states were too frightened to attack Sparta even though the Spartan army was no larger then eight thousand men. The Spartan Constitution called for all men to begin their military education at the age of seven, where they were trained to be tough and self-sufficient. Every man in the army fought with a great deal of passion for his country. Life in Sparta may have been rough, but the rest of the Greeks envied the Spartans for their simplicity, straight forwardness, and fanatical dedication. The beliefs of Sparta were oriented around the state. The individual lived and died for the state. The combination of this philosophy, the education of Spartan males, and the discipline of their army gave the Spartans the stability needed to survive in Ancient Greece.

Spartan government also allowed for its citizens to participate in decisions that would affect the community on a whole. If you were a free male citizen, you were part of the Assembly. The Assembly had monthly meetings and would pass laws and make decisions regarding war. To be considered eligible for the assembly, a Spartan man must first join a Syssitia. A Syssitia was a small group (about 15) of Spartan men who would share meals with each other. At the age of 20 a Spartan man would try to join a Syssitia. This required a vote of yes from all members of the Syssitia the Spartan man was trying to join. Failure to join a Syssitia would result in loss of citizenship and the ability to participate in the Assembly (Brand).

The political institutions of Sparta in the classical era comprehensively contrasted the governmental establishments in Athens. In particular, the constitutional councils in Sparta and Athens widely differed in their hierarchical prioritisation of age. Described by Xenophon as the pinnacle of political life, the gerousia was the Spartan council which consisted of the kings and Spartiates over the age of sixty (Xen. Con. 10.1). From this it can be deduced that gerontocracy

The chain of command for the government of Athens was pretty straightforward. At the very top was the strategoi, the military commanders. There were ten of these, one strategos voted for each tribe. They each served for one year, however unlike the other officials, the strategoi could be reelected to their positions an unlimited number of times. “This is based on the wisdom that frequently overhauling military leadership during a war or other national emergency can prove dangerous or even disastrous” (Nardo 46). One prominent example of this was Pericles, who was extremely popular and was reelected over twenty times before his death. The duty of the strategoi was to carry out orders given by the Council and Assembly. They also regularly carried out foreign policy initiatives.

After the wars, Athens emerges as the center of all activity amongst each city-state in Greece. One of the key features within the Athenian society was the arrangement of public assembly and the rule of the people, democracy. In the assemblies, any male citizen could actively vote

The organization and political structure of Athens was built on a manner of crisis and was in a desperate cry for order. There were many motivating factors that contributed to the need of reconstruction and change in Attica. For instance, the increase of trade and commerce was imperative for the rise of the new wealthy classes demanding in the participation of political influence. The increase in political governance was crucial because it permitted all citizens to have an impact, decreasing the chance of tyranny. After Kylon`s attempt of tyranny, many Athenians were in fear of another rule under tyranny. Therefore, future rulers such as Solon and Cleisthenes created that sense of security in the city state that sparked the change

In the Athenian Democracy, they had a form of government where citizens ruled directly and not through representatives. They had a legislature branch that would pass the laws, the executive branch would carry out the laws, and the judicial branch would conduct the trials with paid jurors. The executive branch was composed of a council of 500 men and the leaders were chosen by a lot. To be a citizen in Athens, you had to be a male, 18 years old, born from citizen parents, and your parents can't be a slave.

Solon is the second person to reform the laws of Athens. He began revising laws in the 590s BC and “allowed all men in Athens to take part in the assembly that governed the city and to serve on the juries that heard trials” (SOURCE 1). Along with participation in the assembly, Solon “forbade the practice of debt slavery and set up a fund to buy back Athenian slaves who had been sold abroad” (SOURCE 2). Solon “based eligibility for political office on property qualifications, not birth,” permitting those not born of high social status to have the opportunity to hold an office (SOURCE 2). Through all of these events, society still did not accept the laws and because of this, more problems arose. During the troubles and chaos, a man by the name of Peisistratus “took advantage of the renewed conflict to seize power” (SOURCE 1). Peisistratus is a tyrant among the Athenians, however, is a popular person. This is because he “proceeded to institute Solon’s reforms” (SOURCE 2). The men of Athens who participated in the democracy were to “vote in all elections, serve in office if elected, serve on juries, and serve in the military during the war” (SOURCE 1). Cleisthenes, another law reformer, “divided Athens into 10 tribes based on where people lived” and “made these new tribes…the basis for elections” (SOURCE 1). The tribes had to send

Were the people better served by the democracy in Athens or the oligarchy of Sparta?

The reforms of Cleisthenes established the basis for the Athenian democracy. All citizens enrolled in ten tribes and each tribe chose 50 members by lottery each year for a new council of 500 people. These 500 people had the responsibility to take care of foreign and financial affairs. There was also an assembly of all male citizens, and they had the final authority in passing laws through free and open debate. In Sparta there were two kings who led the army and ruled their city-state. There were five ephors elected each year and they were responsible for the education of the youth and the behavior of citizens. There was also a council of elders that consisted of two kings and 28 citizens over the age of 60. They decided on issues to present to the assembly who were also all male citizens. There was no debate on resolution to these issues, only voting.