Athens Vs Rome Dbq Essay

Citizenship in Athens and Rome has similarities and differences. Being a citizen is being a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government. Being a citizen meant different things in each empire. The relationship between the citizen and their nation varied from their system of citizenship. Rome had a better system of citizenship because they were more open to who they allowed citizenship, they gave people they conquered citizenship, and personal grudges, judgements about others/topics would not affect the Empire.

The first reason why Rome’s citizenship system was better than Athens’ is because they accepted more people as citizens. In document A it shows who could be allowed to become a citizen in both Athens and Rome. Rome allowed all people except slaves to become citizens while Athens only allowed free native born adult males to become citizens. Rome was a lot more lenient when giving citizenship which is probably one reason they boasted a population of 45,000,000.

In comparing Athenian and American democracy, they are very different however some aspects are the same. The similarities include citizens were allowed to vote for their leader(s). However, the definition of a citizen is completely different now that it was then. A citizen back then was a male landowner in Athens, on the other hand, citizens now days are people that are born within the country or have parents

To begin with, both of their ways that they chose the officials were similar but also differed. The Athenian Government and the Roman Republic both had the citizens of each side choose the officials, but they both had a difference in limitations on how they chose the officials. In Athens, the citizens would vote for the officials, but the people who were official citizens were the ones who were 18 or over, born in Athens, and had to be males. This means that outsiders, slaves, or women could not vote because they were not considered citizens. Additionally, the Athenian Government system for voting was organized with citizens by the name of demes or demos; who belonged to tribes and where combined with others of the same area to make a larger group, which in turn were combined to form ten tribes. (Gill, thoughtco 2017). In contrast, citizens of Rome had to be over 15 years old, male slaves could also vote if they were granted freedom, the women were considered citizens but had no voting rights. The

Athens had a better government in my opinion. I think Athens had a better government because they created a democracy. According to the Athens and Sparta Document Set, a democracy means “rule by the people”. The Athens also got to abolish politicians they did not like. Athens also had ten generals, meanwhile, Sparta has two kings. In my opinion, I think that having ten generals is better than two kings because they understand you more. Sadly not all Ancient Athens were citizens, but if a free male would be a citizen if his father was a citizen of Athens. Later on, they changed that law, it was then bothering the father and mother had to be a citizen for the child to be considered a citizen. Sadly the women didn’t get that many rights but they soon they got more status. The Athens also made it to where not only the wealthy can engage in the jury service. In the Athens, you have to be an 18-year-old man to complete military training. On the other hand, in Sparta, you have to be a 30-year-old to complete military training. Basically, I’m trying to say that the Athens had a better

Rome is a better system than athens because they are more organized they have a little bit more freedom and the education is better. There's better government they have better rights and there's more citizen ship you also don't need as much as athen..

Athenian citizen makes more contribution to government rather than Spartans. The Athenian government allows citizen to be a member of the government except for the military position, as its stated on an article that ” each citizen can be voted for each legislation”(Echos in the past, page, print). Which signify that being in the government position means having the capability and not the wealth. In the athenian

According to document A Rome let female children, sons of freed slaves, Free native-born adult males, free native-born adult females, and free native-born male children could become citizens while in Athens only free native born males were aloud to become citizens. Rome let more people become citizens than Athens meaning they were more open to citizenship than Athens making more people want to live there because they feel appreciated when they are a citizen. When Rome were to capture a city the people would be open to citizenship and feel welcome to Rome. If you had the choice to go to Rome or Athens you would want to choose Rome because you would have a better chance of becoming a citizen and feeling

The second major similarity between ancient Greek and Roman civilizations was that their citizens voted on who to make their elected officials, however the difference was that each culture differed in their definition of a citizen. The Greeks only recognized native-born males having the right of citizenship, women and slaves could not be citizens and therefore could not vote. The Romans on the other hand, recognized foreigners residing within Italy as half-citizens giving them full legal rights but not the right to vote. Greece mostly voted into office people of middle- to upper-class citizens, whereas Rome only voted in the rich 10% of their population. Even though history seems to show that the Greeks were more fair by randomly selecting citizens to run for office, the Roman government specifically chose who would run for election similar to our political race today where the Republican and Democratic parties choose who will be there candidates.

In the Athenian Assembly citizens spoke by age, not wealth or position (Doc. F). Even though Athens was exclusive about who could be a citizen, they were inclusive in who could participate. Being inclusive with government was good for Athens because the decisions would represent the whole community rather than only some of the people. Alternatively, in Rome, they were inclusive about who could be a citizen, but exclusive about how much they could participate. For example, the Roman Senate made all of the decisions for the community. The Senate was made up of all upperclassmen who inherited their seats from past generations of family (Doc. G). This made for a bad system of government because all decisions were at risk of being biased toward the elites. Also, the final decision might not represent the opinions of all the people, but only those serving in the Senate. In the Athenian Assembly, choices represented the people but in Rome, the choices in government were all at risk of being influenced by the upper

The Athenian citizen had a further contribution to the government than Spartans citizens. The Athenian government allowed its citizens to take part in government positions, aside from military positions, as it stated on a textbook, Echoes from the Past that ”Every citizen had an equal chance to hold public office”(Newman, Echoes from the Past, page132). Which signifies that being in the government position means having the capability to rule and not wealth. In the Athenian democracy, each council member and government officials had an

Most Greek city states were ruled by a small elite group, also known as an aristocratic oligarchy (cite text book). Pericles explains that the Athens government is a democracy because the administration is in the hands of many and not just a few people. This will cause the government to have equal justices exist for all people. This is confirmed by Pericles stating, “When a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as a reward of merit”. This means that a citizen has to earn their privileges, they don’t just get things because of who they are in society. Athens not only takes pride in their government, but is also very proud of their military. Athens considers their military training to be better that their enemies in many ways. The people never try to hide anything from enemies or prevent them from seeing or learning anything that might benefit them. While their enemies are undergoing difficult exercises to make them brave, the people of Athens live the easy life. Although they live the easy life, the people of Athens are equally ready to face the challenges which their enemies face. The people of Athens would rather meet danger with a light heart and not intense training like their neighbors. They also want to do this with courage not enforce by law, but instead gain by habit. When the Lacedaemonians come into Athenian territory they bring their whole confederacy,

When a territory or area was conquered, her people were made citizens of the empire. The Roman emperor Claudius from document A said that “What was the ruin of Sparta and Athens,but this, that mighty in war, they spurned from them as aliens those whom they had conquered.” The Romans welcomed conquered people as fellow citizens when they became part of the empire. This helped diffuse tension between the foreigners and the Romans. Even if you were not Roman, if your nation was an ally, you could become a citizen if you served military service. So even if you were not eligible to become a citizen by birth or social background, you could still become a citizen, unlike Athens where you had to be born to it.

The romans sometimes gave away citizenship rights in measured amounts was because of Emperor Claudius. According to Citizens of Athens or Rome it states, “ In other words, the Athenians were more stingy with their citizenship. The Romans more freely gave it away.” Because the Romans were more freely about the citizenship the citizens got far amounts of rights. If the Athenians were anything actually involved with giving citizens free rights they wouldn’t of been far to the citizens. For an example, “ People from regions outside of Rome but on the Italian

Ancient Athens was a highly polarized society in which citizenship meant everything. Citizenship permitted individuals to not only participate in the democratic