Athens Vs Sparta

Sparta’s government was said to have a mixture of the major types of government which is oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy. While Athens seems to only have a democracy. In Document 2, an excerpt from “The Spartan Constitution” by Aristotle there’s a quote that states “they praise Lacedaemon because it is made up of oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy..” This quote tells exactly what type of government Sparta had. It’s also said that Sparta is the foundation for the governments we now have in the world. Athens on the other hand had a democracy as stated in Document 3, an excerpt from “Funeral Orations” by Pericles a quotes from this excerpt states “it is true that our government is a democracy, because it’s administration is in the hands, not of the few, but of many..” This quote clearly states that the type of government Athens has is a

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.

During the Fifth century, Greece was controlled by two main powers; Athens and Sparta. These city-states were very different. Sparta was known for their strength, discipline, individuality, beauty, sports, and learning (Beck et al. 131). Athens was known for education, fitness, art, literature, and wealth. Not to overlook the rights of women, which were a little elevated in Sparta, the city that had an overall greater respect for human rights, would be Athens.

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

The two dominating Greek city states, Sparta and Athens, have there own strengths that make them the strongest throughout Greece. Sparta is "located in the southeastern Peloponnesus, in an area known as Laconia" (Spielvogel 53). Athens is on the peninsula of Attica (Geography). Sparta is know for their immense military might (Spartan Military). Athens is known better for their "leading naval force in Greece" (Women of the Ancient World). Their government systems were very different but very effective. Each Greek state was able to conquer a lot of land using different tactics. This brings up the thought that every country or state could be effective if all the people supported the cause. Political correctness however tends to breed idiots. With this being said, unenforced laws leads people to start thinking that they can get away with whatever they want or better yet, defy the lawful order of an officer. This can than become deadly and spread, until it cripples the system and a new one takes over. What does this new system believe in? Are they idea 's that are realistic? Or are they the idea 's of tree-hugging hippies who thinks everyone is going to "play ball." Well little does the tree-hugging hippie know, is that "The Man" who was "keeping him down" actually did know what he was talking about. Maybe the thirty plus years of military experience wasn 't complete garbage. Maybe it was keeping him and his family safe from the psychopaths and terrorists that

     As we look back upon the two significant differences in the governmental systems of Sparta and Athens, there are also many other characteristics that distinguish the differences and similarities of these two city states. The difference in land as well as population perceives a relative historical comparison. Sparta lacked land area and was forced to seek other land in the fertile plain of Messenia. Although, if we look at the Athens, we see that they had no issues with plentiful land, as they possessed large and populous territory.

In ancient Greece there were two major polises which allowed the Greek culture to achieve greatness during the 400-500 B.C.E. era. These two polises were Athens and Sparta; both city states differed in many ways before the start of the Persian War. There were low rugged mountains that separated these two city states so communication and travel were difficult. The government of these two city states can be seen as a primary difference between the two. Draco, Solon, Pisistratus, and Cleithenes were four leaders that greatly influenced the political development of Athens. Athens and Sparta differed primarily in their political, social, and economical aspects. But there were other difference that Athens and Sparta share which I will examine in this essay.

Athens is superior towards Sparta throughout ancient Greek history. During the Archaic Age, Sparta was solely focused on fighting wars and training their children for these wars. Athens on the contrary, was a city that focused heavily on the arts and was a very relaxed and peaceful city to live in. In Athens, all men born to Athenian parents were citizens, in Sparta, only the wealthy were citizens. In 594 BCE, Salon, the new leader of Athens, he created a constitution that ended the political control of the wealthy. Unless someone was part of the 1 percent, Athens gave members of society more rights than Sparta. By 508 BCE, Cleisthenes came to power in Athens and creates a democratic constitution of all people. While this advancement occurred

Both Athens and Sparta had a popular Assembly of all-male adult citizens. Both had higher offices and chambers. The dispossessed included women, children, non-citizens and foreigners, and slaves. Additionally, the aristocracy tended to hold special status, privileges, and protections.

In Sparta there was an assembly made up of recognized free male citizens. Periokoi, Helots and Spartan men who lost their citizenship rights were not allowed to join the assembly. The Assembly decided who to elect into the Ephors and Gerousia, made legislation and decisions for war. The power of the assembly was limited to what Ephors and Gerousia would allow, they decided what decisions the assembly were allowed to make and who had the power to veto their decisions.

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 Spartan government was considered an oligarchy (“oligos” translates to “few” and “archia” translates to “rule”), whereas the Athenian government was a democracy (“demos” translates to “people or the masses” and “kratis” translates to rule). Therefore, the governments differed but had some similar aspects. One major difference was that Sparta’s government was exclusive to only members of a high social standing, while Athens’ government was more inclusive. The Spartan government was very unique in that it had two kings. It also had a council of elders consisting of twenty-eight males over the age of sixty, an assembly which was open to citizens, and an executive committee of five ephors chosen by lot from the citizens. The office of ephors was created in order to control the kings even though the kings still retained military and religious leadership. The Athenian government went through many changes as their civilization developed. It went through all four stages of government: monarchy, oligarchy, tyranny, and, finally, democracy. The Athenian’s “democracy” was very different from the form of government we are all

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

“Athens Vs Sparta” by Mr.Duckworth states, “Where they differed was that while the spartans had militaristic values, Athenians were democratic. Sparta was an militaristic state. Sparta had an oligarchy government. Spartan women had more freedom and rights than any other greek city-state. Sparta would be a better place to live because, the spartans had a very simple lifestyle, sparta used their army to protect others, and sparta women had more freedom than other greek city-state.

According to Brand (n.d) the political system of Sparta had many layers in the decision making process and consisted mainly from the Assembly, the Gerousia and the Euphors. Only male and free citizens were allowed to be a part of the decision making process and the relevant bodies while at the same time people who lost their citizenship were not allowed to be members to either the Assembly, Gerousia or the Euphors (Brand, n.d). According to Brand (n.d) the Spartan Assembly was the least powerful body followed by the Gerousia and the Euphors however mostly the Gerousia and the Euphors had significant powers and members of both bodies they had to be older than 60 years old. Apart from being the most powerful bodies of public governance in Sparta the requirement for both bodies was that other people would nominate candidates (Brand, n.d).