Compare And Contrast Ancient Greek City States

Greece was organized into many different city-states. All city-states differed from each other in some ways but all shared some characteristics too. “City-state is an independent or nearly independent state in which political and cultural activities are concentrated in a single urban center” (Legon). They were the main city with an area of land around them. Every city-state had their own coins, government, and laws. The most common governments in the city-states consisted of monarchies, oligarchies, dictatorships, and sometimes democracies. Greek city-states all were very similar but had differences.

The paper will describe the four-ancient government by comparing and contrasting the forms of Ancient Greek city- states namely aristocracy, monarch, democracy and oligarchy. However, considering the fact that Greece had a number of poleis and such popular poleis include Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Megara and Argos just to name a few. The reading literature has so far said lot about Athens and Sparta, but not much has been mentioned about the other poleis. Much more reference about government structures will refer to Athens and Sparta in this paper, in particular answering the questions which of the city states was either monarchy, oligarch, aristocracy and democracy, and also how were they similar? Aristocratic cities like Sparta, were oligarchies

Though Athens and Sparta are often considered as pure examples of one form of government or another, they, in fact, had mixed forms of government that incorporated characteristics from the various definitions of government as described in dictionaries. The two city-states also changed governments and metamorphosed in small and large ways over the course of their long histories. Sparta was partially an oligarchy, a monarchy, and an aristocracy. Participation in government was limited to the rich Spartan citizens who ruled over a slave caste, the helots. The state was purportedly ruled by two hereditary kings of two royal families, both supposedly equal in authority, so that one could not act against the power and political enactments of the

In the period known as classical Greece in the years 800-323 BCE, Greece comprised of small city states (poleis) which were considered and operated as independent small countries. Amongst those city states Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful and considered in Greek history as the most influential states to western civilisation. These two city states shared some common characteristics whilst in some instances they were very different from each other. Sparta and Athens had differences and similarities in the way they governed their city states, in how they established their military forces, how they treated women, their marriage customs and social gatherings

Sparta and Athens were two of the most dominant and influential city-states in Greek history. The social and political evolution of these two city-states are intriguing and provide insight into different types of government.

The Greeks political system was individual city-states. Every city-state had their

democratic governance. Looking back at how the Greek city-states evolved and reacted to who held a

Ancient Greek and Rome had some similarities but as well had many differences governmental. Both of the Ancient Greeks and Romans began their histories as city-states. Ancient Greece never really truly had a single government because of the fact that each city was a country itself. Which led to many different types of governmental systems like oligarchy, democracy, monarchy, tyranny, republic and others. Democracy later started in athens and then began to spread to the point that many other city states started adopting it, and even including other non greek cities like Rome and others. In 146 Bc rome conquered greece,and was considered as a roman province, that was ruled by a roman officer, the greeks themselves did not feel as bad as a part

Classical Sparta was a Greek city-state that comprised of complex and multifaceted institutions. Labelled by Xenophon as “most powerful and most celebrated”, contemporary historians have been drawn to question and assess whether these ‘powerful’ institutions were unique to Sparta (Xen. Con. 1.1). Upon evaluating ancient sources in relation to these historical considerations, it became apparent that the focuses and construct of Sparta’s institutions widely differed to institutions demonstrated in other Greek city-states. It was evident however, that among these differences were also institutional similarities. In analysing the distinctive nature of Sparta’s institutions, this paper will specifically compare the establishments of Sparta to those exemplified by Athens and Corinth in order to determine the specific differences in Sparta’s establishments to those found in other Greek city-states. The areas examined and compared include the political, educational, socio-legalistic and religious institutions.

Introduction: By the early seventh century BCE, the Greeks had formed independent city-states (or poleis) such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes. Although they always fought for territory, they were largely linked together in many ways such as; Male dominance, Religion/Beliefs and a system of government.

Many ancient civilizations seem vague as even today as we continually learn about them. Even with all of the data and studies, we have on these ancient cultures; they still remain mysterious. Two of the greatest empires and cultures in the ancient world were the Greeks and Romans. Often these two civilizations are compared as similar, almost to say they were cousins of each other. When they are put under a microscope and begin to see the detail between them then the realization that they were independent civilizations with unique characteristics.

Being the birthplace of democracy gives Ancient Greece a very important reputation. One of the most famous civilizations lies between three seas, the Aegean Sea, Sea of Crete, and the Ionian Sea. Such abundance of water makes Ancient Greece good in fishing and trade. Two of the biggest city-states were Athens and Sparta. While Athens was a democracy, Sparta was an oligarchy, which means ruled by few powerful and wealthy people. Ancient Greece is also known for many things like the birthplace of the first Olympics, beautiful architecture, and famous philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The two biggest city-states have always had issues. Sparta and Athens are very different from the way they are administered as well as their practices. Athenians were the most scholarly types while the Spartans were more of the military type. Due to the fact that Sparta had a very military lifestyle, they were good at raising strong outspoken women in a society where women were kept at home.

For most of its early history Greece was a confederation of city-states. Which included Sparta, Corinth, Athens, Megara, and Argos. The Spartans, were recognized as one of the most fierce warrior states in known history. The Corinthians, were problem solvers and had the best innovations of ancient Greece states. Athenians, were the most schooled and cultured of the city-states the birthplace of philosophy considered the leader of the city-states. Megarians, were the best known for there ship-building and sailors out of all the states. Then there was the Argonians, were the economically sound and were excellent traders. Then Philip the Second of Macedonia, in 359 B.C. Conquered and quelled the Greek City-States, and united them under one banner

The Greek’s did not invent the idea of a city-state. Other societies, such as the Sumer, had city-states themselves, but these city-states were only political centers (HWS 119). The Greek poleis were more than political, which is why citizenship started. Each individual polis contained laws and customs that directly related to the citizens of that city-state (HWS 119). In addition, the whole Greek civilization came about through multiple poleis with each one

In the era of ancient Greece, society consisted of many city-states which were known by the people as polis. These city-states varied from region to region; in some instances, one region of a polis could be ruled by an authoritarian, dictator and a neighboring one could be ruled by many individuals. These forms of city-states in Greece were present during the era of ancient philosophers such as: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. These philosophers, like the numerous amounts they interacted through debates and consultations, were searching to gain knowledge of the many questions that individuals have asked for centuries. In their search for knowledge, Plato, one of the most popular of the ancient Greek philosophers, was one of the first to write and record many of his thoughts, theories, beliefs, and was one of the first to ask many of the complicated questions political theorists contemplate, today.