Introduction Athens and Spartan culture was believed to be two polar opposites- but were they really? In our text this week we studied the two societies, and while there were many blatant differences, many similarities existed behind closed doors. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways the two societies took part in public life, who held public office, the rules of voting the elected officials, and finally the governmental structures. Public Life Participation/Decisions Affecting the Community Let’s first examine participation in public life in Athens. While Athens liked to boast of a democratic society, it was still broken down into three classes. The rich were considered the upper-class farmers, the moderate-income makers were the shop keeps and tradesmen, and the poorest of the poor were the men who owned no land to their name and farmed worthless land. This class society is very similar to modern day rich, middle class, and poverty. While the text points out, the people of Athens found themselves all to be above the slave class, yet this didn’t earn them all the same social or political loftiness (Brad, n.d). Once again, it is shocking to think Athens the first democracy, still allowed for discrimination of slaves and what they referred to as “Metics” (foreigners to the country). These class systems and enslavement didn’t always lead to the democratic lifestyle portrayed. This lead to the decisions for the community to still be made
The most distinctive feature of Greek political culture lay in the extent of popular participation in political life that occurred within the city-states. This participation was based on the unique ideas of “citizenship,” of free people running the affairs of state, and of equality for all citizens before the law. Political participation in Greek city-states was much wider than in Persia, but it varied considerably between city-states and over time. Early in Greek history, only the wealthy and wellborn had the rights of full citizenship, but middle- and lower-class men gradually obtained these rights in some city-states.
Athens and Sparta are the two famous city-states in Ancient Greece. The Athens was more superior then Sparta. The Athenians were stronger because they had a better geography, government, cultural achievements, and I would rather live in the Athens.
Athens and Sparta were two powerful city-states, different from each other where Athenian democracy focused on economic advancement, while Sparta oligarchy focused on military force. Democracy is a system of government where citizens have the right to vote, whereas oligarchy is a system of government where only a group of people is in control and only their opinion or decision that were taken into consideration. Leading to the thesis statement that people are better served by Athenian democracy than the Spartan oligarchy, supported in three evidence points. Firstly, Athenian democracy allowed citizens participation in government that gave them freedom to vote and take part in legislation. Secondly, the Athenian government provided Athenian men better education, by being taught how to read and write to reach their academic advancement. Lastly, the Athenian democracy’s contribution to Athens military advancement that protected its citizens.
During the times of Ancient Greece, two major forms of government existed, democracy and oligarchy. The city-states of Athens and Sparta are the best representatives of democracy and oligarchy, respectively. The focus of the times was directed towards military capabilities, while the Athenians were more interested in comfort and culture. It was the oligarchy in Sparta that put a war-like attitude as its first priority and best met the needs of Ancient Greece. These factors empowered Sparta and led to the development of an authoritative and potent state. Other contrasting issues included women’s rights, social classes, and value of human life.
Athens and Sparta, the two largest and most powerful cities in ancient Greece (between 800 and 323 BCE) were two different models of polis, their social, political and cultural values and ways of life were dramatically different. (Brand, n.d.)
In addition to their high contrasting appearances, both groups had a different view on how society should function. The Athenian’s viewed society as being classified as a class society. A class society is a society in which social mobility is granted. Notably, this means
Introduction In this week, we take a step further to study the difference between Athens and Sparta. In fact, these two societies were different mainly in terms of the way in which the political system was run. In this essay, various forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states are compared.
In Ancient Greece, there were two rivals Athens and Sparta. They created an uproar and
As you may know Ancient Greece is full of many city-states and you also may know that each city-state had its own government, Economy, Education, and most likely, slaves. As you may also know, usually, not always, city-states fight. Two of the most important city-states, Athens and Sparta and they not only had different forms of government, but they had very different ways of life. Plus, if anyone had a choice to either live in the city-states Athens or Sparta, Sparta should definitely be the city-state they choose or at least what I think. Sparta is way better than Athens because their army was bold and protective and girls received some education, plus women had more freedom in Sparta than most other city-states.
In Ancient Greece, there were two main city-states, Sparta and Athens. While both belonged to Greece, each city-state had their own form of government and culture. Thus, making the social order of the two city-states very different. Both city-states have a certain value in history for Greece and the world. The topic of which city-state was more suitable to live in is an ongoing debate that is being argued from many different perspectives.
The idea of sacrificing the needs of the individual Athenian for the benefit of everyone in Athens was at the core of the inner workings of its democracy, thus, a distinct privilege was placed on engaging in the political atmosphere. (Of course, said privilege of voting and serving on juries was only afforded to male natural-born citizens, but that is beside the point.) “Our public men have, besides politics, their
Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful and well known cities among all the Greek nations. Most would find it easier to find more similarities among these two groups of mighty people. But there are some differences between these two power houses. For instance the way that these cities were governed and their political procedures and functions were quite different from each other.
I have always heard how the Greeks were the original democratic society and never really read up on that history, this week’s reading is very interesting since it answers a lot of how the Greek society was, with the Athenian and Sparta governments making up the Greek empire. The important parts of how the Greek government worked and was setup and how the differences between the democracy of the Athenian society and Oligarchy of the Spartan society coexisted in the same empire and what ultimately brought them down was a very interesting subject to learn.
Greece in ancient times had many social, political and cultural features, including: religion, society, government and warfare. Two powerhouses of Ancient Greece were the cities of Athens and Sparta, who led Greece in many of their endevours.
The ancient civilization of Greece contained many different city-states; two of these city-states were Sparta and Athens. Sparta and Athens were different in their values, politics, and societies. Sparta was focused on their military, discipline, and to have a strong state. Athens was a democratic state that was peaceful and where women were open to culture and democracy. How do these two city-states differ?