Dbq The Rights And Responsibilities Of Romans And Athens

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.

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

For years, Athens and her empire thrived under Pericles; therefore it is only logical that if Athens were to return to similar power, they should follow similar teachings. There are countless reasons why this was in the people’s best interest for only pure Athenians to be citizens of Athens. Most notably, for the following: the teachings of Pericles allowed the city to come together as one and create a singular united front for the world to see and respect built from their strong sense of identity post Peloponnesian War. Additionally, it was not possible that those who were not of pure Athenian blood to have had the same level of commitment to her great empire as pure blooded Athenians did. Consequently, Athenians viewed Metics as second class

“What was the ruin of… Athens, but this, that mighty as they were in a war, they spurned from them as aliens those whom they had conquered? Our founder Romulus… was so wise that he fought as enemies and then hailed as fellow citizens several nations on the very same day.” (Doc. C). Claudius, the emperor of Rome in 48 CE, spoke these famous words, highlighting the differences in citizenship between Athens and Rome. In the Roman Republic, more inhabitants of the empire were granted citizenship, unlike in Athens, where only a select few had the opportunity to gain citizenship and certain rights (Doc. C). Citizenship in the Roman Republic was demonstrably better than the Greek understanding of citizenship as evaluated on an individual level,

Athens seemed a lot different, it was more open, mode opportunities, options to become a citizen and

According to me people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community it because of the political realm that it is made to modernize and civilization owes much to Athens, and further to the democracy which was born in it and also Athens participate in the way people who govern them by helping as public officers or member of jury in court cases. Jurors were chosen by lottery and were paid for service.

As civilization progressed from nomadic tribes to settled communities, the need for law and government became increasingly necessary. In Chapter 3, societies in the Archaic Age tried new forms of social and political life and Greece became one of the leaders for the development of city-states known as polis. Each polis was self-governing and was placed alongside a defensible hilltop known as an acropolis. Examples of laws in western civilization are most capitalized during that of the age of the Roman Empire. By this time, the question of slavery had expanded the government to include the right to citizenship. While Greece severely limited the path from slavery to citizenship, Rome provided a lot more opportunities for citizenship in the form

For Athens, it revolves around a selfish aristocrat view to keep the aristocrats in power without furthering the middle class. In 621 BCE, a lawmaker Draco was advised to set a constitution; the constitution has more depth to its format rather than the opposing eastern Code of Hammurabi. In comparison, however, being more in depth does not make it better in any means at all. The code is not stagnant, and if a society is flourishing then there is no need to change from stagnant social stratification. In 594 BCE, Solon was granted to do the “lifting of burdens”, and inequalities that fall into place with such a constitution like Draco’s law. For instance, Solon outlawed debt slavery and made the punishment of theft to be a fine ten times more in value than what the stolen product is. Life is looking up for the Athenian in the ancient world, but by not having a set constitution that changes within a short time span in the transferring of powers of rulers it does not help the mindset of the citizen. The Athenian citizen does not know what their duty should be due to the inconsistent constitution, therefore does not know in which manner they should act in hopes of furthering the prosperity of the

In Sparta, more opportunities to held the public office was given to aristocrats because of their wealthy and influence. Again, there was an equal opportunity only in army. In Athens, every citizen was free to take the public office without an hindrance.

However, it wasn’t enough to consider them just, and thus, they did not create Plato’s ideal civilization. To begin, the Athenians are not entirely just. While they may have been just in the eyes of man, in the eyes of woman and slave, they were not. In the article, “The Paradox of Democracy and Imperialism in 5th Century Athens” it reads, “The idea of universal human rights would have been alien to the Athenians, who saw no need to grant women, slaves, and Metics equal rights to those enjoyed by citizens.” (Chua 3). This statement proves that only the Athenian men had a sense of justice in the context that only the men had any stake in the society. The woman in Athens were hidden in their husband’s house meant only to take care of children and perform household chores, they

The Roman golden age had gone through many important events that were the most important contributions to Roman state situation in the ancient history. The first and most important was getting rid of the kingship. However, it was the aristocrats who made the condition of the new republic become unstable. This was because of their acts towards the ordinary people who had the most important share in the dispose of the Tarquins.

Hello mother, I am having an interesting time here in Athens. I was so lucky to get permission to leave the city. Not many girls my age can say they have left Sparta. I’ve noticed that they are very studious people, and all the men know how to read and write. They put a lot more focus on the intellectual side of life, and the men aren’t forced to become soldiers. Most of the male citizens only participate in government and don’t have other jobs. They are very proud of their government, though I think it seems rather complicated. They have many different groups like the Council of 500 and the Assembly which is made up of all the land owning men in Athens.

As art movements have progressed through time an emphasis on intellectualism, politics and spiritualism has taken center stage along the Mediterranean. The Romans promoted Athenian identity through their use of views on vitality through sculpture and relief mainly because of their spiritual belief that their gods could physically manifest themselves. The Romans also took special interest in intellectualism because of influential philosophers and mathematicians of the time and is also reflected in their constructions. The Greeks later expanded on these Roman ideals and took the emphasis on political hegemony to the next step and used their works to promote their rulers and unify the people as supreme saviors.

In Aristotle’s interpretation of citizenship, it is clear that citizenship is a fluid title, applied to an exclusive group of men only after meeting certain qualifications, and revocable upon meeting certain others. While Aristotle is unable to answer clearly “who should properly be called a citizen and what a citizen really is” (p.85), he dedicates several chapters to explicating who is not a citizen in an attempt to determine who is. Though Aristotle cannot come up with a composite definition of a citizen that applies to all citizens, he provides reasons for the exclusion of several groups of Athenian inhabitants for citizenship based on a variety of arbitrary factors designed to keep

Societies all have their own form of citizenship. The question is, which society is better? The obvious answer is Rome. Their system ensured that people can have rights and responsibilities. Yes, Athens does have some aspects of their system that are wise, but could we really trust a society who randomly chooses a leader they know nothing about? Rome granted citizenship to