Greek Ideologies: Spartan Militarism, Athenian Democracy, And Macedonian Conquest

As a Spartan boys: Children when they are born are more children of the state than their parents. When a Spartan baby is born, soldiers come to examine it to determine its strength. They bathed the baby for reaction, and if weak the child would become a slave. Took from mother at age 7. Raised to be soldiers, loyal to the state, strong, and self-disciplined. The boys were taken to the barracks by the city and raised, and they trained in the military. They were not allowed to leave until the age of 30.

The spartans only accepted babies that were strong. If the baby was weak they would leave it to die one Mount Taygetus. They would begin at the age of seven for training. The selection of spartan warriors began before birth. They would send boys at the age of seven to military boarding school.

Spartans were very strict and set high expectations for their men in war. Taken from their families at the young age of 7 to train, the boys were whipped and starved. Spartans also enslaved people, called helots. The innocent helots were killed without warning. Spartans were so

When the Athenians were voting on who was no longer democratic, when the outcome was uncertain, the two top “dogs” the hapless number three. Leading to their exile. If Athens was truly a democracy they would have the population of Athens vote on who

Athenian Democracy was a direct democracy. This meant that all citizens voted and whatever the majority rule was that was the final deciding factor. Majority rule decided votes and leaders. The only

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.

Democracy, the form of government in which there is a rule by the people, is said to have originated and thrived in the classical period of Athens, from 500-350 B.C.. Democracy inherently gave all that were considered citizens power to participate in politics. That being said, it is highly debated as to how much power the people, also known as the demos, exercised in this democracy. Many practices and informal institutions can be said to have limited the power of the demos. The democracy in Athens could be said to have been a democracy in theory yet not in practice, as can be proven through a variety of primary sources recounting Athenian political institutions and practices. Such primary sources that can demonstrate this include Herodotus’ History, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, and Demosthenes’ Oration Against Eubulides.

The Athenian government was a direct democracy, meaning the citizens of the city-state take absolute control over any vote. This was the plan for the government to control their people since the citizens

Democracy is defined as a government ruled by common people. The power of the should be in the hands of the largest class which is the poorest. The political system of ancient Athens was a Democracy, which involved all of its citizens.This system was divided in three parts: the ekklesia( a sovereign governing body who wrote the laws) the boule(representatives from the Athenian tribes) and the dikasteria, (the courts in which citizens argued cases in front of selected jurors). Every men could participate in the political process, being selected by lot to fill even the highest offices and being paid for pub- lic service. Four times a month proposals were debated and decisions were made openly so and any citizen could speak to the issues of the day.

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.

However, the people basically ruled themselves. They focused on the many instead of the few, and a few times a month they would meet and vote on issues, and would ask the question: “Is anyone a threat to the democracy?”. I believe that this was a very well used practice. This shows how the

They abused not only the helots, but their own children. In Document D, the text states that “the boys of Sparta were whipped during the entire day, frequently to the point of death”. This is called the flagellation. It is a competition to see who can withstand being whipped the longest, and many boys died in the process. This is absolutely terrible. They were killing their own soldiers just because they want to see who can withstand pain longer. Not only that, but the boys were given very small rations of food and therefore were encouraged to steal. If they were caught, they were whipped for being “bad stealers”. Not only did they abuse their children, but they abused the helots as well. The helots had to do all of the dirty work in Sparta. They did not get any appreciation for all of the work they did. Not only that, but the Spartans had murder squads to kill innocent helots for no

The Athenian and Spartan governments had extremely different approaches to life. The democratic views of the Athenians were open minded and curious, focused on development. The oligarchic views of the spartans were more narrow minded and restricted, focused on constancy. The athenian democracy distributed power very well and gave everyone a fair share in the decision being made. Athenian life was comfortable and free, the polar opposite to the cruelty of Spartan life. The Athenian democracy also used their wealth very wisely inciting the development of their civilisation. Based on the information below, the Athenian population lived a happier life.

Most people didn't have a say in what happened or who ran the city-state Athens. 88% of the population weren’t able to vote for

Greek democracy was best developed in the city-state of Athens from where the very word “democracy”, meaning “the rule of the people” stems. People ‘ruled’ by electing officials through lot and making important decisions by majority rule. Democracy was direct, meaning that the Athenians “allowed the whole citizenry to assemble in the central eklisia, or the equivalent today of the main city hall, to vote on important issues” (Makedon 1995). In this sense, Athenian democracy differed from representative democracy that is currently prevalent in most states, in which officials are elected through democratic vote and then given authority to make decisions for the people. In Athens, elected officials were paid, but the pay was very low so that it compared with the wages of the poorest citizens and only covered the compensation of their time and effort.