What Are The Similarities Between Sparta And Athens

“The City of Sparta lies in the valley of the River Eurotas. Along with having a river close by; the Spartans were also enclosed by the mountains of Taygetos to the West and Parnon to the East.” Their society was a slave based culture, which allowed the Spartans to become the only full time fighting force in Ancient Greece. Their society was manned by two kings; one of which took the reins of the army in times of conflict or war, while the other king remained in Sparta and maintained society. However, the kings did not have complete power in ancient Sparta. They took two of the 30 seats of the gerousia, or the council of elders; this council of elders prepared possible legislation such as declaring war for a citizen assembly to reject or accept.

Spartan’s government was far superior to the government of Athens. Sparta had elements of an oligarchy. The two rulers were a piece of the administration for convention were the Council of Elders, or Gerousia, a gathering of twenty-eight Spartiate men and the two lords that who make charges, that the Assembly, or basic man, vote on. . There were broad governing rules to ensure that no part, or branch, turned out to be too intense. The Assembly was made out of each mature male in Sparta, yet hypothetically anyone could take part. They voted whether to pass bills into law, and against normal conviction, they could vote more than yes or no. These individuals from the Assembly were picked, by the fair evaluators, who sat in an alternate room and tuned in for the loudest cheer for every hopeful. This technique gave everyone a shot, and in the event that you truly needed a specific competitor, you could simply shout louder. The Ephors, were a gathering of five individuals, who settled on everyday choices, and were chosen yearly.

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.

How did people in Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community?

Both Athens and Sparta developed their own form of political equality among few of their people,

How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community? Who held public office? What rules governed the selection of public office holders?

Introduction Athens and Sparta were two of the largest, most powerful, and most influential cities of Ancient Greece. They may have both been big and historically well revered, but their societies were structured and ruled very differently. This difference is especially true politically speaking. (Athens & Sparta: Democracy vs. Dictatorship, 2016) Sparta was very focused on growing and maintaining a strong army, in efforts to ward off any uprising from their rule over the Helots.

How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community?

The ancient Greeks were also extremely mindful of their tribal beginnings (wikipedia.org/Ancient Greece); Herodotus could widely classify the city-states by tribe. Yet, in spite of the fact that these more elevated amount connections existed, they appear to have seldom had a noteworthy part in Greek legislative issues. The independence of the poleis was wildly shielded; unification was something rarely considered at all by the ancient Greeks. Notwithstanding while, amid the second Persian intrusion of Greece, a gathering of

After the wars, Athens emerges as the center of all activity amongst each city-state in Greece. One of the key features within the Athenian society was the arrangement of public assembly and the rule of the people, democracy. In the assemblies, any male citizen could actively vote

Athens had a form of government called a democracy which is what we practice here in the United States. They would put all their citizens name in a pot and randomly choose people as representatives. In ancient Sparta on the other hand, they practiced a form of government called an oligarchy. This means that they had a few people ruling, as in fact they had two kings. The issue there is that the power remains in that family line and cannot change, whereas in Athens it can fluctuate.

It was not just anyone who could participate in the decision making that would affect the community. In order to participate in the government in Athens you had to be a free male. Athens was a democracy and it had a legislative council (Boule). The Boule was made up of 500 councilors, with 50 men each selected from the ten tribes. The Boule would then create laws that they would present back to the popular assembly (all the free men in the ten tribes) who would vote for or against the new laws (Brand).

Athens was a democracy, which means that the power is with the citizens. “Under this system, all male citizens had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena” (Ancient EU 1). This is important as Athens’ government didn’t just have a group of lousy old men lead their country like Sparta, they had a council of 500 people! One may think that the Athenian council is disorganized and a small group of people, like Sparta's oligarchy, would work a lot better as it would be more organized. This is false due to the fact these people will do things to benefit themselves, not for everyone in the way that the Athenian democracy will

Many Greeks preferred oligarchy because it provided more political stability than did democracy. (mckay 119)Althougholigarchy was the government of the prosperous, it left the door open to political and social advancement. If members of the polis could meet property or money qualifications, they could enter the governing circle. Moreover, oligarchs generally listened to the concerns of the people, a major factor in the long success of this form of government(Mckay 119). Under this system all Spartan citizens were given equal political rights. Two kings, who were primarily military leaders, and a council of nobles shared executive power with five ephors overseers elected by the citizens.(mckay 122) They were, "elected annually, they had command over all. The ephors controlled education and both public and private moral conduct. They enforced laws through a secret police force"(Davis 90).The ephors had all the real power and the citizens had to follow blindly and obey their commands. Their

The reforms of Cleisthenes established the basis for the Athenian democracy. All citizens enrolled in ten tribes and each tribe chose 50 members by lottery each year for a new council of 500 people. These 500 people had the responsibility to take care of foreign and financial affairs. There was also an assembly of all male citizens, and they had the final authority in passing laws through free and open debate. In Sparta there were two kings who led the army and ruled their city-state. There were five ephors elected each year and they were responsible for the education of the youth and the behavior of citizens. There was also a council of elders that consisted of two kings and 28 citizens over the age of 60. They decided on issues to present to the assembly who were also all male citizens. There was no debate on resolution to these issues, only voting.