Classical Athens

Demokratia is directly translated from ancient Greek as “people power.” (Cartledge, 2011) But it is complicated by the fact that very few governments, Sparta and Athens included, are actuallydemocracies. (Cartledge, 2011.) It wasn’t the popular people comprising the city making the decisions truly; some officials were only allowed to serve as the highest levels of officials who had the greatest power and truly made

In ancient Sparta, the strengths of their educational system had outweighed their weaknesses in many ways. The history of Sparta proved their military was one of the best, and having such a small city-state, they had to make do with a limited amount of soldiers. They started out as a small coastal town made out of a few houses, and later grew into a large enough area to be deemed as a city-state. With that growth came the start of the agoge, an educational system in ancient Sparta. The agoge was

Between the years 431 and 404 B.C.E. Greece was involved in a war between two powers, Athens and Sparta; as a consequence, Greek city-states adjusted to wartime stresses. I want to use one Greek polis, Athens, to show how the Peloponnesian War caused the polis to change, particularly with regards to citizenship and the greater concept of paideia. This period is absolutely important to us today, since the changing Athens provided a milieu in which democracy was tested. In his oration for Athenians killed

The Athenian polis is one that historians very often look back upon today. The Athenian polis created the rise of democracy and produced a culture that has shaped the way of modern day society. This polis has no privacy and believes that everyone in the polis is related as a family. In this family, everyone has a place, and everyone should stay in their place. Everyone has a job to do, gods to praise, and leaders to follow and believe in. The citizens of the polis are given freedoms, such as being

At the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Greek city states were initially weakened. The previous leader of the Macedonians, Philip of Macedon, was assassinated resulting in the rule of his son, Alexander. Both of these events led to the expansion of Greece carried out by Alexander the Great. After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C.E., a new age of cultural improvement emerged during the Hellenistic Age; in part because of the conquests of Alexander. This expansion led to the multitude of cultures and

considered a “tiny powerhouse” in the eastern Mediterranean, whose greatest rival was Athens. They had a very strong army and battle strategy, called the phalanx, that allowed them to compete in many battles in history. Some of the battles included the Peloponnesus War, the battle of Thermopylae, and the invasion of the Persians. One of the main factors in the Spartans ability to compete in those battles against Athens and the outside world was because of the education system that they had in

If you ask any person, they would probably say that Athens and Sparta are among the best-known city states in ancient Greece. Whether through high school textbooks or Hollywood screens these two cultures have contributed to our modern understanding of the Grecian people. Each culture has a unique worldview that helped shaped who the people were, and how others in their society were treated. For instance, Athens was known for its work in the arts focusing on literature and architecture, and valued

Ancient Athens (800 B.C. - 300 B.C.) is not a democracy. A democracy is a government controlled by the population, whereas the Athenian government was being controlled by only male citizens. According to Doc D, the ancient Athens were in fact an oligarchy, a government ruled by male citizens. The majority of the population does not vote in the Athenian politics. Doc C estimates that only 29,000 out of 240,235 people could vote. As many people as that may seem, it’s still only a meager 12%. The

and how it changed its relations with other city-states. This is shown through Spartan women and their treatment in Sparta. It’s shown through the economy growth of Sparta after the Peloponnesian war, and its shown through Sparta’s relations with Athens after the war. The militarism was crucial to its growth, and allowed Sparta to really develop not only as a city-state, but as a known power. Without Sparta, we wouldn’t be able to learn from its successes and its failures, which even today are relevant

Spartan’s government was far superior to the government of Athens. Sparta had elements of an oligarchy. The two kings were part of the government for tradition were the Council of Elders, or Gerousia, a group of twenty-eight Spartiate men and the two kings that who create bills, that the Assembly, or common man, vote on. . There were extensive checks and balances to make sure that no part, or branch, became too powerful. The Assembly was composed of every adult male in Sparta, but theoretically