Athenians were the first ones to give power to someone who they think will actually be good for that job, and not simply due to noble blood or force. Athenian democracy was also the first to emphasize individualism. It was the idea that the job should be given to the best. After the Persian war a man named Pericles ruled Athens. He created what is known today as direct democracy where you specifically pick your leaders as it differs from Rome’s republic where you elect people to represent you.
Athens was a direct democracy and many of these ways are still used today. A direct democracy meant that the citizens could vote on the issues directly and that the citizens hold the power. The citizens consisted of any man born in Athens. The non-citizens were women, foreign-born males, and slaves. All of the citizens could belong to the Assembly, and they voted by lottery because they thought election favored the rich, and they wanted it to be equal.
A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because they lived and died to serve the state. Although the competing city-states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece. The political power of Athens is based on economic power. Democracy is based on middle class economic power. In slow evolution towards democracy, as their trade increased, Athenian craftsmen and merchants had enough money to purchase their own weapons.
One of the bigger differences between Sparta and Athens was there systems of government. Sparta was an Oligarchy which meant ruled by a few. There were many features of a Spartan government, Ephors, two kings, a council of 28 elders called the geurosia and the apella the assembly of spartiates over the age of 30. There were two kings so when the Spartans went to war one stayed back and the other went and fought. The reason Sparta had so many levels of government was because they had to control and limit the kings in case they got too much power.
Athens was more worried about the comfort and culture during the time of the military battles. The oligarchy in Sparta put a war like attitude as it's first priority and it met the needs of Ancient Greece. Athens did not have the best form of government because it did not give the citizens of Greece more freedom. The Athenian democracy can not be called a true democracy because there was several flaws in the governement and how it worked. Only the
Todays topic is on Spartan Army. The Spartan army was the military force of Sparta, one of the leading city-states of ancient Greece. The army stood at the centre of the Spartan state, whose citizens' primary obligation was to be good soldiers. Subject to military drill from infancy, the Spartans were one of the most feared military forces in world history. At Sparta's heyday in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, it was commonly accepted that "one Spartan was worth several men of any other state."
The Spartans' extreme denial of individuality fostered a powerful sense of belonging that other Greeks envied, and Sparta continues to cast an eerie spell over historians, philosophers, and political scientists even in an age that tends to recoil from totalitarianism. Despite the interest the Spartans sparked in their contemporaries, it is surprisingly difficult to write the history of Sparta And of its surrounding territory, Laconia. The problem is not lack of sources. Though unfortunately all the sources concentrate on upper-class and royal Spartiates and provide little information about the majority of the population of the territory of Laconia--the servile masses known as helots and the large disfranchised free class known as perioikoi --still the volume of ancient writing on Sparta is large. In the course of their narratives on Greek history, the two greatest Greek historians, Herodotus and Thucydides, reveal a
It was called direct democracy for the simple fact that the citizens got to choose who their leader would be. Sparta used an oligarchy as a form of government, which means that only a few powerful people rule the government system. Athenians were therefore able to have more say in government elections and could help choose a better candidate to be the king or president because the common people might have more knowledge than the higher up government official whom probably haven’t seen how hard life can be.. Another difference between Athens and Sparta politically is the amount of freedom the citizens were given to speak. In Athens if the citizens don’t like a certain idea or law that is being said, they can speak more openly about if they don’t think the law or idea is right or if they have questions about it. On the other hand in Sparta if you have an idea of your own or do not agree with something that a government official might say during a public debate you have a limited say in it
The Greeks and Romans were two strong societies that brought great things to the Mediterranean. These two societies although always thought to be the same, were far more different than alike in a number of ways from the way they lived to how they treated women. The Roman society adopted many things from the Greeks, but always adding their own beliefs or style. One difference was the styles of governing. The Greeks were a democratic society, believing that the power should be given to a group of men instead of only a single leader.
Since the foundation of democracy is based upon the concept of a government that is created by the people to serve the people, the range of participants must not be limited by factors such as social class. In “Pericles’ Funeral Oration,” Thucydides describes Athenian democracy by asserting that their “constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people,” (73). While the wealthy upper class of historical societies have always been dominant in swaying society to their will, democracy serves to make sure that the interests of everyone else have just as much pertinence when it comes to politics. Although elites may believe that the poor should not have a say because their agenda will serve to bring society down, if someone is contributing or wishes to contribute to