Athens vs. Sparta DBQ Athens and Sparta were two of the world's greatest ancient civilizations. Though they were both city-states in Greece they had their differences. Some of the largest contrasts were education, government, and the roles girls and women played in their societies. In Sparta the schools for children were very harsh and military based.
Camille Sicat #26 3/16/16 Writing/Social Studies Power of the People: Athens vs. Rome Essential Question: Citizenship in Athens and Rome: Which Was the Better System? Prior to the idea of people being “citizens” of a nation, people were subjects, with no rights and forced to serve under the iron fist of their ruler. The idea of people having rights and responsibilities to their country originated in Athens, Greece circa 500 B.C. (Background Essay). Rome, however, far surpassed the Greeks in their social contract theory of citizenship (Background Essay) for the following reasons: 1) More people were considered citizens i.e. females and sons of freed slaves; 2)
When in Rome Rome has a better system than Athens in my opinion. Athens citizens have more responsibility and rights then Rome. Rome has more of a family oriented style of citizenship. Athens and rome both honored citizenship in their own ways equally.
The Athenians had a direct democracy which allowed the citizens to directly decide and vote for who they wanted to rule their country. In Athens there were three bodies of the government. The Assembly is the first branch which included all citizens that showed up to cast their vote. The Assembly decided what new laws would be and they made important decisions regarding war, laws, etc.
He instituted democracy and allowed for people to have a say in how the city was run. Without these things, Athens could never have entered the Golden Age and would have remained just another polis in the great fabric of Greek history. " All who have taken it upon themselves to rule over others have incurred hatred and unpopularity for a time; but if one has a great aim to pursue, this burden of envy must be accepted, and it is wise to accept it." (Pericles, n.d).
Unlike the Romans, Athenians had a strict but fair schedule that allowed them to enjoy citizenship equally. Equally, hard workers have brought Athens power just as much as hereditary leaders. According to Document B all citizens should be allowed to speak their opinion and have a share in election because of the hard work they do to make the city powerful. Athenians allowed poor and common men to win a position in government which was a transition from the wealthy having power to everyone having power.
Pericles argues that Athens has become a model for others, and articulates what it is to be a good citizen. This can be seen when he says, “although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.” (Thucydides, 2.39) It proves that Ancient Athens’ valued greatness and worked in order to achieve the excellence of the state, by focusing on rebuilding themselves back up after the Persian war. Pericles played a big role in this because he showed his ambitions to rebuild Athens, which lead to the thriving of other subjects such as literature, philosophy, science, art, and religion.
Essentially he went so far as to find enslaved Athenians in faraway lands to bring them back from economical enslavement. The second of his reforms brought an early form of democracy, giving the power of juror to the common man. With such a strong economy supported by their fair justice system, Solon ensured that Athens had room to grow and
Athens organized a group of Greek city states into the Delian League and eventually lead and dominated all of the city states in the League. Athens’s military prowess allowed them to look down on the other members of the League and treat them as members of an empire instead of equals. This caused some to view them with hostility which sparked the conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lead to the Peloponnesian War. The direct democracy of Athens wasn’t actually as inclusive and steady as the statement at Pericles 's funeral state, “Our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people (Doc C).” In fact, of the 450,000 citizens of Athens in 430 BC, only about 40,000 people had the power to vote.
In this essay, I would like to answer and discuss the following questions: How did the 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? How were two city-states similar in their governmental structures and how did they differ with each other? For the Spartans the right to participate and made important decisions from the entire community were only exercised by the adult and legitimate male citizens of Sparta.
Without his leadership, Greece suffered a depression for 30 years, wars were lost, and most important of all, Pericles glory was never regained again. The years that Pericles was leader of Athens has two titles; “The Golden Age of Athens” and “The Age of Pericles”. These titles are used because during these 32 years, Athens had tremendous economic growth and cultural flourishing. Pericles introduced direct democracy, made Athens the “Intellectual Center of the Ancient World”, led Athens through
Who was the better Greek city-state? Athens or Sparta? A question asked for quite some time now, probably since they existed. It’s time we get an answer! If you ask me, I think it was Athens that was the better Greek city state.
The Greeks displayed their humanistic values through government by they utilizing an effective system of self governing. This system was a direct democracy, defined as “government by the people” or “rule of the majority.” In the Athenian Democracy, the Assembly was the regular
Undoubtedly it helped the citizens of Athens to broaden their minds, their cultural awareness and, what was probably most important, to develop
the idea of representative government began to take root in some city states, specifically Athens. Athenian reformers moved toward democracy, rule by the people. In Athens citizens participated directly in political decision making. However there were limitations on citizenship to ensure that only the most rational people were able to vote. Through the construction of democracy in Athens, equality of all citizens became greater, and the city would become the top democracy of all the democracies.
