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Athens Vs Sparta Research Paper

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Introduction
Sparta and Athens were two big ancient Greek city-states, in this essay, we will discuss about how did the people of these two poleis obtain their political rights and participate in their public life. We will also illustrate who were the ones serving in public office and what were the rules that governed the selection process. Finally, we will compare the government structures of Sparta and the Athens, and analyze their similarities and differences.
In Sparta, only the Sparta warriors enjoyed the political rights. The male citizens (Homoioi) were the only ones that can have the political rights. Sparta women, Perioikoi (non-Spartan free man), Helots (virtual slaves) and slaves did not have any political rights. All the Spartan male citizens formed the Popular Assembly to exercise their political rights and made decisions on their public affairs. Among the Spartan citizens, there are class differentiations which had pre-determined the power-level that the …show more content…

The two kings were chosen from the separate royal families which origins could be traced as the founders of Sparta. The Gerousia was a group of 30 Spartan aristocrats who were eligible to be chosen once they reached the age of 60, except for the two kings, they could be under the age 60 (Brand, year unknow). The position of the Gerousia was permanent until death of its members, once there was an opening, other eligible aristocrats could fill the position. There were three Ephors originally, later five were elected annually. The Ephors and the two kings constructed the “executive branch” of the Sparta government, however, the really power was in the hands of the Gerousia, which had overshadowed the power of the two kings and the ephors (Brand, year unknow). Only the Gerousia could decide on what issues and matters which would be discussed by the Popular

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Before we talk about what public life in Athens and Sparta was like, lets take a moment to relate how it came to exist. Athens around 800-500 BCE was ruled by a rich aristocratic caste that bought much of the land and enslaved local farmers (Brand, 2013, p. 17). Problems arose that required a redistribution of power to avert catastrophe, so the politician Cleisthenes was enlisted to redefine social power. Through reforms which divided the Athenian people into ten diverse provinces responsible for electing fifty political representative each, Cleisthenes cleverly balanced the power of skilled tradesmen, rich politicians and the common masses in 507 BCE (Brand, 2013, p. 19).

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