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Similarities Between Sparta And Athens

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An introduction to ancient Athens and Sparta shows that they were two of the most powerful Greek city-states or poleis. Sparta was known as an aristocratic military dictatorship, whereas Athens demonstrated the beginnings of democracy as we know it today. Although "democracy in Athens lasted less than 200 years, in 336 BCE, all of Greece came under the domination of King Alexander the Greek of Macedon (Brand, 2010)."

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

Different political systems between the two poleis gave way to each community having distinct procedures. Athens held elections yearly to determine participants, and assembly-elected officials were …show more content…

In Athens, women, enslaved persons, foreigners, and other non-citizens were prohibited from holding public office. For others, a form of punishment was exclusion. Looking after day-to-day government functions, self-nominated, Athenians could serve on the council of 500 for one year. Fifty came from each of the ten tribes. In addition, as mentioned above, the lawmakers or assembly and jurors voted as to the guilt or innocence of those in question.

As for Sparta, as a military dictatorship, boys were taken from their mothers in childhood and joined the military as teenagers. Those that participated in decision-making were free adult male soldiers who served under two kings. "The Spartan government was unlike [others]; two kings came from separate royal families. Every Spartan male was to be a lifelong soldier to the exclusion of all other professions. [They] remained active until they reached age 60. Becoming an ephor was the only route to political power for non-aristocratic Spartans male citizens. [With] non-aristocratic [heritage], ephors tended to defer to the aristocratic elder council and often did their bidding. At the age of 60, Spartan aristocrats were eligible to be chosen to serve in the gerousia, [the] elite elder council. In practice, the assembly's power was limited by the formal power of the ephors and the gerousia. Sparta was in no way a democracy (Brand, …show more content…

In the case of Sparta, when the kings were away during wars, the ephors oversaw meetings of the gerousia and the assembly. In Athens, the boule or Council of 500 presided over day-to-day functions of government and logistics. “Made up of all free male Athenians citizens [who] passed or rejected the laws, the boule-council proposed, it would soon become a true democratik, or 'rule of the people' (Brand, 2010)." Even though we think of Athens as democratic and Sparta as a military dictatorship, both city-states had checks and balances on how power was

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