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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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Second, due to the government in Sparta Sparta was more organized than Athens. Athens used a form of government called a Democracy, ruled by the people. Since the people of Athens may have different opinions, leading

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How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community? In Athens the assembly was made up of every adult male citizen of 20 years. It met 2 to3 times a month and voting could be done on the day. This was the way the Athenian participated in public life and made decisions affecting the community.

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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.

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Pericles popularity is well known for harnessing that mob power to steer Athenian society, while Thucydides is known for claiming weaker demagauges (rabble rousers) that followed are what lead to Athens eventual downfall (Brand, 2013, p. 34). Sparta, being a oligarchy, had a much clearer set of public offices consisting of two kings, a weakly empowered assembly of all male citizens, powerful elders over age sixty called the Geriousia, and five annually elected magistrates called Ephors whose powers often contested the kings during their one year terms (Brand, 2013, p. 9). Much like the Metics of Athens, Periokoi were foreigners of ATHENIAN VERSUS SPARTAN GOVERNANCE 4 Sparta who could gain much wealth filling tradesmen roles, but would never participate in Spartan governance (Brand, 2013, p. 3). The only people allowed in public office were native born Spartans who met specific requirements.

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Council of Elders suggested laws for Members of the Assembly to vote for, they could only vote for yes or no. Differing from Athens, Spartans schools mainly taught wrestling, boxing, foot racing, and gymnastics. Spartan women are almost ranked the same as men, they learn basic fighting skills enough to defended themselves when invaders came instead of doing household like Athenian women. Slaves in Sparta are mostly people from others city-states because their land are taken by Sparta for goods and they had to work for Sparta as slaves. Slaves are killed for any reasons that Spartans thought it is the right to eliminate

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In Sparta, only the two kings, the Gerousia, and the Ephros had the right to held public offices. While in Athens, we have firstly the aristocrats and then the Athenians men who were free and wealthy enough to be elected and then can held public offices. What rules governed the selection of public office

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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.

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In order to serve in a public office position, the person had to have a certain amount of wealth and depending on how much wealth they had, they could pursue higher positions within the government. But, the majority of free Athens male citizens could at the very least vote in the assembly on laws and other matters, as well as serve on juries. This was the extent of their power. There were also ten generals elected every year, as well as other lower officials that were voted on, but the aristocratic class was very good at convincing the rest to vote for the aristocrats preferred candidate (Brand, pgs.

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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.

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Women were thought of as dependents of the father or husband. Women lived in gynaeceum: women’s quarters where they could oversee the running of the home and have very little contact with the male world (O’Pry, 2012). Spartan women, on the other hand, seem to have a bit more freedom and were able to own property. Sparta allowed for women to get educated in the same manner as the males. Sparta had a laid back culture and men were to serve in their military.

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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.

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As various studies suggested, ancient Athens pursued permissiveness and democracy, which its form of government was the antecedent of nowadays 'rule by the people '. After toppling the dictator Hippias in 510 BC, Athenian demos not only took power, but also introduced electoral system that "with no single ruler. A public assembly of male citizens met 40 times a year to vote on state decisions. The agenda was set and decrees carried out by a 500 strong council, chosen by lot to serve one year each"(Finley, 1983). In my view, the authority was no longer centralized in the hands of one administrator, more ordinary people got a say in running the

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The Spartan Empire Spartan Government: An oligarchy system was adopted in Sparta. In the oligarchy system, few people has the power to rule. Sparta also had an assembly just like Athens, but the main decisions were taken by the “Council of Elders” with two kings and twenty-eight other men as its members. The two kings where born within the royal family while the twenty-eight man where elected by the assembly. For men to be elected to the Council of Elders, they had to be at least 60 years old and approaching from a noble family.

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