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Short note on Greek democracy
Ancient greek government system essay
Short note on Greek democracy
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1. Persia and Greece took different approaches to the political system, each yielding differing results. Persia’s system seemed to be more organized, as is evidenced by the lines, “Darius divided the empire into about twenty provinces, each under the supervision of a Persian satrap, or governor, who was often related or connected by marriage to the royal family” (page 111, paragraph 14). Greek’s style is shown in the lines, “Ultimately, the tyrants were unwitting catalysts in an evolving political process. Some were able to pass their positions on to their sons, but eventually the tyrant-family was ejected” (page 120, paragraph 25). Persia stuck with their government once Darius I came into power and he put his system into effect. …show more content…
Greek kings may have been the farthest thing from that. The Greeks were weak in comparison, and couldn’t keep in power. They likely had the opportunity, just didn’t have the ability to do so. Even Greek tyrants had the same problem. The tyrants used force to come into power, of course, but they were unable to keep it. A possible factor or reason for the differences may be the circumstances surrounding how each system came to be. King Darius had struggles in his early years, the book says, “His success in crushing many early challenges to his rule testifies to his skill, energy, and ruthlessness” (page 111, paragraph 12). The Persian king dealt with problems and may have had to rule with an iron fist in order to keep his brutal reputation. Greek power may have been just a matter of chance. “Authority in the community developed along one of two lines...” (page 120, paragraph 25). This implies that the political system may have just happened and no particularly grueling work went into it, much unlike the conflicts Darius had to go through. By comparing and contrasting, one can see that Persia and Greece exemplify how two very successful societies can exist with two very different …show more content…
Athens and Sparta came into conflict through Athens’ position as an imperial power. The textbook says, “The emergence of Athens as an imperial power after the Persian invasion aroused the suspicions of other Greek states and led to open hostilities between former allies” (page 127, paragraph 22). Although Athens and Sparta had joined together to defeat Persia, Athens’ hunger for power caused a rift to form between the two city-states. Athens was corrupt and kept much of the wealth to themselves, and it seems Sparta was not pleased with that thus was the start of the Peloponnesian wars. A possible factor to explain the outcome is evidenced in lines, “Pericles knew that, as long as Athens controlled the sea lanes and was able to provision itself, the enemy hoplites must soon return to their farms and the city could not be starved into submission” (page 128, paragraph 22). Athens was much too cocky and confident in their navy, not believing anyone could come close to touching their power. This was obviously not the case, as the textbook says, “The Persian Empire had bankrolled the construction of ships by the Spartan alliance, so Sparta finally was able to take the conflict into Athens’ own element, the sea” (page 128, paragraph 23). Athens never accounted for Sparta to take get assistance from an outside source-let alone a former enemy- or even for Sparta to attack from the sea. Athens had faith in Sparta staying on land and because Athens was so arrogant, Sparta
In conclusion, these two Greek city-states clearly differ among their governments, economies, and cultures. Given these differences, they would cause Athens and Sparta to have their disagreements from time to time. Although it seems like these cities would never get along, Sparta and Athens did unify together after the Persian
The Peloponnesian war involved Greece’s two most prominent city-states, Athens and Sparta, between 431-404 BC. Both Athens and Sparta held numerous alliances, causing essentially the entire ancient Greek world to be engulfed in war. The Peloponnesian war was perhaps one of the most momentous wars of its time and is meticulously documented in the historian Thucydides contemporary account History. Thucydides stated that the most prominent cause of the war was Sparta’s unease at the rapidly growing power and capital of Athens. Other events caused friction between the city-states, notably Athens intervening in a dispute between Spartans ally, Corinth, and her colony Corcyra over the city of Epidaurus. The revolt of Potidaea against Athens and the Peloponnesian Leagues interference in the event caused an undeniable tension across the Greek world. It was perhaps Athens hostile decrees against Sparta’s ally Megara that made war inevitable.
“Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states”
The Peloponnesian War is widely known as the second war between the Athenian and Spartan coalitions. In Thucydides'narratives on the war, he described that the war took place during a period when the Greek world was divided into two great alignments each led by either Athens or Sparta, with both sides at the height of their powers.
In 431 BCE a tragic war began, the Peloponnesian War. This war took place in Greece and was fought between Sparta and Athens. Athens had a powerful navy while Sparta had a strong army. Sparta saw Athens as a threat because Athens was stealing money from the Delian League, which was an alliance formed by about 200 Greek city-states, including Sparta. Athens was the head of the Delian League because they started it and when Sparta saw that they were stealing money to glorify their city, the Spartans didn’t like it. Both city-states believed they would have the upper hand if they fought, so they both pushed for war. Eventually, Sparta declared war on Athens. Since Sparta had a strong army they wanted to fight a land war. However, Pericles, Athens’ leader, wanted to wait for the precise moment to attack by water. In the end Sparta was able to fight the war the way they wanted to, but the aftermath of the war was worse than the war itself.
Alexander had conquered many lands during his reign. His success changed the then-known world as he spread Greek culture throughout the empires he had won. However, after the death of Alexander, the Hellenistic period proper began, as his territories were split radically altering the political landscape. Greek politics were organized around the city-state or alliances of city states into larger political units. The Hellenistic period began a time of organization into kingdoms, where cities within a territory owed allegiance, taxes, and military support to the central government. City states that did not want to be allied were unable to compete with the powerful Hellenistic kingdoms and were forced to ally themselves to one of them for defense.
The Greeks preferred the Spartan system of government over Athenian democracy in many ways, such as authority, military, and social policies. Characteristics of each significantly shaped there form of society. Spartan government was so appealing because of its rule by few policy. Allowing much lesser of a say from its common people. Creating a almost perfect system for the elitists. How could this not be appealing. The Spartans also had this concept of a perfect race. In which they were trying to build the grandest race of people in the universe, by training and fighting. Which is why their military forces were so strong. Both forms of government however did support the idea of every person is within the law, yet both also rejected the idea
There were a few differences between the government of Persian and the Greeks. The Persian empire was ruled by a King, and ,as stated in the book, “the only requirements were to be loyal to the king and pay tribute” (textbook pg 132). The Greek government was more democratic base ruling, where the citizens each had a voice due to each cities being separated. The Persian Empire, each provinces were ruled by satrapies, and they were either relative or close associate of the king (textbook pg 132). In the Greek government, each city states were ruled separately by a governor, and they were were independent of each other.
Greek geography was something of a different animal to the rest of the world. These “city-states” were formed communities that governed themselves in one of three types of government. Monarch, Oligarchy, or Democracy. The monarchy was ruled by a king, while the oligarchy was made up of a small group of men to run the government, and democracy was made up of ordinary citizens. This last form was a newer way of attempting to give a voice to the people. “Whatever the mode of government, the crucial idea was the sense of belonging to a political community.” (Ibid) Unlike other regime’s, there was no absolute ruler over all of Greece. Each city-state managed its own territory, which may have been nothing more than a farming
As an introduction, Greece had a vast number of ancient city-states as one can easily gather from the map above. Many of these include Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Megara, Argos, Macedonia, Epeiros, Sicily and so many more. A lot is said about Athens and Sparta, but very little is spoken of the others. How were the government structures set up? Which of the city states had a monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and which city-state had a democracy? How were they similar? And how were they different? These are the issues I'd like to address. To begin each section and thoroughly answer everything, first I plan to define what each term is, and then I plan to speak on which city-states the term applied to.
In ancient time Greece was not one country, but it was composed of several hundred city-states (Brand, n.d.). Each of these city-states spoke the same language, but each of them was independent and distinctively from others. Their organization, it sets of laws, and forms of government were unique to each polis. The power in politics rested in the hands of either a single, or a few people, or several people. Even though there were hundreds of city-states the five most known forms of government used in several city-states were a monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy (Cartledge, 2011).
Ancient Greece was home to two of the most influential cities of its time, Athens and Sparta. Athens was known for its thinkers, art, and architecture while Sparta was the “warrior’s society”. While both cities ended tragically, they were successful for an extended period of time. This could be attributed to their forms of government. In Athens, the power was in the hands of the people in what is now known as a democracy. Sparta went the way of militarism, pursuing military policy. Another difference was the way they treated their women. Given different forms of government, Athens and Sparta were successful in their time.
4. “Explain the different political systems in Athens and Sparta.”: The Athens had a controlled political life but very little power. However, by the seventh century the Athens got under control by the aristocrats and weren't controlled by a king. Sparta had two kings, five men who were the ephors. The Spartans are a military state.
Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states.
In ancient times, Greece wasn't a united country but more of a group of lands where Greek-speaking people lived. Around 2000.B.C. the Mycenaean?s settled on the Greek mainland seeking to form a civilization. Already having the geography provide to the Greek culture, they put in many ideas and developed a writing system with the help of the Minoans, a group of people who were native to the Greek mainland. They fought a ten-year war against Troy known as the Trojan War. Although they were victorious, the weakened civilization collapsed and a new group of people, the Dorian?s took Greece into what is known as the Dark Age of Greece. Being less advanced than the Mycenaean?s, the writing system was dropped and a new way to tell history was formed through word or epics. Two major city-states or polis formed: Athens and Sparta. Athens developed a limited Democracy, which was ruled by the people through representatives. This proved to be most efficient because all people were treated equally. Its was kept under control with a set of laws that harshly punished citizens for even the simplest crimes created by Draco in 621B.C. Solon came into power in 594 B.C., and took out Dracos? wicked methods by making four social classes based on wealth and abolishing debt slavery. Around 500 B.C., Cleisthenes created the Council of Five Hundred in which council members were randomly chosen by only citizens could be in a limited democracy. He also rearranged the social classes formed by Solon into ten groups based on where a citizen lived rather on wealth. Education in Athens was only given to males and when they became of age they then went on to serve in the military. Athens honored cultural things such as art and literature. Sparta was a military state run by an oligarchy government or rule by a small group of citizens based on wealth. Social order in Sparta consisted of citizens, noncitizens and helots. Sparta had the strongest army in Greece.