In this first lecture week we were shown two Greek societies who existed during the same time with different governing bodies. Athens was known throughout the Greek world as the first democratic run civilization while Sparta was known to have been run as an oligarchy. In the following paragraphs of this essay, I will be presenting the features of each society that determined who led the governing bodies of each and thereby made all the major decisions in their communities. In comparing both societies any similarities if any, will be discussed.
Athens differed from other city states of its time due to the fact that it practiced democracy as their government. In order for a citizen of Athens to participate in their government, he had to have the following attributes: be a free male native, born of Athenian parents and at least 18 years old. Once those requirements were met, the level of political and military status of each individual citizen was determined by wealth and aristocratic lineage. The top levels of political and military positions were restricted to what was named the “500 bushel”(of …show more content…
But in reality, they both can be thought of as similar in some aspects. For one thing, both groups of citizens were able to enjoy their privileges and duties at the expense of others. For the Athenians, the government and private citizens all owned slaves who worked the fields and mines to provide the income for the running of the government and waging of more for profit wars. No Athenian citizen had to toil away in the hazardous silver or salt mines nor labor under harsh agricultural environments. Likewise, all Spartans had land with slaves who were the previous landowners of the conquered neighboring Messenia, the Helots. Peroikoi, who were also under the dominion of Sparta, provided all the craft work and trade necessary so that Spartan citizens only performed military duties(Brand,P.,
Athens differed from other city states of its time due to the fact that it practiced democracy as their government. In order for a citizen of Athens to participate in their government, he had to have the following attributes: be a free male native, born of Athenian parents and at least 18 years old. Once those requirements were met, the level of political and military status of each individual citizen was determined by wealth and aristocratic lineage. The top levels of political and military positions were restricted to what was named the “500 bushel”(of …show more content…
But in reality, they both can be thought of as similar in some aspects. For one thing, both groups of citizens were able to enjoy their privileges and duties at the expense of others. For the Athenians, the government and private citizens all owned slaves who worked the fields and mines to provide the income for the running of the government and waging of more for profit wars. No Athenian citizen had to toil away in the hazardous silver or salt mines nor labor under harsh agricultural environments. Likewise, all Spartans had land with slaves who were the previous landowners of the conquered neighboring Messenia, the Helots. Peroikoi, who were also under the dominion of Sparta, provided all the craft work and trade necessary so that Spartan citizens only performed military duties(Brand,P.,