Ancient Greek democracy appears to have ended as a result of both internal and external factors. Like the subsequent Roman Empire, the Athenian state appears to have over-reached in its militaristic ambitions, ultimately weakening it; while the relative strength of other empires enabled them to take Greece over. The imposition of rule by foreign empires finally ended Greek democracy. From internally, Athens moved from being a defender of its own nation to an aggressor though it would have no doubt maintained that this was in its national security interests. One of the consequences of this aggression and ambition was the loss of the alliances that had helped repel the Persians and in some cases their subjugation (Brand, n.d., p.28).…
The Macedonian-Greek Conflict: Greece believes that Macedonians should not be recognized as Macedonians because the Macedonians have been of Greek nationality since 2000 BC. Those Macedonians whose language belongs to the Slavic family of languages, must not call themselves Macedonians because 4000 years ago, the Macedonians spoke Greek and still speak nothing but Greek. Lastly, they believe that Macedonia has no right to call itself by this name because Macedonia has always been and still is a region of…
Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. According in Document A, it said that “our constitution favors the many instead of the few”. That means our rules/laws helped many people instead of a couple, which is why it’s called democracy. In Document B, it tells that democracy gave security to the state and have the ability to control of it. All men have the right and the opportunity to vote.…
Ancient Athens Argumentative Essay Democracy is the government that everyone gets a say in everything. Ancient Athens was supposedly one of the few truly democratic societies. The question is, were they truly democratic. There are people on both sides of the issue.…
The passages that will be discussed in this half of the essay are Thucydides 6.91 to 6.93 and will look at particular ideas and themes that are raised by this piece of text. Alcibiades and Thucydides both experienced exile from Athens, which allows Alcibiades to communicate with Sparta, and allows Thucydides to gain eyewitnesses and accounts from both sides. The text is a speech within Thucydides by Alcibiades to the Spartans. This speech Alcibiades is urging the Spartans to send troops to help the Syracuse and invade the territory belonging to the Athenians. One of the features of this speech is Alcibiades giving the Spartans advice on how to effectively strike against the Athenians.…
The conflict between Athens and the island of Melos during The Peloponnesian War has played an important role in international relations and the theories of political realism and idealism. The Athenians who believed the theory of realism, rejected the Melians wish to remain neutral. The Athenians considered morality to be secondary to maintaining and acquiring power. They assumed that by letting Melos remain neutral that other powers would see them as weak. Although the Melians wished to stay neutral they were not pacifist.…
Athenian Attitudes Toward the Authority of State Through the Eyes of Plato and Sophocles The first evidence of democracy, a government in which the citizens have say in the rulings, was discovered in Ancient Athens. However, when we study Athenian history, we focus on the democratic system of government and tend to overlook the Athenian citizen’s points of view. Through close examination of the writings of Sophocles and Plato, one can discover that the Athenian’s respect towards the governing power, changed during the Classical Athens period. Although the Ancient Athenian government seemed to have control over its people, Antigone of Sophocles and Crito of Plato reveal that from 441 BCE to 360 BCE, the citizens began to lose respect for the…
The Athenians even told the Melians, many times, that they would not receive the help they claimed they had coming from Sparta (5.105). The Melians rebuked these claims stating that, “Spartan strength will make up for our deficiency in strength-if for no other reason, they will be bound to fight for us out of kinship and a sense of honour (5.104).” This is yet another instance, of the Melians' strongly depending on an outside state, rather than themselves, to guarantee a win at war. The Melians continue on into a lengthy argument defending Sparta’s honour, stating that, the Spartans will save them because they look after their own self interest, and the Melians fall under that umbrella, because they are a Spartan colony (5.106). This is just another excuse for them to depend on an outside source, rather than on themselves.…
During the rise of Athens, Athenians established democracy, and their city-state was named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Although Athens was started by the Mycenaean’s, the foundation was built by four tyrants; Draco, Solon, Peisistratus, and Cleisthenes. The first tyrant Draco ruled with an iron fist and started the “Draco’s code”, and all citizens knew the laws. Draco ended aristocracy so that the rich could not decide what the poor has to do, and could not make laws. The second tyrant Solon extended citizenship for artisans and merchants that were not born in Athens.…
The Melian councillors made a horrible mistake by not accepting the terms of the Athenians in 416, and because of their irrational decision, their entire population got decimated. The Melians people were delusional in their assumptions that everything would work out in their favour, and they expected that outside forces would come to assist them, and would help make sure their battle ended in a favourable outcome. If I was a Melian citizen at the time of this decision, I would strongly oppose the councillors’ choice, because most of their arguments were based on a dependence of outside forces, and not based upon what they could do for themselves. You can see their level of misconception through their arguments that other Greek states would be alarmed and revolt, through their insistence that the gods would come to their aid, and through their assumption that the Spartans would come save them. All of these…
Pacifists believe that focus should be on programs and institutions that allow for the avoidance of war and the ability to peacefully resolve conflicts (Ryan, 2015). Therefore from the perspective of a Pacifist the Athenian’s argument is immediately written off. A Pacifist would strongly argue that under no condition were Athens to inflict themselves upon the Melians as the act, in itself, is considered ‘war making’. Only brief attempts at peace building was made during the Melian Dialogue as the Athenians offer the Melians the chance to submit without direct conflict; “…you will not think it dishonourable to submit to the greatest city in Hellas, when it makes you the moderate offer of becoming its tributary ally, without ceasing to enjoy the country that belongs to you; nor when you have the choice given you between war and security, will you be so blinded as to choose the worse. ”(Thucydides, Warner, & Finley, 1972, Chapter XVII).…
I think the athens democracy is in Document B, that the child has to be born with both citizen parents. The child has to be 18 to free born and be a citizen. The kid can’t be a called a citizen if he or she doesn't have a mom or dad. In Document C, the men are the only ones to vote. The women, children, metics and slaves can’t vote.…
In the Ancient Greek culture, honor was the most crucial virtue in their society. While honor might mean different things in different cultures; to the Ancient Greeks honor was an important part of their lives and culture. However, to the Ancient Greeks it was more than just honor that formed their identity. Arête as the Ancient Greeks called it consisted of honor, masculine virtue, physical strength, courage, success in battle and everlasting fame. Arête was the foundation of the family and the society, often dictating the actions of the people and consequently their fates and the fates of others.…
The development of Athenian democracy was influenced by complex social, economic, and military issues, not to mention the obvious political aspect. However, even among these complex set of factors, one aspect in the development of Athenian democracy that stands out and affects all three sets of issues is warfare. Warfare was a constant in ancient Greece, and indeed most of the ancient world. City-states constantly fought, mostly against each other, though they would often band together against outside threats such as the Persians. The Greek style of warfare also tended to be fairly homogenous throughout the city-states as well, with an infantry formed from hoplites, and in the fifth century and later, a navy.…
The Price of Containment The influence of outside countries manipulating Greece during its Civil War beginning in 1943, for their own gains, contributed powerfully to the successful conflict against communist forces within and outside of Greece. This war would transpire with the aid of foreign states to show the world the weaknesses in the supposed victorious and all- powerful ideology, and that these communist forces could be defeated under the right circumstances. The Greek Civil War violently escalated to a lengthy proxy war that included involvement of a widespread of European countries as well as the U.S. It became one of the only successful conflicts during the Cold War to rise against the spread of communism and never be controlled by…