Athenian democracy

Ancient Greece is often viewed as the birthplace of democracy, philosophy, and free people ruling themselves. However, when Greece is broken down into her multiplicity of city-states, we see distinct variations across societies. The place this distinction is most easily seen is when comparing Athens and Sparta. Despite being sister cities, and working together to twice fend off Persian invaders in the Greco-Persian wars, Athens and Sparta always seemed to be rivals. Despite sharing new ways of…

different forms of political government. The country was not unified it was organized in a polis – Greek name for city-states and most cities were very small fewer than 10,000 residents. Two of the most powerful political governments were Athenian and Sparta. Athenian was interested in ruling by the people while Sparta was built on military. Each political government was formed and ruled by different Greek political structures. Monarchy was ruled by a king. Aristocracy ruled by a small…

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…

Plato: Question 1 In his most famous work, The Republic, Plato outlines his distaste for democracy, a system which he saw as ineffective and corrupt. He then puts forward his idea of just government – that the ruling class should come from the top of a stratified society, the guardians and then for philosopher rule. Plato believed that democracy allowed for the unjust and least virtuous in society to rule for their own gain rather than the common good, an idea that was extremely important to the…

allowed the people to feel free, which made them exuberant about their government. Furthermore, their democracy contributed to the social structure of the Athenians. Life differed depending on the ranking of the citizen. The Athenian society consisted of four main social rankings which were citizens(free men), metics, women and slaves. Having been born in Athens, every free male was an Athenian citizen. The citizens were allowed to vote, participate in politics, own land, and much more. Living…

Socrates was accused by Athenians in making the weaker argument the stronger, teaching about things in the sky and below the earth, and in corrupting the youth and not believing in gods. Socrates stands in the court and tries to refute those accusations, but Athenians vote him guilty. Socrates chooses death, rather then stop spreading his philosophy. In “Apology” he does not only defend himself but also talks about morals, his philosophy, politics and critiques Athenians. Though Socrates defends…

them from each other. Sparta was a very exclusive and rigid polis with an emphasis on battle, blood, and courage whereas Athens’s concentration tuned towards communication, trade, and government. While Athens, is very well known for the birth of democracy it is important and necessary to see and acknowledge the development of Greece’s overall political…

status and privilege and he was closely involved at a young age, in the democratic reforms of Ephialtes (In which the power of the Areopagus was weakened and then transferred to the demos) Pericles had been the leader of the democratic faction of Athenian politics since 462 BCE and his leadership meant that Athens was now solely governed by the council and the democratic Assembly. Pericles quickly brought forward legislation that let anyone serve as the archon, despite birth or wealth. The…

or in political views. Classical Athens had a democracy, while Han China had an empire. In document 5, it explains that in the government, “ The first true democracy in history,” any Citizen could attend the Athenian Assembly. In Han China, although it was a bureaucracy, many believed that if the people were pleased by the way the upcoming leader handled things it was a sign from the heavens to let them be emperor. All in all, this let the…

The Roman & Athenian civilizations were truly legends in our world’s history the reinvented the meaning of the word: “society”. In earlier civilizations, the people were treated as lowly subjects, having no rights or responsibilities. By the 6th century the concept that people would actually have a say in the government and take on responsibilities towards the country had emerged. Rome and Athens were among the first societies to practice the “citizenship”. However, the framework and…