Classical Athens

Since the start of civilization, humans have used violence to gain and ensure power. Power often blinds people causing them to believe their violent actions are just. They are in a position where they won’t be opposed so they can act self-interestedly. Thrasymachus, in Thucydides’ accounts on the Peloponnesian war explains this point of view best by stating, “Justice is nothing other the advantage of the stronger.” (Plato pg. 14). Although violence places fear in your enemies or subordinates, it…

Lysistrata, a play written by Aristophanes in 410 BC is a comedic battle of the sexes as the women of Athens decide to take it upon themselves to end the Peloponnesian War. Lead by the titular character Lysistrata, women from both sides of the war agree to abstain from having sexual relations with their husbands to have the men cease fighting. In the end men from both sides, in obvious and extreme sexual frustration, agree to end the war and return home with their wives. Although Lysistrata is a…

In this, Pericles alludes to the unique qualities of Athenian government and Athenians themselves, describing the people of Athens as caring for each other, being critical of their obedience to the state, and generally the most morally ethical compared to the citizens of the other poleis. Furthermore, Pericles denotes the Athenian state as sharing power across Athens’ entire citizenry, entailing complete equality.2 Due to the status of Pericles as an Athenian political leader however, his…

Freedom of speech gives the right of an open expression of ideas and opinions without being pursued by the government after that. It takes its origins form the Athens’ democratic ideology of the late 6th or early 5th century BC. The Athenian democracy was the first known democracy of the world. The democracy gives rights to take part in the countries` legal life and to express ones ideas openly. The idea of free speech is not only the sharp topic in the modern world, and the thing that people…

In Athens, there were three groups of people, the slaves, foreigners (which include freed slaves), and Athenian born natives. The slaves were owned by individual Athenian citizens, unlike in Sparta, and they were either skilled or non-skilled. The skilled performed duties like accounts, etc for their Athenian masters while the non-skilled did other duties like work in the silver mines in Attica and they were not valuable compared to the skilled. They were not allowed to participate in politics…

instrumental to the new military approach utilized by Athens. It was through warfare and the advancements caused by war that the lower classes were empowered and that democracy was propelled…

leads to deception and destruction, could have been avoided if the Athenian Assembly had listened to Nicias’s plea. Sicily was indeed too far away to be subdued permanently, and the current state of Athens was more important. Many other Greek city states were looking for their opportunity to attack Athens, and this event would only weaken the empire further. To become the strongest Polis, these individual states and people began their attempts to mislead and deceive one another in order to .…

Delian league became the economic super power of the Greeks. Afterwards, there were security concerns with the treasury because it was located in Delos, which is considered vulnerable to attacks as at then, compared to Athens – hence the treasury was moved from Delos to Athens. The Athenians were able to use this funds to develop their city, especially in the building of the landmark – The Parthenon(Brand, 2016).…

In this paper I will compare and contrast several forms of governments as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states. The five forms of government are; Monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Let's start with the statement that Isocrates makes (Halsall, 1999) about Spartans being "subject to oligarchy at home, to kingship on campaign". Tells us that there was a contrast in how Spartans treated other Spartans and how they treated those they conquered. Oligarchy can be…

Aristophanes was a Greek playwright living in Athens during the Peloponnesian War whose comedies typically satirized the democracy and society. He wrote the comedy “The Acharnians” to establish the problems with the democracy leading Athens. He believes a successful democracy in Athens could only be possible if the troubles damaging the democracy were fixed. For Aristophanes, democracy in Athens is possible if greed is eliminated, equality achieved, and empathy developed because these three…