Athens is known for their art, intellect and political influence in the western world. Spartans only valuable contribution was their military strategies. Athens and Sparta both had social classes but Sparta had a simpler social structure. The social structure of Athens consisted of numerous social classes. All free Athenian born males were citizens.
The founding fathers and the ancient Athenians also seem to share some of the same successes and failures when it comes to establishing democracy. In ancient Athens only free males of Athens were considered citizens. This excluded all women, slaves, and even men who had a foreign-born parent, which limited participation in the assembly.
Athens and Sparta were two exceptionally powerful, well-known city-states in Ancient Greece. Athens was a Direct Democracy; meaning every male citizen participates directly in government decision-making, lead by an assembly of over 6,000 male citizens and a council of 500. Sparta, on the other hand, was an oligarchy, meaning lead by a few, ruled by two kings, a council of elders, and an assembly. Although both cities had effective systems of running their government, the Spartan government was a more efficient government than Athens. Athens was in fact a democracy and though it gave more freedom to its citizens, there were just too many people to run the government in anyway but chaotic.
Pericles and Ephialtes established pay for public officials, thus opening up offices to the poor. They did not do this simply because they had big hearts; they also knew that it would win the support of Athens's poor majority (which of course it did). Next Pericles and Ephialtes turned on the Areopagus, the Athenian high court; this, too, they opened to people of all classes. This move proved too much for the aristocrats, who had Ephialtes assassinated, but this act paved the way for Pericles to take
Alcibiades was a great orator whereas Nikias was not, Alcibiades would have been more up for fighting against the Spartans when Nikias was more cautious and would have seemed to prefer a more cautious role and preferred democracy first and was worried how much expeditions would have costs the Athenian empire. This paper will examine Alcibiades and Nikias and the role they played in the Sicilian expedition. In conclusion it will explain if it would have been better if Alcibiades had died during the Sicilian expedition rather than Nikias. The Sicily expedition was recommended because Syracuse was a city of southeast Sicily, Italy, on the Ionian Sea. It was a Corinthian dominion in the eight century.
Spartan Women According to feminist Simon de Beauvoir author of The Second Sex “More than any other Greek women, Spartans have been subject of praise or blame from antiquity to present.” . The women of Sparta have a vital role within Sparta society as they were responsible for producing healthy babies as well as partaking in the running of the economy. They differ greatly from their Greek counterparts in that not only do they have an education which enables them to participate on Spartan society but they can own land and partake in sports and ceremonies. Unlike their other Greek counterparts Spartan women received a thorough education and harsh upbringing so they could play a greater role in Spartan society. Spartans were they only Greek society that prescribed a public education for girls.
In Athens if you were actively involved in politics you were high in class. Another similarity between these classical civilizations was that women did not have as great of rights as men (documents 2 and 3). Men were thought to be the workers that do the jobs and participate in politics. Women were expected to stay at home and raise a family. On document 3 it says that “women make up 50% of ever category except for bureaucrats and appointed officials, who were male only.
This was because the Spartans believed that the girls needed to be strong and healthy so when they grew older they could give birth to strong sons for the community. The Spartan women used their body as their main tool. As you can see, the women in Sparta had much more freedom and were respected more by the community, whereas, the women in Athens lived very secluded lives. They played little or no part in politics or public life. Women from both city-states would get married once they reach the age of 15.
Also, the Spartans were rich because owning property and passing money down their families made for future generations to have money [6] the government of the Spartans was of an oligarchical rule. This meant that only few ruled; which meant either the rich or kings ruled. All free men could vote in their assembly on many issues. This resembled a demokratia. The poor could vote for the ephors, which theoretically, would run Sparta.
When Philip of Macedon conquered Greece in 1338 B.C.E., Greeks did not feel the gods had deserted them. They simply believed that Philip for all his power and glory, was just one more tool in the hands of the Olympians. When he was assassinated in 336, only two years after his dramatic triumph, his new subjects nodded knowingly to one another: the gods had grown tired of him. These sorts of intriques, of course, would have been typical among the gods, and therefore familiar to both Greeks and Macedonians. Ruling the former Persian Empire turned out to be more difficult than defeating it.