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Rivals
4iii
The two
leading
city-states
in Greece
were
Sparta
and
Athens.
Sparta was founded by descendants
of Dorian invaders of the Dark Age.
Sparta was located in the
Peloponnesus which is a peninsula
in southern Greece.
Their ecomony was based on
agriculture; however, they did not
found colonies.
Instead, they invaded
neighboring citystates and enslaved
the people.
Slaves or helots farmed estates
and served as
servants.
Free individuals
called perioeci
were artisans and
merchants from
conquered
territories who
worked for Sparta.
Helots and perioeci
totaled 200,000 to
10,000 Spartans in
population.
After a revolt by the helots, Sparta
established a military society.
Life revolved around the
army.
Men must be first rate
soldiers.
• Women must be mothers of
first rate soldiers.
• Spartans did not need walls.
• Infants were left to die if
unhealthy.
•
Role of the Man
• Age 7 boys were placed in
military barracks and
trained to read, write, and
use weapons.
• Age 20 Spartans became
soldiers and sent to
frontier areas.
• Age 30 Men had to marry.
• Age 60 Retire from the
army.
Role of the
Woman
• Raised to be
healthy and
strong (Females
got just as much
food as males).
• Trained in
gymnastics,
wrestling, and
boxing.
Role of the
Woman
• Married at age 19
because infants were
born healthier.
• Could shop in
market place, attend
dinners with nonfamily members,
and have a public
opinion.
Sparta’s Government
• Established by a lawmaker named
Lycurgus during the 800s B.C.
• The Assembly (all male citizens
over 30) passed laws and made
decisions about war and peace.
(Sparta’s Government)
• 5 overseers or ephors were elected
to administer public affairs. (veto
power)
• A Council of Elders made up of 28
men over age 60 proposed laws
and served as a supreme court.
Sparta
controlled
their subject
people for
250 years, but
they lagged
behind other
city -states in
economic
development.
Athens was located on a peninsula
in central Greece named Attica.
Descendants of Mycenaeans
established Athens.
Athens was named for
the goddess
Athena.
Free foreigners in Athens were
called metics who could not
originally own land or participate
in government.
By 507 B.C., the constitution or
plan in government stated that all
free Athenian born men were
citizens regardless of class and
could participate in the Assembly.
Athenian Education depended on
social and economic status.
Athenian boys entered school at
age 7 and graduated at age 18.
They studied:
• arithmetic
• geometry
• drawing
• music
• gymnastics
• rhetoric or the art of public speaking
Women did
not receive
a formal
education,
but learned
household
duties, like,
weaving
and baking
from her
mother.
Four Government Leaders
1. Draco
2. Solon
3. Peisistratus
4. Cleisthenes
Draco
• Improved codes of laws in 621
B.C.
• Penalties to offenders were harsh.
• Laws ere written down therefore
everyone knew them.
• Aristocrats lost power to dictate
what was legal and what was not.
Solon
• (poet-lawmaker) leader in 594
B.C.
• improved economic conditions by
canceling all land debts and freed
debtors from slavery
• promoted industry by ordering
fathers to teach son a skill and
extending citizenship to foreigners
who would settle in Athens as
skilled artisans.
(Solon)
• Political reforms that moved
Athens toward democracy.
• Citizens of all classes could
participate in Assembly and public
law courts.
• Aristocratic Council of 400 was
also established to draft measures
that went to the Assembly for
approval.
Peisistratus
• Ruled in 546 B.C.
• Divided large estates among
landless farmers and extended
citizenship to men who did not
own land.
• Provided the poor with loans and
put many of them to work building
temples and other public works.
Cleisthenes -508 B.C.
• Intorduced a series of laws that
established a democracy in Athens.
• Sought to end local rivalries, break
aristocratic power, and reorganize
government.
Cleisthenes (continued)
• Assembly increased power and
became major political body.
• All citizens could belong to
Assembly which served as the
Supreme court and appointed
generals to military.
Cleisthenes (continued)
• Council of 500 carried out daily
government business chosen by a
lottery. All citizens were capable
of holding office and were
required to participate.
• Jury system to decide court cases.
201 to 1,001 members with a
majority vote for a verdict.
Cleisthenes (continued)
• Ostracism or exiled if appeard on
6,000 ostraca
• 20 % were citizens.
• Foundation for western concept of
democracy.
“A democracy cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. It can only
exist until the voters discover that they can
vote themselves largesse from the public
treasury.
From that moment on, the
majority always votes for the candidates
promising the most benefits from the public
treasury with the result that a democracy
always collapses over loose fiscal policy,
always followed by a dictatorship. The
average age of the world's greatest
civilizations has been 200 years.
“Great nations rise and fall. The
people go from bondage to spiritual truth,
to great courage, from courage to liberty,
from liberty to abundance, from
abundance to selfishness, from selfishness
to complacency, from complacency to
apathy, from apathy to dependence, from
dependence back again to bondage.”
- Alexander Tytler