Download Athens: A Limited Democracy

Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
Uncle Mike
SPARTA
• Dorians conquered Messenians
– moved into Peloponnesus
– Spartans outnumbered
– impose a system of strict control
• 730 BCE – First Messenian War
• 640 – 630 BCE – Second Messenian War
• 465 BCE – Helot revolt and earthquake
• A. Government
– 1. Two Kings with a council of elders
– 2. Assembly of citizens approved all major
decisions
• Citizens – native-born Spartan men (30 years)
– 3. Ephors – 5 officials elected to run the day-today operations of the city
• B. Lycurgin Reforms
• 1. At 7, children are taken from their parents
and placed into a barrack and endure a
brutal existence:
– Hard exercise
– Bland and sparse diet
– Rigid discipline
– Principle of stealing
– Men can marry at 20, but must remain living in
the barracks until 30,
• where he shall also take meals until the age of 40
• C. Spartan Women
– would physically train in
order to increase their
chances at producing
healthy offspring
– were allowed to own
property and even run a
family estate (w/ men at
war)
• Though men were the head of the
household,
• Spartans isolated themselves from other
Greeks
• Shunned wealth and trade
• Prohibited excessive travel outside Laconia
• Little use in arts and new inventions
“Spartans are
willing to die
for their polis
because they
have no reason
to live!”
Athens:
A
Limited
Democracy
Ancient Agora with Acropolis
No other city has contributed more to
the civilization of mankind than Athens.
It is the place where Socrates was
born, Plato, Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides and many others. It is the
place that humanism and democracy
were born. The intellectual light that
Athens created will always be alive.
• 1. As in most other city-states, Athens
evolved from a
into an
• 2. Government controlled by a landowning
elite
• Held power by choosing the chief officials
• Nobles were the judges in important court cases
• Dominated the public
• 3. Athenian power
during Aristocratic
rule
• 4. But unrest began to grow…
• 1. Merchants and Soldiers (hoplites)
the
power of the nobles
• 2. Foreign Artisans, who made most of the goods that
Athens made money on, were angry they could not
become
• 3. Farmers had to sell their land, and sometimes
themselves, to the wealthy nobles to pay off their
debts (debt slavery)
• 1. Appointed to
, chief official, 594 BCE
• 2. outlawed slavery for debt and
slaves
• Opened some high offices to everyday citizens
• Granted
to some foreigners
• Gave the Athenian Assembly more power
• 3. Encouraged the export of
and
týrannos
• 1. Individual people who often
of the merchant class and the poor by proposing
to help these people
• 2. Though the term itself has a negative
connotation, Greek tyrants generally governed
• Pisistratus & Cleisthenes are two examples
• Seized power in 546 BCE • Seized power in 507 BCE
• Gave poor farmers loans • Established
and land from nobles
• Public building projects
for the poor
• Gave poor citizens a louder
vote
• further
aristocracy
• Members chosen by
from among all citizens
• Prepared laws and
supervised day-to-day
government tasks
• Turned
into a
, or
lawmaking body, that
before ruling on
a decision
• all male citizens 30 years and
older
Limited
Rights
Not quite there yet
G. Restrictions of Athenian Gov’t.
• Only
could participate in government
• Despite successive changes, citizenship was still no where
close to universal
• Thousands living and working in the city were slaves with
no rights
• Ordinary Athenians would not have been able to participate in
government if it were not for
• However, it is the system that offers the most control of
government to the most people
H. Rights of Women
• Like most other city-states, women had no share in
public life
• Rich Athenians lived a
existence
• Managed entire household
• Spun and wove cloth
• Cared for children
• Prepared food
• Poor Athenians worked outside the home
• Tending sheep or as spinners, weavers, and potters
I. Education for Democracy
• Unlike girls, who received little to no formal education, boys
were sent to school if their parents could afford such a
luxury!
• They learned to read and write, studied music and read and
memorized poetry
• Studied to become skilled
• Military training and Olympic
physical edu.
• Explored many areas of
Persia