Acient Greece the Two Superpowers, Athens and Sparta Essay Sample free essay sample

In ancient Greece there were two world powers. Athinais and Sparta. They coexisted in Greece with their ain span of power in Greece along with many Alliess. These world powers were both really good known for their power and besides their arrant differences. They. of class. had tensenesss between them due to differences in their ways of life. particularly their authoritiess. and the rivaling each other because they were both the best in their ain ways among all other Grecian poleis. Tensions continued to construct up and Athens was spread outing all over Greece and the paranoia of Sparta grew. Finally the Spartans’ paranoia was excessively great and was a major ground for the Peloponnesian War along with the fact they had really different authoritiess. Athens was a â€Å"progressive. democratic metropolis. † [ 1 ] The major stairss toward democracy were introduced by the reforms of the Athenian swayer. Solon. Although Solon had major impact on Athens’ authorities. We will write a custom essay sample on Acient Greece: the Two Superpowers, Athens and Sparta Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Athens was besides influenced by oppressive regulation because. throughout Grecian history. Athens was ruled by archons. A major portion of Athenian authorities was the Council of the Areopagus. They. the Areopagus. were one time the â€Å"central regulating organic structure of Athens. † [ 2 ] but by the clip of the Peloponnesian war they were reduced to holding control of seeking condemnable instances. One important power that they held was that they were the lone 1s able to show any affairs to the Assembly. The council members of the Areopagus consisted of work forces that were elected by the Assembly. [ 3 ] The assembly was the â€Å"sole legislative organic structure and exercised control over disposal and court. † [ 4 ] Any citizen was allowed to do suggestions every bit long as they were non traversing any lines. The Assembly consisted of work forces that had to be 18 old ages of age. If the assembly did non give permission for a new jurisprudence. it would non be able to go an official jurisprudence until approved by the Assembly. Sparta. unlike Athens. was a â€Å"conservative. even reactionist. oligarchy. † [ 5 ] Similar to the Council of the Areopagus. Sparta had the Council of the Elders. besides known as the Gerousia. The Gerousia was made up of two male monarchs that reigned over Sparta and 20 blue bloods who were required to be over the age of 60 old ages. The blue bloods were chosen by citizens. which showed some sort of democracy in the Spartan authorities. A group in Sparta that may hold been even more important the Gerousia and the assembly. was the Ephorate. They consisted of five Spartan work forces who â€Å"practically guided all facets of Spartan life. † [ 6 ] They had regulation over the military and. like the President of the United States. they had the power of blackballing anything proposed by either the Gerousia or the Assembly. Spartan kids were. fundamentally. the belongings of the province. The babes were observed by the Gerousia to see if they were fit to be Spartan citizens. If a babe was non fit to be a Spartan citizen. he was to be left outside on a mountain to decease. If a babe was found fit. he was left to be raised by the parents until the 6th or 7th twelvemonth of his life. When the male child turned seven he would hold to go forth his place and start school with other Spartan male childs until they were twenty old ages old. The schooling was highly rigorous and taught the male childs subject. [ 7 ] As Spartan work forces finished their preparation at the age of 20. they were still required to eat at a communal muss. When the work forces reached the age of 30 they were allowed to get down a household and have a place of their ain. Even though the work forces were able to hold their ain places and have a household. they were all required to eat at a communal muss. [ 8 ] Similar to Spartan work forces. the adult females were besides required to take portion in physical preparation. The Spartans believed that if the adult female was physically fit that she would be able to give birth to a kid who is besides strong and wellness. [ 9 ] Unlike anyplace else in Greece. Spartan adult females exercised much more freedom than those in other provinces. The adult females of Sparta were taught to read and compose as opposed to Athenian adult females. It was looked down upon in Athens to learn a adult female to read and compose. Athenian adult female were besides able to command her ain belongings and even take over her husband’s estate while he was at war. [ 10 ] Women in Sparta were much more equal to work forces than the adult females in Athens. There were major differences in the general ways of life between the two world powers. but the major difference was their authoritiess. Spartans regulations over a huge population of non-Spartan citizens. They maintained order by prohibiting Spartan citizens to take part in trade but they. in bend. were â€Å"supported by the labour of the serfs. while commercialism was in the manus of dependent Alliess. † [ 11 ] The Athenians had more democratic and free ways of managing their province. An interesting and really democratic attack that Athenians had was the council of 500. The council of 500 consisted of 100 members of each folk and they held meetings that would discourse public policy. This system gave every citizen some sort of satisfaction that they were able to hold a say in how things were to travel. [ 12 ] The Spartans would non allow a imperfect. democratic province like Athens take control of Sparta and force upon them a democratic authorities and free the oligarchy that the Spartans’ authorities was based on. The Spartans believed in rigorous military preparation. which shows why they would neer let Athens regulation over them. The Athenians were non about militaristic lives and subject. Athenians enjoyed the humanistic disciplines. such as theatre and comfort life. The Spartans did non back up. what Americans refer to every bit. power of the people. They believed that it was a unsafe sort of authorities system. [ 13 ] They were convinced that their manner of life was the right manner and gave them Security. Their oligarchy gave them the comfort that they had control of the province and that neighbouring people. the Helots. were capable to the Spartans and there was order within the oligarchy. They merely would non accept a reform of democracy in their land and were willing t o contend for it every bit shortly as they felt adequate menace. in which they did. After the Persian War. where Athens and Sparta had important functions in conveying down the Persians. tensenesss between the two provinces grew over clip. [ 14 ] The success of Athens was doing Athens to go more imperialistic in its ends. Thucydides stated that â€Å"the two sides were at the really tallness of their power†¦ and the remainder of the Hellenic universe was committed to one side or the other. † [ 15 ] This would that the ground that the Spartans feared the Athens’ turning imperialism because the Athenians were non leting other Grecian poleis to regulate themselves and make up ones mind how they would manage affairs in their ain provinces. Thucydides seemed to be deducing that the Spartans invaded Athens because â€Å"they feared the Athenians lest they might turn still more powerful. seeing most of Greece was already capable to them. † [ 16 ] Of class. if the Spartans did non take to step in and war against Athens they would lose their Alliess and finally their manner of life to the Athenians who were seeking to change over the remainder of Greece and other districts to democracy. There was competition among Sparta and Athens. This was inevitable because these two super powers controlled most of Greece. Warfare was to go inevitable unless either Athens or Sparta decided to subject to the other. Neither one was willing to make such a thing. particularly Sparta with their powerful ground forces. â€Å"Rightly or wrongly. the combat was assumed to be a concluding arbiter of the contrasting values of each. Which would turn out to be the more feasible political orientation: cultural liberalism or a tough. insular conservativism? Does an unfastened society reap military advantages from its liberalness or succumb to a licence terra incognita in a regimented and militaristic oligarchy? And who is the most resourceful in an asymmetrical war when both sides either can non or will non confront each other in conventional conflict: the ships of a ‘whale’ like imperial Athens or the heavy ground forcess of the ‘elephant’ Sparta? † [ 17 ] The Spartans and Athens both believed themselves to be figure one states in Greece. The fright to be inferior to the Athenians is displayed by the Peloponnesian War because. although. Sparta could hold made peace. it made the determination to come in war with Athens. Sparta was known to hold the best ground forces in Greece and so they would non stand to lose that rubric against the Athenians who were beleaguering provinces all over Greece and presenting as a menace to the Spartan manner of life in the Peloponnese. The fright of non being superior was non the lone drive fright for war againstAthinais. but Athens’ hungriness for democracy abroad created the stepping rocks toward war. The Athenians started to â€Å"combine its lecherousness for power with a extremist political orientation of support for democracy abroad. † [ 18 ] which convinced the Spartans that the Athenians would shortly pervert the â€Å"hearts and heads of Greeks everyplace. † [ 19 ] This exact realisation brought more paranoia and fright to Sparta and was another ground for Sparta to war against Athens. The Spartans had every ground to fear because their decision of Athens perverting Grecian heads was right. Athens had an highly strong democracy that would non fall easy. The influence of Athenian democracy had already spread through the Aegean and Asia Minor and the Spartans were to the full cognizant of this fact. [ 20 ] Not merely were abroad states being influenced with democracy. but oligarchs on Samos were crushed. This act of oppressing. at the clip. present oligarchs earnestly enraged Spartan leaders and built up the fright that the Spartans had because of Athens’ spread outing imperium. Another act of the Athenians was when they besieged Potidaea and so forced upon the province democratic authorities. The Spartans were â€Å"convinced that [ Athens ] represented a systematic and unsafe new aggression. † [ 21 ] A quotation mark from a Spartan shows the concern the Spartans felt about the enlargement of Athens’ democracy and power: â€Å"The long addresss of the Athenians I do non understand at all†¦ . Vote hence. Lacedaemonians. for war as the award of Sparta demand and do non let Athens to go excessively powerful. à ¢â‚¬  [ 22 ] No affair how small the Athenian action or words. the Spartans were non swayed. for they strongly believed that Athens was going wholly excessively influential and powerful for the good of Sparta. The fright that the Spartans felt from the Athenians boiled down to the issue of security for their manner of life. The war was waged because the Spartans felt that their security was at hazard to the Athenians who were going really imperialistic and coercing other provinces and districts to change over to a more Athenian manner of life. The Athenians’ power worried the Spartans and the Spartans had every ground to worry. The Athenians were top notch and it would be hard to attend them if they waited to hanker to move because provinces around Sparta were already being besieged. The sheer difference of positions and authorities was a major lending factor to why the Spartans refused the imperialistic conquering of Athens. They saw how the Athenians were so powerful throughout the old ages and even how they threw out the original ways in neighbouring provinces to reform to a democratic authorities as their ain. These major differences between the oligarchic Spartans and the democratic Athenians and the Spartans’ fright of the turning power of the Athenians baleful Spartan security caused the Peloponnesian war. Bibliography Ancient Grecian Civilizations: Sparta. ( November 20. 2009 ) .Ancient Grecian Civilizations: Spartan Women. ( November 20. 2009 ) . Bagnall. Nigel. The Peloponnesian War: Athinais. Sparta. and the Struggle for Greece. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. 2006. Blackwell. Christopher W. The Council of the Areopagus. The Stoa: A Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities. ( January 26. 2006 ) . Hanson. Victor Davis. A War Like No Other. New York: Random House Inc. . 2005. Sansone. David. Ancient Grecian Civilization. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 2009. Tsoukalidis. Edward. Sparta: Journal of Ancient Spartan and Greek History. Vol. 3. No. 1. ( January 2007 ) . ———————–[ 1 ] David Sansone. Ancient Grecian Civilization ( Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 2009 ) . p. 123. [ 2 ] Christopher W. Blackwell. â€Å"The Council of the Areopagus† ( The Stoa: A Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities. 2003 ) . p. 1. [ 3 ] Nigel Bagnall. The Peloponnesian War: Athinais. Sparta. and the Struggle for Greece ( New York: Thomas Dunne Books. 2006 ) p. 62. [ 4 ] Bagnall. p. 63. [ 5 ] Bagnall. p. 64.[ 6 ] Ancient Greek Civilizations: Sparta ( November 20. 2009 ) . p. 1. [ 7 ] Bagnall. p. 65.[ 8 ] Sansone. p. 128.[ 9 ] Sansone. p. 128-129.[ 10 ] Ancient Greek Civilizations: Spartan Women ( November 20. 2009 ) . p. 1.[ 11 ] Sansone. p. 128.[ 12 ] Sansone. p. 134-135.[ 13 ] Victor Davis Hanson. A War Like No Other ( New York: Random House. Inc. . 2005 ) . p. 14. [ 14 ] Sansone. p. 123.[ 15 ] Edward Tsoukalidis. Sparta: Journal of Ancient Spartan and Greek History. Vol. 3. No. 1. ( January 2007 ) . p. 23. [ 16 ] Hanson. p. 12.[ 17 ] Hanson. p. 6.[ 18 ] Hanson. p. 13.[ 19 ] Hanson. p. 13.[ 20 ] Hanson. p. 13.[ 21 ] Hanson. p. 13.[ 22 ] Hanson. p. 15.