Transcript Sparta and Athens 4.2

Sparta and Athens 4.2
• By the end of the Dark Ages, many nobles who owned large estates
had overthrown the Greek kings. They created city-states.
• Each city-state was known as a polis-or a tiny independent country.
The main gathering was usually a hill called an acropolis. Below the
acropolis was an open area called an agora. This was a market and
place where people meet and debate issues.
• The Greeks were the first people to develop the idea of citizenship,
in which citizens of a country are treated equally and have rights and
responsibilities. In Greek city-states, only free, native-born, landowning men could be citizens.
• Citizens could vote, hold office, own property, and defend
themselves in court.
• The military of the city-states was made of ordinary citizens, not
nobles. These citizens were called hoplites and fought each battle
on foot instead of on horses
Sparta and Athens
Tyranny in the City-States,
pg. 125
• Nobles had seized power from the kings
during the Dark Ages.
• Noble rule did not last long. Farmers, who
had trouble financing their farms, had to
borrow money from nobles and often could
not pay back the debt.
• The farmers lost their land and had to
work for the nobles or were sold into
slavery.
• Unhappy farmers demanded changes in
the power structure of the city-states.
• Merchants and artisans wanted to share in
governing, but because they did not own
land they could not.
• Who was allowed to govern/be a citizen?
– Land owning, native-born, free men
• This unhappiness led to the rise of
tyrants, or people who take power by
force and rule with total authority.
• Tyrants overthrew the nobles during the 600s
B.C.
• Tyrants maintained their popularity by building
marketplaces, temples, and walls.
• The Greek people eventually tired of the tyrants
and created oligarchies or democracies.
– An oligarchy is a form of government in which
a few people hold power.
– A democracy is a form of government in
which all citizens share power.
– Sparta was an oligarchy; Athens was a
democracy.
SPARTA
• Spartan men given plots of land
to support themselves after they
joined a military club
– Did not work land themselves
– Work done by helots
• Slaves (captive workers)
owned by the Spartan state
• Manufacturing also done by
helots
• Spartan men lived off the work of
others so that they could devote
their entire life to being a soldier
• Spartans feared that one day the
Helots might rebel as a result the
government prepared boys for
SPARTAN TRAINING I
FOX STORY
• Every new-born infant examined by
committee
– Abandoned to die if it showed any
type of deformity
• Enrolled in special military troops at
age six
– Remained members until age 18
– Girls still lived at home but boys
lived away from parents
– Put through increasingly brutal
series of classes designed to
make them used to suffering and
hardship
• Also designed to break down
family relationships
• Education focused on music,
dancing, and athletics
SPARTAN TRAINING II
• Began formal military training at
age 18
– Took 2 years to complete
• Applied for admission into a
military club after successful
completion of training
– Membership was official
indication that a boy had
become a man
– Application for admission had
to be voted on by other
members of club
• Vote had to be unanimous
• Not allowed to marry or have a
family for 10 years
– Still had to have meals with
club until he was 60
• Military clubs formed basic unit of
military service
SPARTAN WOMEN
• Also trained in
sports to become
healthy mothers
–Given a lot more
freedom than
other Greek
women
Spartan Diet
• Based on what you know about the Spartan’s
what do you was they main food source?
• a vile-tasting dish called black broth which was
pork boiled in animal blood, salt and vinegar.
• Why?
• To make them stronger, lack of food or
abundance of bad food will not affect them while
at war
SPARTAN• Oligarchy:
GOVERNMENT
Two Branches of Government
– Council of Elders
• Two Kings
– Led army and Sparta in general
– Hereditary
• Gerousia
• 28 man council
• All members over 60 years old
• Drew up proposals for legislation
– Assembly of the Spartans
• All full male citizens
• Voted on legislative proposals
• Presided over by five elected officials
called ephors
King Leonidas
• The Spartan government kept foreign
travelers out and discouraged its own
citizens from traveling in order to
maintain control of the country.
ATHENS
• Northwest of Sparta lay the land
of Athens.
• And the two civilizations could
not be any more different.
• Boys in Athens attended school
to learn reading, writing,
arithmetic, sports, and music.
And at the age of 18 they
became citizens.
• Athenian girls learned
household duties from their
mothers.
SOLON
• The government of early Athens
was an oligarchy.
– Entered a period of internal turmoil
around 630 BC
– Wealthy landowning aristocrats
controlled all of the land
• Solon given job to reform city’s
laws and restore internal peace
and order
– 594 BC
– He cancelled all the farmers’ debts and
freed those who had become slaves.
– Widened political participation
• Allowed all citizens regardless of
wealth to serve in Assembly, but
assembly had few powers
• Solon’s reforms were popular
among the common people
REFORMS
OF SOLON
– WHAT DID HE MISS?
• Farmers wanted land taken
away from the aristocrats
but Solon refused to do that
• Athens did prosper but fighting
continued and tyrants began to
take over
• The tyrant Peisistratus seized power
30 years after Solon’s reforms.
– He won the support of the poor
by dividing the large estates
among the people and loaning
money to the people.
• Cleisthenes took over when
Peisistratus died in 508 B.C.
• Created a democracy in
Athens; all males could
belong to the assembly
• He had won their support
because he promised to give
them a legal political voice
• While foreign born men,
slaves, and women were still
excluded this was the first
step toward a democracy
CLEISTHENES