Democracy In Ancient Greece Essay

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In the following essay I will explain how the monarchy, the aristocracy and the democracy existed in the antique Greece. It will also include how the military was managed according to the leading system they had. Throughout my research I used Miklos Szaray`s Tortenelem 1, Nemzeti Tankonykiado, 2003 book as a primary source because this specific use of English that our textbook has, confused me. For the start, the democratic system has been used by the Athenians during the antique age. Athens’s society could have been separated into three main groups, to the ’full citizens’, to the metics (strangers in Athens), and to the slaves. However, slavery was not common, they were used just in households. After the general development of Athens, the hereditary monarchy has been replaced by aristocratic monarchy. This meant that not the king was the one, who leaded Athens. There were nine archons who took the king’s place over, they controlled the politics, the economy, the religion, the military and the justice. Nonetheless, only the wealthy citizens (aristocrats) had political rights that caused contrary between them and the hoplite soldiers plus the rowers. These two social group later on, got political rights in a consequence of that they won important battles for Athens. The hoplites defeated the Persians (biggest opponent for Athens throughout these years) at Marathon (Szaray #97). The Persians were also defeated by the rowers in Salamis Bay, so these two main battles were the main reason why they got politic rights. The aforementioned three society group leaded Athens together, made decisions together for Athens. The citizens chose their leader for the army in the hustings and also what strategy to use, so basically this democratic system controlled the whole army. In contrast, Sparta’s society was divided into two groups: the invaders and the people who were conquered by the invaders. …show more content…
These subjugated natives were called the helots. They lost all of their property and became slavers, worked on the fields. Sparta was leaded by two kings and the citizens. The kings controlled the religious questions and also the army, in case of wars. Sparta’s upper class, the citizens were the only who had political rights, but in the hustings all they were able to do is to vote by yes or no to the questions that has been asked them. In this aristocratic system, everything depended on the army. They put a lot effort in into make the army stronger and stronger (Szaray #110). Sparta’s men had to serve in the military since young age, had to go to military trainings as well. All Spartan citizens were considered as equal, only the two kings and the helots were in a different class. The Macedonian system was different than Athens’s or Sparta’s. They had monarchy in their state, leaded by the king who had the power to possess and split the fields for the citizens. However, the king coordinated the court with the hustings. One of the reasons why the Macedonian system is unique is that they had a military democracy, that meant men who served for the military had a big voice in the state’s business (they chose the king from different dynasties, etc.). Several ancient authors emphasized that the freedom of the citizens in Macedonia was more than

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