Democracy Or Oligarchy? A Comparative Essay :: essays research papers

During the Classical Age of Greece, two powerful city-states emerged, separately governed by a different system. capital of Greece was run by democracy, whereas, Sparta, a military state, was governed by oligarchy. Athens democracy served its people better. Since all had a range in the government and e trulyone was included in a state was rule by many. In Sparta, the state was controlled by a select few, kings and ephors, who had infrangible power. In Athens plenty of time was spent on architecture, to hold in that Athens would forever leave behind a cultural legacy, whereas in Sparta it was believed that there was no need to build extravagant buildings, therefore deviation very little of a cultural legacy. Finally, Athenian hard workers were treated very well, a great deal paid, and had a chance to buy their freedom, unlike Sparta, where slaves were treated as though they were not people, and could be killed for any reason at all.     In Sparta slaves lea d cruel lives. The number of slaves in Sparta outnumbered the amount of citizens, making Spartans forever paranoid of a helot revolt. In order to prevent this fear, "the ephors declare war on them every year. In spite of these precautions, the Spartans frequently had to set aside helot revolts"(Davis 90). The Spartans felt this was an efficient way to keep the numbers of slaves down, and to win subdue the slaves hopes of one day being free. Since slaves were treated horribly by the Spartans they were constantly trying to escape. In Sparta a slave could be killed obviously because of being suspicion of that slave being a rebel or planning to escape. In Athens most slaves were loved, respected, and often paid for their labours. They were accustomed the opportunity to pay for their freedom. Unlike Sparta, slaves in Athens were "protected from bodliy psychic trauma by legislation"(Davis 94). Slaves were much more happy in Athens since they were not constantly in f ear for their lives. In Athens slaves overly had several opportunities for normal jobs, for example, a slave could be an artistan. Slaves in Athens, "often worked alongside citizens and metics in both unskilled and highly skilled jobs"(Davis 95). On the most part, slaves in Athens were happy and content, however one-fifth of the slave population was forced to live and work in the silver mines. Since slaves in Athens received better treatment and the ability for them to have jobs otherwise than normal labours, slaves had a better life than the slaves of Sparta.