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

During the Classical Age of Greece, two powerful city-states emerged, each 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 say in the regimen and every adept was included in a state was ruled by many. In Sparta, the state was controlled by a select few, kings and ephors, who had absolute power. In Athens plenty of time was spent on architecture, to ensure that Athens would always leave behind a cultural legacy, whereas in Sparta it was believed that there was no need to build extravagant buildings, therefore leaving very dwarfish of a cultural legacy. Finally, Athenian slaves were treated very well, often 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 lead uncivilised lives. The numb er of slaves in Sparta outnumbered the amount of citizens, making Spartans constantly paranoid of a helot revolt. In order to prevent this fear, "the ephors declared war on them every year. In spite of these precautions, the Spartans frequently had to suppress helot revolts"(Davis 90). The Spartans snarl this was an efficient way to keep the numbers of slaves down, and to further subdue the slaves hopes of one day being free. Since slaves were treated horribly by the Spartans they were constantly assay to escape. In Sparta a slave could be killed simply because of being intuition 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 given the opportunity to lucre for their freedom. Unlike Sparta, slaves in Athens were "protected from bodliy harm by economy"(Davis 94). Slaves were much more happy in Athens since they were not constantly in fear for their lives. In Athens slaves also had several opportunities for regulation 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 pressure to live and work in the silver mines. Since slaves in Athens sure better treatment and the ability for them to have jobs other than normal labours, slaves had a better life than the slaves of Sparta.