The Roman And Athenian Democracy
In ancient times there were colonies or small cities that lived by their own rules including making their own laws but not all laws were written later on. 2 major government styles were emerging which were a republic government or democratic government those two states were Athens and Rome which dominated the western civilization for a long time, and lastly to figure out which government styles between the roman republic and the Athenian government would be the best in the current 21st century.
In ancient times when there were only tribes which were Sparta, the Philistines, Egypt, the Persian empire, and the Macedonians which in turn they were called barbarians according to the Greeks as the tribes were forming they started to make laws that were only spoken by word and by doing so they made laws in a meeting of the higherups or elders and would agree on these laws but they did not write them down so, in turn, this made the laws to be misunderstood which also people twisted the laws to say for example you cannot kill if they bump into you but then the higher up says that they can kill you even though it is not true. A member that has more power could make a new law that no one knew about and just make it up on the spot to benefit from it.
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Therefore in 1520 B.C.E when there was a king named Telipinus took the throne and unified the people by unifying them it rivaled Egypt in power but it’s not that their power is interesting it’s that they had a written law for their tribe or city and by having this written law including having a written language to show their laws were clear to the people of the city which was interesting to see that their laws almost had taken every scenario if push came to shove between the people including they were not the only ones of having a written language and a written law they were called the Hammurabi’s they were way before the Hittites they were founded in 1750 B.C.E. they made Babylon their capital but their law was made by god and they followed the laws that god had put on them but they had a more gruesome punishment for the people who broke their laws.
As time goes by Sparta does not have a written law but had a Spartan constitution
But this showed how their government was structured and showed who had control over the government and who had what power. To the far north of Athens the Macedonians when Alexander the Great was ruling had existing laws including. And made new city laws for the people.
The reason that the importance of written laws is crucial for governments so they are not twisted or misinterpreted between the people thus making it harder for the government system to keep control of the people this does not include smaller tribes they could have a law that is not written since it’s a small group but they will soon need to have it written once they grow in numbers including if they have a written law it would keep the people from saying oh I didn’t know that was a law because if it was just spoken they could just lie that they didn’t know about the existence of the law when written that eliminate it partially including they wouldn’t be able to make new law up once written and already declared finished and agreed by one another of making that law.
Lastly, if there were no laws that were spoken including if not written their society would not last for long because the people would do what they want and when they want like killing, stealing, etc. the main problems they will have is the control of their people, for example, imagine leaving a group of kids in a home that’s in great shape and you say to the group of kid that you can do whatever you want here and there are no rules in place to punish them and once the adults leave them unattended once back and the place is trashed even if you are a great leader it would be a difficult task to keep them loyal to you without laws put in place.
Next the government systems of Rome and Athens and how they each took steps to achieve their ideal government. well, start off in Athens when they were first settled on top of the Acropolis in 3000 B.C. including it was named after the Greek warrior goddess Athena and had wisdom as well. When Athens was officially founded when King Theseus united several settlements into one state in Attica. As time goes on after the period of colonization including the expansion of trade.
As trade grew many of the citizens became richer and wealthier but on the contrary, the lower classes were in poverty by this happening lower classes had riots among themselves this was when Greece was an oligarchy. the citizens wanted some land and new laws by doing so the nobles and the social justice wanted to keep their position in power. Those riots tried to exploit a very ambitious king named Kylon and he was trying to aim to be a tyrant but failed to do so. Later Solon came and took the position of power in Athens and he was considered a very wise man according to the Greeks including he freed most of the citizens that were enslaved because of their debts and made it illegal for one Greek to own another Greek.
Now in the year 507, a king named Cleisthenes introduced a new government system called “democratic or ruled by the people” also known as democracy in our terms of today but before Cleisthenes was able to put his reforms to effect they exiled him because the aristocratic families were upset that they would lose power and give it to the people. But then after they exiled him the people took matters into their own hands and overthrew their leaders and killed them. And later they called Cleisthenes back by doing so gave him all the power he needed to make a new government/reform. once finished he created the first government for the people and by the people and of the people which was called democracy. They were able to vote and choose a law that they agreed on but it was a majority-based voting system.
but there were some restrictions that women and children could not vote there was one catch that would make you qualify to vote is that you had to be a male, 18 years of age, a Greek-born citizen, a free man, and own a piece of land. Including the made system that kicked out a leader after one year chosen by the people if they were deemed too powerful or just unpopular by the people. But he let the running of the government of the Athenian assembly including all citizens that voted only had one vote to use no matter if they were rich or poor or where they lived at
As Athens's prosperity was rising by trade they also fought against Persia and soon after that battle, they went into a golden age. They fought against the Persian empire including Athens allied with Sparta, and Corinth. During the Greco-Persian war then later they won against Persia and the Athenians were saying they were great that they won against the Persians and felt that no one could beat them in battle later went into a golden age of economic and cultural growth
In conclusion, Athens took them quite a while to develop their democratic government as a small city-state. And their governing system was based on the people in an Athenian general assembly and if the majority wins on implementing or not implementing the law then the council will conclude the assembly and it will be final and everyone had one vote to use during this process. It’s interesting how the Athenians went from an oligarchy to a democratic state was a great change for the citizens of Athens.
Rome originally was a very small country which was founded in the 8th century B.C.E. but around the date, 753 B.C.E. was the founding of Rome by Romulus one of the twin brother which his name was Remus and according to legend they were raised by a she wolf and were abandoned by their parents as time went on Romulus kills his twin brother Remus and becomes the first king of Rome and they weren’t a really big city and were dominated by the Etruscans. But later Rome become a republic in around 500 B.C.E. As several hundreds of years pass in the 3rd century B.C.E. Rome expands and concours the Etruscans. As Rome is expanding the government system is basically being run by the council and the senate was mainly ruined by the rich you were able to run to be a member of the senate but no one will vote for you since they wanted all the power for themselves they also had an assembly for the plebeians but mostly the assembly had the power to veto or reject and action of the other members of the senate and each one of the council members could and the senate could elect a dictator in the time of crisis for 6 months at a time for example if they were in the war or defending against an attack.
Their Roman societal system was different from other cities because the woman was in charge of what came in and out of the household such as slave workers' goods and if they were going to have meetings they could allow that or not but if an important guest comes they would most likely make their home presentable but that was true if you were a lower class for the higher class they just hired people or used slaves to run the slaves or what goes in and out of their home.
As time went on for Rome, they now started to conquer the Carthaginians but before that happened the Carthaginians didn’t want to go to war but wanted to have a peace agreement Rome did not want that they wanted their land and did so and it was called the Punic wars and the first Punic war was the island Sicily on which Rome wanted to take over as their own and eventually took over the island and Rome is making Carthage pay a war indemnity and they use this war indemnity to build a navy. And later the Carthage are having a mercenary war and it
weakens them but as the mercenary wars stop a general named Hannibal decides to attack Rome and the second Punic war starts in 218 B.C.E. even though he won many battles he wasn’t able to fully take control of Rome and including the people that he conquered did not like that they were conquered by the Carthaginians but later on in 202 B.C.E. Rome decides to take the fight to the Carthaginians home land and they were hoping that Hannibal would go to their rescue and go back to give them back up and then they were right and they called Hannibal back to Carthans and is later defeated and this finished the second Punic wars and later the people of Rome are saying that they should just finish off the Carthaginians and later on as when Carthans is regaining a bit of their power back the romans ger scared and say move your city more inland and they refuse to move inward and then they later go ahead and finish them off once and for all and the last and final Punic war starts and finally eliminates the Carthaginians. Including the takeover of Greece during the last Punic war
Now as Julius Caesar rises, he was a nobody and was given the opportunity to be a powerful member of the roman empire he was a very ambitious person once in power he controlled one piece of land between Marcus Aralias and Pompei and later after Julius Caesar later takes on the Gaul’s and no one messed with them until Caesar and how he conquered them was that if they tried to resist against him they would cut the warriors hands and show the rest to not mess with him and later he goes back to Rome to say he has conquered Gaul’s but then the senate made a proposition that for Julius Caesar to relinquish his title and disband his army and return to Rome for what he did and soon after he marched with his army straight to Rome with his men and made a civil war.
And with this Rome is still a republic but as time goes on Julius Caesar takes control of Rome as time goes on he defeated the senators and Pompey he was assassinated by the Egyptians and later concours Egypt with Cleopatra because he wanted to probability kill Pompey or work with him and he later after makes himself a dictator for life and then he’s later assassinated by Marcus Junius Brutus
As Julius Caesar was in control of the Roman government and was declaring himself a dictator for life the government was still the same but he was the one still making the moves in the senate he was also trying to make a Rome that unites people from other places of the world but the final structure before they became an empire was that the senate had the most power than the other assemblies in the government but after once declared as a dictator they have complete power over the government to do what they need to get one
In if one of these governments were in today’s world that the democratic Athens would be better than the roman republic because of the effect of the internet would be able to connect a lot of people for voting and including that they would be able to voice their opinion of the law they wanted to vote for a more fair voting system, by doing so discussions could take place and that the peoples of Athens could unite and show that they are discontent and want reform.
Another point is how they will vote is if they had our technology like smartphones they could vote for what they wanted but who were able to vote in that time but it will be more efficient to propose and vote for a law by doing so the citizens could also connect by discussing their problems of the law that is in place or have a big rally of voter wanting to reform the law with more ease but also they could be silenced because of the families that were rich that had control by doing so the citizens could gather much faster to overthrow the old leaders and the way of showing the expenses of the government to the people and with the free will of speaking of their right without being censored by the rich families, as the technology is used to vote they could make reviews if the current leaders were unpopular after a year they would exile them if deemed too powerful or dangerous. Including when they are proposing a new law, they could broadcast it through their smartphones or televisions. Including that if once the age to vote you had to install an app or register if you were able or qualified to vote and they would display a chart on which vote was the greatest on if they were in favor or against the law to be implemented.
In concluding which government would be best suited in todays world it would be the Athenian democratic government because they are able to overthrow unpopular, powerful, and dangerous leaders after one year has passed including how fast they would be able to vote for a law that everyone would want or not be implemented in their city and the people have the most power than the government when voting for a new law and if the peoples are incontinent they will revolt and fight back if it was unfair.
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