Rome vs. Athens
Jena Beaudoin
Professor Paul
Western Civilization II
12 December 2012
The Roman republic and Athenian polis were two great experiments in political philosophy in the ancient world. These two distinctly different methods of running a nation in both Athens and Rome have one similarity – that they were founded on the intent to give common law and justice to the people. That aside both of the nations, which will be discussed in this essay, was culturally, economically and historically quite different and approached the issue of statecraft in a very different and sometimes contradictory manner. Both of these republics – the Roman and Athenian were regarded to be in their time two of the most powerful nations in the world – the Roman republic after the 2nd Punic war and the Athenian republic at the age of its most famous ruler Pericles. But how did these two nations, so different in their approach to life and philosophy itself, fall ultimately by their own system, which had served them for so long? They fell to the oligarchies that they were built and inte The Roman and Athenian republican both had a loathing (perhaps the Roman more so) for kingship and oligarchy in any of its forms. The republic fell to the whims of dictators such as the Triumvirs, Caesar and Sulla who abused its system, and Athens fell prey to tyrants using the turmoil after the Peloponnesian war to their advantage. One major similarity between the two nations is that they both had a growing degree of imperialism late in their republican period. The Athenian, abusing the rewards of the Delian league built to defend the common interest of Greece against the Persian empire, ended up with an empire which its’ small and inefficient form of statecraft was not equipped to manage. The Roman also found the same issue, which arose, like the Athenians, initially from a need for simple, honest self-defense. The two quotes below indicate the troubled and desperate issues that lead to the creation of these
Professor Paul
Western Civilization II
12 December 2012
The Roman republic and Athenian polis were two great experiments in political philosophy in the ancient world. These two distinctly different methods of running a nation in both Athens and Rome have one similarity – that they were founded on the intent to give common law and justice to the people. That aside both of the nations, which will be discussed in this essay, was culturally, economically and historically quite different and approached the issue of statecraft in a very different and sometimes contradictory manner. Both of these republics – the Roman and Athenian were regarded to be in their time two of the most powerful nations in the world – the Roman republic after the 2nd Punic war and the Athenian republic at the age of its most famous ruler Pericles. But how did these two nations, so different in their approach to life and philosophy itself, fall ultimately by their own system, which had served them for so long? They fell to the oligarchies that they were built and inte The Roman and Athenian republican both had a loathing (perhaps the Roman more so) for kingship and oligarchy in any of its forms. The republic fell to the whims of dictators such as the Triumvirs, Caesar and Sulla who abused its system, and Athens fell prey to tyrants using the turmoil after the Peloponnesian war to their advantage. One major similarity between the two nations is that they both had a growing degree of imperialism late in their republican period. The Athenian, abusing the rewards of the Delian league built to defend the common interest of Greece against the Persian empire, ended up with an empire which its’ small and inefficient form of statecraft was not equipped to manage. The Roman also found the same issue, which arose, like the Athenians, initially from a need for simple, honest self-defense. The two quotes below indicate the troubled and desperate issues that lead to the creation of these