Greco-Roman Documents Essay

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James Cano
Professor S. Wardinski
History 1
January 12, 2015
Assignment 1- Greco Roman Documents Herodotus, Pericles, Xenophon, Plutarch and Polybius each provided us with an excerpt that helped us understand the ideas of the societies of Persia, Sparta, Athens, and Rome. They wrote these documents in an attempt to help us understand the history of each society’s government. These documents will give us an in depth of how each leader of each society believed about their government and how they compare to each other. In the document “Herodotus: The Histories: The Persians Reject Democracy” the Persian society did not like the idea of democracy that was being said by the Octanes. The Persian society revolved around the government idea of Monarchy which is ruled by a royal family or a monarch, Darius. Megabyzus he believed that the idea of democracy shouldn’t be with the people because they have no natural sense of what is right and fit. He later states in an excerpt from the document “…but let us choose out from the citizens a certain number of the worthiest, and put the government into their hand. For thus both we ourselves shall be among the governors, and power being entrusted to the best men, it is likely that the best counsels will prevail in the state” and with this he believes only the best of the people should rule and Darius agrees with him because he believes that democracy is not the type of government that best represent the society. The statement Darius makes after Megabyzus talks is that “Did democracy give it us, or oligarchy, or a monarch? As a single man recovered our freedom for us, my sentence is that we keep to the rule of one. Even apart from this, we ought not to change the laws of our forefathers when they work fairly; for to do so in not well”, he believed the government is fine the way it is and doesn’t believed it should be changed because that was the way it was before and wants to keep it the same. In contrast to the Athenian democracy where people should have equal say in the government, the Persians believe that only the wealthy and powerful should rule and that there is no hope for change in this society.
Pericles’s philosophy regarding society and government in his polis of Athens is very different from the other kings from the other documents. In “The Funeral Oration of Pericles” Pericles emphasized the power of the Athenian people and in particular their ability to work together for the greater good of the city by putting aside what they might want in the moment as individuals. “In doing good, we are unlike others of mankind; we make our friends by conferring not by receiving favors” in this quote it means that they are not like other societies, they converse with others to gain allies. The view of government from Pericles is democracy, he states that it’s not like other governments and does not copy others. It is different in a way in which that each is equal in justice in the excerpt from the document: “It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many not the few. But while there exists equal justice to all.” Pericles believes that democracy is “better” than other possible structures because of the style of government they have and they believe that democracy was better because everyone has an equal say in the government.
In the society of Sparta Herodotus, Xenophon and Plutarch describe Spartan society and government as a society that was ruled under the kingship of two kings. Herodotus describes the roles and duties of the Spartan kings had during the Persian wars. The kings were given everything, they were privileged in the sense that during
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