homework on ancient roman and greek government?

Question

Im doing a small homework assignment but i left my book at school, can you help? We were suppose to write a short paper and it's a dialouge between an ancient greek and a roman both saying ... "well our government is better because...." and each explaining facts about their government. I know a few facts about each but would really appreciate some more.
thanks

Answer 1

Well, there are a lot of variables. Republican Rome or Imperial Rome? Athens or Sparta?

Since you need to write a comparison, I am going to assume that it needs to be apples to apples, so it would be between a Republican Roman and a Republican Greek. Here are some of the historic differences between the two:

Romans: had the represenative style of government: Senators were the elected officials who made the rules, and in an emergency, a dictator could be appointed when the situation called for an executive authority.
Greeks: were a direct democracy. All of the citizens met in the forum to vote on issues

Romans: Were not jealous with their citizenship. Slaves were often freed, and the children of freedmen were born as full Roman citizens. Foreigners could be granted citizenship. Conquered provinces were eventually made fully fledged provinces of Rome, protected by the legions, supported by the developing infrastructure, and given voting priviliges.
Greeks: Viewed citizenship as racial and hereditary. Only native born male citizens were given citizenship. conquered provinces were made into subordinate slave states. Foreigners were treated as only slightly better than slaves.

Greeks: were famous for, and very proud of, their long tradition of philosophy.
Romans: were famous for, and very proud of, their long traditions of law.

Greeks: saw warfare as a diplomatic tool. Wars were frequent, compromises were acceptable, and warfare was a continual part of Greek history
Romans: saw warfare as a life or death struggle for survival. Wars were brutal, uncompromising, and the Romans wouldn't settle for anything less than absolute, total victory. Regions which were conquered by Rome were pacified, and for the most part, peace lasted for centuries.

Answer 2

In 510 BC, the city-state of Athens created the first democratic government, and soon other Greek city-states imitated them. Even city-states that weren't Greek, like Carthage and Rome, experimented with giving the poor people more power at this time. But Athenian democracy did not really give power to everyone. Most of the people in Athens couldn't vote - no women, no slaves, no foreigners (even Greeks from other city-states), no children. And also, Athens at this time had an empire, ruling over many other Greek city-states, and none of those people living in the other city-states could vote either. Of course it is a lot easier to have a democratic government when you are only deciding what other people should do.

(And many Greek city-states kept oligarchic government, or tyrannies, or monarchies, through this whole time).

By about 50 BC, the time of Julius Caesar, these generals had begun to take over the government and not pay any attention to the consuls or the Senate anymore, and just do as they pleased. They could do that, because they had the army with them.

Augustus, in 31 BC, was one of these generals. But he realized that people didn’t like this pushing people around, and so he set up a different system (but still one where he had all the power). Augustus kept the Senate and the consuls, and he said they were in charge, but he made the Senate vote to give him the powers of a tribune for the rest of his life. That way, he could veto (forbid) anything the Senate tried to do that Augustus didn’t like. And, he kept control of most of the army as well. So he could kill anyone who got in his way.

This system – where there was still a Senate and consuls, but the Emperors had all the real power – kept on going for the next 1500 years, more or less.

Answer 3

You do have a problem
there was no "Greece" in ancient times, but a loose group of city states which were sometimes allies and sometimes enemies. Each city state had a different political system- from hereditary Kings, elected Kings, Tyrants, dictators for life, democratic assemblies, etc.Athens even had a period of 80 years where the city rulers were chosen by lot!
Moreover these systems changed over the years

My favourite is Thebes where any person who defended the city could become it's citizen. Most greek cities had extremely hard citizenship rules, specifting parentage, birthplace and social status as conditions. The last is justified by the need of the citizen to arm himself for the defense of the city (hoplite heavy infantry) - and the arms were expensive indeed

Rome had a period of King rule, then a period of Republic, then another period of Empire. Again you must choose the time for your tale
Roman citizens were divided into "tribes" and "classes" and their rights and duties were also accordingly different

Answer 4

This is what Polybius (old Greek author) wrote comapring Roman and Greek government (it's a classic text about this subject):
http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/ANCIENT/polybius6.html#An Analysis of the Roman Government

("An Analysis of the Roman Government" only).

You can start from there, if you choice a very pro-Roman position (as Polybius does)

Answer 5

i needs a more questionss and answerss loll