ning and to have become more so over time.) In order to keep
this noncitizen population (known as helots) subjugated,
Spartans devoted themselves to military life to an astonishing
degree. Boys were taken from their families at age seven and
put under the care of a magistrate in charge of education; they
spent their time engaged in military pursuits, including night
raids designed to spread terror among the helot population.
Boys were divided into groups of syssitia (“eating clubs”) who
ate communal meals together; as adults, each contributed
food to his eating club from his allotment of land (which was
worked by helots, since itizens were barred from agricultural
labor). Citizens owed primary loyalty to their syssitia rather
than to their families, and the syssitia (along with tribes and
obes, units whose composition remains uncertain) formed
the basis of the Assembly, which consisted of all Spartan citi-
zens age 30 and over.
Like the Athenian ekklesia, the Spartan Assembly de-
cided the major questions of state policy and could debate
only questions put to it by an independent body that deter-
mined its agenda. Th ere were two major diff erences, however:
In Sparta the Assembly was supposed to vote yes or no on
questions, with essentially no discussion (in eff ect, giving
them something amounting to a veto power over items on the
agenda), and the agenda-setting body, the gerousia (literally,
“the old men’s group”), was not representative of the citizenry
as a whole. Th e 28 members of the gerousia, while elected by
the Assembly, came from the leading families of the polis; all
were over the age of 60 and served for life. In addition to set-
ting the agenda for the Assembly, the gerousia heard criminal
cases and, eventually, gained the power to overturn decisions
of the Assembly.
Sparta also had two kings, who claimed direct lineal
descent from two diff erent legendary ancestors and were
thought to be semidivine. Although they were exempt from
the rigorous military training imposed on Sparta’s citizens,
the kings led Spartan troops in war. Providing a check on the
kings’ power was a group of fi ve ephors, selected annually by
the citizens. Each month the kings swore an oath to the ephors
to uphold the city’s laws; the ephors in turn swore to support
the kings. Two ephors accompanied the kings on military
campaigns, and their powers of oversight included the ability
to prosecute the kings before the gerousia. Th ey were also re-
sponsible for supervising the system of military training and
for presiding over meetings of the Assembly.
OTHER GREEK CITIES
In practice, most Greek cities before the fi ft h century were
oligarchies, which is to say that some portion of the citizen
body was excluded from full political rights. Th e evidence
suggests a wide variety of oligarchic practice: Some cities re-
stricted political participation on the basis of birth, others on
the basis of wealth. (In most poleis wealth seems to have even-
tually won out as the main criterion for participation.) Cities
other than Sparta had ephors and a gerousia; it is unclear how
similar these were to their Spartan counterparts.
By the middle of the fi ft h century the imperial ambitions
of Athens led to a spreading of democracy throughout the
Greek world: Athens encouraged its allies and subject states to
adopt democratic constitutions (but did not always insist on
it). Sparta, while having a mixed constitution that contained
democratic elements, put itself forward as the champion of
oligarchic states. Th e great alliances that led to the Pelopon-
nesian War (431–404 b.c.e.) were based in large part on this
ideological division. Ironically, the Athenians suff ered their
greatest military defeat in that war at the hands of Syracuse,
which was itself a democracy.
Aristotle’s claim that oligarchy was government of the
rich and democracy the government of the poor has much
merit, yet there were democratic elements in oligarchies and
a tendency for the rich and well connected to dominate politi-
cal life in democracies. Th e cases of Athens and Sparta can
give us a glimpse of the complex strategies used in Greek po-
leis to distribute power and resources among their citizens.ROME
BY AMY HACKNEY BLACKWELL AND CHRISTOPHER BLACKWELL
Th e fundamental organization of the Roman government de-
pended on the distinction between two classes of citizens—
patricians and plebeians. Th is distinction predated the early
period of the kings. From what historians can tell of the earli-
est period of Roman history (before the fi ft h century b.c.e.),
the patricians (Rome’s aristocracy) alone held the offi ces, civil
and religious, that constituted the government of Rome. Over
the course of Roman history, particularly between the fourth
and fi rst centuries b.c.e., the rules limiting certain offi ces
to the patrician class became looser, but this social distinc-
tion is nevertheless important for any understanding of the
branches of Roman government and how they worked.THE MONARCHY
Th e earliest period of Roman history is mostly the subject
of myth and legend. Romans said that kings had ruled them
before the Roman Republic was established in 509 b.c.e. In-
formation about the period of kingship comes mostly from
Roman writers of the fi rst century b.c.e. and is therefore
mostly traditional, but it is possible to make a few conclusions
about Roman government under the monarchy.
Th e offi ce of “king” (rex) was an elected offi ce, not a
hereditary one; the patrician Romans would choose a new
king. Th e kings almost certainly served as supreme military
commanders and acted as the fi nal authority in matters of
judgment and interpretation of laws. Otherwise, though, the
king probably shared governmental duties with the various
“colleges” of priests, with the patrician Senate, and with the
Comitia Curiata, an assembly of all the people (not the pa-
trician class only). Th e important governmental concept of
imperium, the authority to lead an army and the power of life
and death over citizens, was fi rst vested in the Roman kings;
later, under the republic, imperium would be the possession530 government organization: Rome