However, some scholars go far too far in suggesting that there never was a debate in the assembly. It looks as though the debates in the assembly were probably infrequent, because as best we can figure it out, we would guess that most issues that came before the assembly - let me back up and say probably not very many issues came before the assembly, but those that did, if there was an agreement on the part of the gerousia and the kings, in other words, the upper groups in society, if they agreed there would be no need to go, there might be some legal need to go to the assembly, but there would be no debate and the matter would simply go forward. And only, of course, if the presiding official decided that he couldn’t tell which side had the most noise, would they resort to a separation like the British Parliament, those in favor over on that side, those opposed on the other side, and he would count and out would come the result. It’s like a voice vote in one of our own meetings, only a little bit more colorful. Whereupon, the presiding official would try to determine which side had the loudest noise. In this assembly, it is true that all adult male Spartans were participants, and let me also say that they came to the meeting dressed in their military uniform, apparently including their shields, because when a question was put to the Spartans, the way they responded was by shouting and banging on their shields. Now, it’s worth mentioning that that assembly - you want to distinguish that assembly from what I’ll describe shortly about the Athenian Assembly. And in the case of Sparta, I would guess almost the only decisions they made were questions of whether to go to war, whether to make peace, whether to make alliances and so forth. Then there is the Spartan Assembly which consists of all the adult male Spartan citizens, and as in most states, it really originated from the idea of having the fighting men participate in decisions and they’re the kinds of decisions that undoubtedly were the first decisions the assemblies made. And I was describing the formal constitution of the Spartans, having mentioned the kings and the gerousia, the council of elders consisting of twenty-eight elected men over sixty and the two kings to create a body of thirty. Professor Donald Kagan: We were examining Sparta, the most important, I think, of the early poleis, certainly once you get into the seventh and sixth centuries. Introduction to Ancient Greek History CLCV 205 - Lecture 10 - The Rise of AthensĬhapter 1.
0 kommentar(er)
