Fair for Its Day: Difference between revisions

** Sparta itself was also quite far. Apart from the very rigid training for both intellect and physical fitness boys and men underwent up to 30 years of age, Sparta's political power was shared by two kings, not just one, and people were given the rights to vote - and not only the men, but also the women (which was unique in classic Greece). The kings had to get approval for their actions from the ephors, who in Real Life were not hideous perverted inbred priests, but respected citizens elected by the people to act as a kind of ombudsman or board of control. Another, maybe minor aspect was that only people who died on the battle field (men) or died in childbirth (since women were not allowed in the military), would be given named graves. Even a king who did not die in battle would go unnamed - in other words, respect was not a title but had to be earned.

* The Roman Senate during the Second Punic heard an appeal from citizens of a captured city and agreed to cashier a tyrannical military governor. In other words Rome was one of the first states to actually hold it's own people accountable for war crimes. Which is pretty fair for any day.

* The Middle Ages are remembered as a time of chaos, tyranny, and superstition. There was plenty of that to go around. It was also a time of experimentation and great systems of law, vernacular literature, science, philosophy, and so on had their starting point in the Middle Ages. For instance the balance between Church and State treasured in America was a natural result of the Church being the only bureaucratic organization left after the Fall of Rome in a labyrinth of chiefdoms.

**Even the Feudal system for all it's notorious wars and oppressions had it's advantages. Not only was there a natural balance between nobles and royalty but new groups that did not fit into the system could easily do so by making a treaty with a king. Cities regularly were subrepublics of a king(as barons were submonarchs),various tribes like Scottish clans could get vassalship in a similar way, and even stigmatized groups like Jews could sometimes fit in in this manner gaining a recognition in the law that was not equal or even dignified but at least tolerable simply because they had the influence to make treaties with kings. And if nothing else feudalism, at a time when there was little gold and silver to go around allowed kings to pay their muscle with something besides constant raiding which was an absolute necessity for civilization.