History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 32

History - Essay Example Governors known as satraps whose duties included being a vassal king to the Persian emperor, who administered the region on his behalf and oversaw the recruitment of the military whenever the need for it arose, administered these units. Under the satrap were often officials whose work was to ensure that all the records of the government of the satrapy were well kept and maintained. Depending on the period monarch ruled, the Persian Empire was often divided between twenty to thirty satrapies (Farazmand 280). Ancient Greece on the other hand, consisted of several hundred-city states, which were completely independent of each other. This situation was unique in the ancient world where societies tended to be organized either into tribes or into kingdoms that occupied quite a significant amount of territory. The Greeks fiercely defended the independence of their city-states and it was very rare for them to think of the idea of unifying themselves into one cohesive state. Their fierce sense of independence was clearly demonstrated during the second Persian invasion of Greece when while a group of city-states allied themselves to fight the invaders; a vast majority of the others chose to remain neutral in this conflict awaiting the outcome of the war. Once the Persians had been defeated, these city-states quickly resumed their independence and in fact, the conflict now became internal with those who were once allies fighting against each other. It can therefore be said that the Greek city-sta tes had two main features that were different from other states; the first is that they were very fragmentary by nature and the second was the focus that they had on their city-states rather than their identity as one people with a shared culture. Many Greek city-states had a form of government, which was based on some form of democracy, this meant that all adult males in the city could participate in the management of the affairs of the