Watch The Odyssey of Western Civilization Lecture #2: The Individual vs. the State: Sparta Against Athens

Greece's two most powerful city-states offered competing models. Sparta was more authoritarian, limiting its democracy to an oligarchic elite supported by serfs. Athens extended citizenship to a wider group, but often fell prey to the tyranny of the majority. It was Rome that finally managed to square the circle, by combining the best elements of both approaches. The Romans rejected oligarchy, but created a republican system with checks and balances that reined in democratic excesses.