Founded after the ouster of its last king, the Roman Republic introduced an innovative political system rooted in law, civic virtue, and checks on individual power.

In the popular imagination, Sparta is often portrayed as the antithesis of Athenian democracy: a militarized, rigidly hierarchical state ruling an austere society. But the truth of Spartan government and politics is more complicated—and more instructive.

In 508 BCE, visionary statesman Cleisthenes formally declared all freeborn Athenians to be citizens, giving them unprecedented power and a new sense of civic unity. Thus began the world’s first known democracy — an experiment in government by direct popular participation.