The Individual vs. the State: Sparta Against Athens

This is the second in the Freedom Academy's "Odyssey of Western Civilizations" series featuring Victor Davis Hanson.
In this video:
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.