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Compare And Contrast Athens And Sparta

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To start our research topic off we need to know exactly, what is a polis? A polis is the early Greek city-state, consisting of a city or a town and its surrounding countryside (McGraw). If we think about Greek city-state’s we immediately think about Athens and Sparta. Now, many people get these cities confused and some even think they are one in the same. Athens and Sparta contrast in many ways such as their government, economy, and the treatment of their women. However, Athens and Sparta compare in few ways the biggest being that they both had a strong military and military alliances. These two city-states are a great pair to compare and contrast because they have such distinct opposing points.
If we think about the many ways these two city-states differ, the first thing that comes to mind is their government and the people it consisted of. Athens had a population of about 140,000, where as Sparta had about 100,000 people. Athens had about 100,000 slaves which is roughly 75 percent of there population. Sparta, on the other hand had only about 8,000 free men leaving the rest to slaves that is 92,000 enslaved men. With that being said, Athens had a democracy, which in term meant “ruled by the people”. Athens is considered to be the “birthplace of democracy” (www.allempires.com). This democracy allowed for every person to have a say in the way Athens was ruled, this differed from Sparta in that, they were ruled by an Oligarchy. Oligarchy means “ruled by few”, which means that

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