Comparing And Contrasting Athens And Sparta

The city-states Athens and Sparta were rivals in ancient Greece. Geographically the two were very close to each other, but they had a very different economy, cultural values, and way of governing. Both city-states had two very different ways of doing things. I will be highlighting the major differences.

The government in Sparta followed a very different coarse than that of the Athenians. It was controlled by an oligarchy in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. Working below the ephors was the Council of Elders and an Assembly. Male citizens over age sixty could serve on the Council while anyone, male or female, over the age of twenty could be a member of the Assembly. Though the citizens had little say in the decisions made by the government, the system worked effectively. Over the years, the Spartan's brutal reputation in war grew so great that other nations and city-states were too frightened to attack Sparta even though the Spartan army was no larger then eight thousand men. The Spartan Constitution called for all men to begin their military education at the age of seven, where they were trained to be tough and self-sufficient. Every man in the army fought with a great deal of passion for his country. Life in Sparta may have been rough, but the rest of the Greeks envied the Spartans for their simplicity, straight forwardness, and fanatical dedication. The beliefs of Sparta were oriented around the state. The individual lived and died for the state. The combination of this philosophy, the education of Spartan males, and the discipline of their army gave the Spartans the stability needed to survive in Ancient Greece.

Athens had a better government in my opinion. I think Athens had a better government because they created a democracy. According to the Athens and Sparta Document Set, a democracy means “rule by the people”. The Athens also got to abolish politicians they did not like. Athens also had ten generals, meanwhile, Sparta has two kings. In my opinion, I think that having ten generals is better than two kings because they understand you more. Sadly not all Ancient Athens were citizens, but if a free male would be a citizen if his father was a citizen of Athens. Later on, they changed that law, it was then bothering the father and mother had to be a citizen for the child to be considered a citizen. Sadly the women didn’t get that many rights but they soon they got more status. The Athens also made it to where not only the wealthy can engage in the jury service. In the Athens, you have to be an 18-year-old man to complete military training. On the other hand, in Sparta, you have to be a 30-year-old to complete military training. Basically, I’m trying to say that the Athens had a better

Ancient Greece was comprised of small city-states, of which Sparta and Athens were two. Athens was renowned as a center of wisdom and learning. The people of Athens were interested in arts, music, and intellectual pursuits. Sparta, on the other hand, was recognized for its military strength. A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because he lived and died to serve the state. Although the competing city-states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece.

Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful and well known cities among all the Greek nations. Most would find it easier to find more similarities among these two groups of mighty people. But there are some differences between these two power houses. For instance the way that these cities were governed and their political procedures and functions were quite different from each other.

     As we look back upon the two significant differences in the governmental systems of Sparta and Athens, there are also many other characteristics that distinguish the differences and similarities of these two city states. The difference in land as well as population perceives a relative historical comparison. Sparta lacked land area and was forced to seek other land in the fertile plain of Messenia. Although, if we look at the Athens, we see that they had no issues with plentiful land, as they possessed large and populous territory.

Athens is superior towards Sparta throughout ancient Greek history. During the Archaic Age, Sparta was solely focused on fighting wars and training their children for these wars. Athens on the contrary, was a city that focused heavily on the arts and was a very relaxed and peaceful city to live in. In Athens, all men born to Athenian parents were citizens, in Sparta, only the wealthy were citizens. In 594 BCE, Salon, the new leader of Athens, he created a constitution that ended the political control of the wealthy. Unless someone was part of the 1 percent, Athens gave members of society more rights than Sparta. By 508 BCE, Cleisthenes came to power in Athens and creates a democratic constitution of all people. While this advancement occurred

Athens and Sparta are two rivals of ancient Greece. Athenians and Spartans lived their lives different, and they valued different things. Athenians and Spartans had an Assembly, whose members were elected by the people. Sparta were ruled by two kings, those two kings either ruled until they were died or forced out of office. Athens were ruled by archons, they were elected annually. Athens in the birthplace of democracy. Spartans focused on war and obedience. Young boys were trained to be warriors. Young women were trained to be mothers and warriors. Athenians could get good education and could pursue several kinds of arts or sciences. For many years Spartan armies provided much defense of the Greek lands. The Spartans bravery and courage at the “Battle of Thermopylae” during the Persians Wars, inspired all of Greece to fight back with all their might against the invading Persians. Athenians and Spartans fought side by side in the “Battle of Platea”, which ended the Persians invasions of Greece. Spartans provided assistance for Greece when necessary. Athenians wanted to control land around them. That led to war between all the Greeks, this was the “Peloponnesian War”. After many years of fighting the Spartans won. In Greek spirit Sparta refused to burn the city of Athens. The culture and spirit of Athens was allowed to live on, as long as Athenians no longer desired to rule Greek. Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Sparta is known as Sparti in Greek. Sparta is

Even though the Athenians and Spartans have similarities such as sharing the same language, religion, and both living in Ancient Greece they have several differences. For example, Sparta focused on military training, whereas Athens focus was on education, and the roles for men and women such as their responsibilities and daily life. For Spartans their military was one of their main priorities. It’s focus was on their army and loyalty to their state.

Awesome job! Your compare and contrast regarding Sparta and Athens is exceptional. I like the fact that you described many aspects of their lifestyles. In addition to Sparta’s military the individuals who chose to enlist served until the age of 60. Sparta also gained more power once they defeated the city of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. Due to the lifestyle of these individuals they were given a word in the English language Spartan which means brave and undaunted.

Both Sparta and Athens prove to be unique societies in history because of their opposing values. While Sparta focused on a militaristic culture, in which the army continued to increase in strength and numbers, Athens, however, emphasized their cultural values in arts and literature. Military focus existed in Athens, but was not as focused on its power as Sparta was. Though the location of both ancient civilizations was relatively close in proximity, Sparta and Athens were anything but allies. The nations were peaceful for a short period of time, but as time went on, the struggle for power and expansion grew. Thus causing both civilizations to direct their attentions to eliminating any nearby threats to their expansion.

3- Even if the two cities had similarity in several aspects mainly on government, society and military, they had many differences among them. Sparta had two kings in chorus and the rulers weren’t elected, nevertheless Athens had a king one time and the rulers were usually elected. In Sparta, they had a rule of Oligarchy (rule by a few), whereas In Athens they had a rule of Democracy (rule by the people, “Demos”). In Sparta, male citizens had obligation to military service only and had the right to vote while in Athens, not only the aristocrats were wealthy landlords but were military managers as well that means the Thetes. People in Athens had

The ancient civilization of Greece contained many different city-states; two of these city-states were Sparta and Athens. Sparta and Athens were different in their values, politics, and societies. Sparta was focused on their military, discipline, and to have a strong state. Athens was a democratic state that was peaceful and where women were open to culture and democracy. How do these two city-states differ?

Athens and Sparta had many differences throughout the years that they lived. Sparta was more of a militaristic city-state that had strong armies and tactical skill to defeat and defend against enemies. While on the other hand Athen was more of a education based society to out think there enemies. Sparta had the best military out of them because kids at age seven started to train for the military. Sparta’s male kids was born to be in there military.Also females were trained in combat, but not as much as males where. Athens military was ok not better than Sparta’s military, but Athen’s did have the best naval fleet at their advantage. Most of the wars though were fought on land so the big fleet did not help as much. Athen’s society was based

Ancient Greece is a land which consists of various states which are called polis. These polis had the same religion and language but operated their own societies. They had a different government, political system, laws and rulers. The two most historic states in Ancient Greece were Athens and Sparta. Athens was reformed by a leader named Solon. He created a very democratic state and focused more on creating a well-balanced society. Sparta was leaded by a leader named Lycurgus, who made Sparta into a military based state where they focused on training kids for the army from the time they are born. I believe Athens was a very successful state because Solon, the leader of Athens began the democratic era which lasts till today.