preview

The City States of Spart and Athens in Ancient Greece Essay

Decent Essays

Around the year 500 BCE many poleis existed in ancient Greece. Two of the main poleis, or city states in Greece, were Sparta and Athens. Although both of the city states were located in the same area of the world; they had different ways of living. Sparta and Athens had many differences in how they ran their city states. There were many political, economic, and social differences between the two city states. Sparta and Athens may have had their differences but they fought side by side against the Persian invaders. The city states fought off the Persians and brought in the “Golden Age” of Greece. The fate of Greece would be very different if they wouldn’t have fought together against the Persian Empire. In today’s world some countries share …show more content…

They had a system of social equality in their polis. Athens had an unregulated economy which created a large gap between the lower class and upper class. This economic system caused some tension among the citizens of Athens. There were many differences in how people lived in the two city states. Sparta took pride in their military. All Spartan boys were trained to become professional soldiers. At the age of six or seven a boy would leave home and train at a military school. Sparta put a lot of effort into creating a strong and powerful army. Sparta had the strongest army in all of Greece. Many opportunities opened up back at home for women since the men were out at war. Women in Sparta had freedom and were treated well, unlike women in the other city states of Greece. The citizens of Athens were mainly farmers. They would grow food for their families. The Athenians were not represented well by their government, so they had to depend on themselves. The poleis of Sparta and Athens may have had different ways of living, but they stuck together to defend their homeland and defeat the Persians. If the two poleis wouldn’t have fought side by side the culture and history of Greece would look very different. If The Persians would have won the war, the time period of peace and prosperity known as the “Golden Age” of Greece would have never came around. During this time famous philosophers came around such as

Get Access