The History of the Greeks: Hellenic and Hellenistic

Ancient Greece was not only a place of discoveries and inventions, but it also was a place of great adventures. Firstly, ancient Greece begins in the period known as the Archaic Period which lasted from 800-500 BCE; however, the Classical Period is the most well-known period of Greece because of the politics, art and philosophy. During ancient Greece there were specific roles that each member of society had to fulfill. For example, men had the most powerful role as a citizen; he could vote, own land and hold office; however, women had stay at home and attend to their family. In contrast, labourers and slaves made up the largest part of Greek society. Aside from Greek social structure, Greek culture and society was immensely impacted by the geography of this peninsula; Greece is surrounded by three

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

People in Athens and Sparta like any other city-states, were participating in their own day to day activities of public life. Athenians had been followed democratic government and open culture compared to Sparta which had been followed a dictatorial government and warrior society.

Athenians had a very modern and open outlook Unlike Sparta, in Athens, boys were not forced to join the army. Athens were stronger and women were legally the dependent of their husbands or their father.

Sparta and Athens were both prominent city-states in Greece. Their culture, and political policies, however, couldn't be more different. Sparta had monarchical elements in their government. 2 kings ruled in Sparta, and leadership was mainly hereditary. Sparta's focus was on its military strength; They formed the academy system, whose goal was to train an elite fighting force, starting with boys at age 7. Conversely, Athens' focus was on its culture and trade. Athens desired constant change and improvement; Additionaly, Athenians wanted to be economically advanced. Democracy was also founded by the Athenians, and this led to Athens becoming "the leader of the Greek world" (Sources of the Making of the West,57).

In “Athens and Sparta”, Mr.Duckworth states,”The Spartans emphasized only on expanding their power and gaining control over the other kingdoms while the Athenians also gre infrastructure wise in ancient times.”Athens also considered as the birthplace of Democracy.The Athens became the foremost trading power of the Mediterranean by the 5th century BC.

The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the time three centuries before the classical age, between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C.—a relatively sophisticated period in world history. Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but most of all it was the age in which the polis, or city-state, was invented. The polis became the defining feature of Greek political life for hundreds of years.

Spartans had a military approach and incline while the Athenians stuck to democracy though it was really not the real democracy as we know it today. The Spartans were more interested in their power expansion and control more cities whereas the Athenians were able to grow their infrastructure and appreciated the value of having good infrastructure as part of their economic

For the Greek their political and religious order was war oriented. The Polis were ruled by elders and generals and an army was always in the field fighting. One major city of Greece was Sparta: It had a very particular social and political order. In Sparta everyone was born to follow rules and work or fight. The Incredibly people would give up their freedom for Sparta at an early age. A child will go to school away from their families and get discipline, after that the rest of their lives was just fight.

At the time, the aristocracy was living on borrowed money and the labors of the lower classes. The middle class was becoming wealthy from its trade, manufacturing, banking, and contracting. The lower middle class consisted of tradesmen and laborers, with a few government officials.

Although the ancient Greek civilization has been gone for centuries, their culture still lives on through their language, math, architecture, literature, philosophy, and more. One of the more fascinating aspects of ancient Greek culture was their mythology. It told stories of epic heroes achieving impossible tasks, gods and goddesses that rivaled one another, and weird creatures that roamed the land. These stories, once told orally, served as the Greeks’ religion and explanation for different phenomena.

Women in Ancient Greek and Roman history are easily overlooked, whether that be though art, poetry, or mythology. Mythology is extremely popularized throughout all of Greek history and art, leaving domestic life in the shadows for the most part. The fascination with godly entities possessing special powers and abilities, like transporting to and from the underworld or wielding lightning bolts, in comparison to everyday women’s domestic life it is a slightly dull topic. Women’s history in numerous different cultures has a minor amount of information recorded, no matter the form of record keeping, compared to men. Men typically had more interesting and highlighted roles in daily life, for example; craftsmen, soldiers, senators, or even emperors. However, domestic life for women was not as simple as many may have perceived it. Another key component to keep in mind that was additionally mentioned by Michael Massey is,” nearly everything written about women in the ancient world was written by well-educated men of the upper class, and nearly always about from the wealthy middle and upper class.” Women in ancient Greece and Rome may not have been captured in the majority of vase paintings, however, the examples of text and other forms of art from the ancient world provides insight on the daily domestic life of women.

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.

Finley’s Model states that the Greek’s economic values were much different than ours of today’s. Economic activity was viewed as only necessary in this system only in so far as the individual had enough to provide for himself and his family. Beyond that, the individual was then expected to devote himself to the wellbeing of the community in devoting his free time to participating in the public religious, political, and military life. Activities that we would view as capitalism today, such as investing money to make more money, were even to an extent considered to be unnatural and morally corrupting. With different values, and no conception of economies of scale, the cities were not hubs of industry, and manufacturing existed only on a small scale. Cities were mainly places for people to live as well as religious and governmental centers. (Moeller 2007)

In ancient Greek, hundreds of city-state called polis was developed throughout the area. Polis means an independent community of citizens inhabiting a city and the countryside around it (Hunt, 51). Being in mountainous and island region, many were isolated from each other, and often hostile to each other. They maintained constant conflicts between polis throughout ancient Greek history. They never became a nation. Among many polis, Athens and Sparta are the most famous ancient Greek polis known to modern history. They were unique in terms of political systems as well as its culture. Even though they had same cultural background such as same language or same religions, their political systems were very different. There were three types of political systems adapted by ancient Greek. Athens had democracy while Sparta had Oligarchy. Corinth had Tyranny. The comparison between Sparta and Athens in terms of political system as well as cultural background will be discussed in this research paper.