Why Is Athens Better Than Sparta

Athens and Sparta both had very different economies. Their economies were both based around different things. Athens economy was based around trade. A quote that reinforces this statement is found in Document 9, excerpt from “The History of the Peloponnesian War” by Thucydides a quote from that excerpt states “He made a law that no son was obligated to support his father unless he had been taught trade..” this quote show how greatly trade influences the Athenian economy. On the other hand Sparta was completely different. Sparta mostly depended on farming and strengthening their military A paragraph from Document 8, an excerpt from “ Parallel Lines: Lycurgus” by Plutarch reinforces this by stating “Each man’s

Imagine you had to choose between two very, very risky places to live in. Well, that is what people had to do 7,000 years ago. The two places are called Sparta and Athens, both had very harsh and violent laws. Trust me we are all very lucky to live in the places we do now compare to these two places. Now on to having to choose between the two, the only reason on why I would choose this place is because of the different laws for the men. Obviously, I would say that because I am a boy. I would rather live in Athens because of how fair the laws are compared to Sparta. There are many laws in Athens that are better than Sparta. One of the laws includes how they rule their kingdom. In Ancient Athens, it was run by the people themselves in the city. All of the citizens in Athens were happy they had that they had that freedom. In Ancient Sparta, there was not much freedom from voting for their rulers. The only reason that is because only a small group of wealthy, powerful men could rule Sparta. There are many more reasons why I think that Athens is better/ fairer.

First reason, why Sparta would have been a better city is women were aloud to mary and be with anyone the wanted. Mr.Duckworth states in “Athens and Sparta” ,”women were stronger and they formed friendships with men as they chose.” So unlike Athens women were aloud to form friendships with men.

Athens is more superior than Sparta through, government, economy, and culture. Athens government is a democracy which means all citizens get to take part. In Athens “ all men are on an equality” which means “ Not of the few but of the many” (doc 3 pericles). Every citizen in Athens is allowed to take part in government, even poor citizens. Unlike Sparta, who has an oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy. The Spartan government is made up of kings and elders only. Not everyone gets to participate.

In Athen, “Schools taught reading, writing, and mathematics, music, poetry, sport, and gymnastics”. In Sparta, “Boys were taken from parents at age seven and trained in the art of warfare. They were only given a cloak - no shoes or other clothes, and not enough food so they had to steal (to learn survival skills)”. Overall, I think Athens is better and safer to live in then Sparta.

During the Fifth century, Greece was controlled by two main powers; Athens and Sparta. These city-states were very different. Sparta was known for their strength, discipline, individuality, beauty, sports, and learning (Beck et al. 131). Athens was known for education, fitness, art, literature, and wealth. Not to overlook the rights of women, which were a little elevated in Sparta, the city that had an overall greater respect for human rights, would be Athens.

Athens was the warm welcoming city-state in Ancient Greece, most unlike the horrific neighboring city-state, Sparta. Athens was full of life and the people living there appreciated all of what others had to offer: arts, music, life, and new cultures. Athens offered many activities for all men, women, and children. Sparta was cruel, disgusting, and uninviting… each day would be a struggle to survive. Children were tortured to become “stronger”and all men would be fighting and stealing things just to survive. Women were forced to go through training to become strong, to male healthy babies, it was tough. When women were forced to produce offspring, many of the “weak” babies were left to die. Athens was more inviting and had many more fun things to do, which is why Athens is a better place to live.

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 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, the two largest and most powerful cities in ancient Greece (between 800 and 323 BCE) were two different models of polis, their social, political and cultural values and ways of life were dramatically different. (Brand, n.d.)

Sparta had the geographic advantage above Athens. Sparta is better because, according to Document G, “The Eurotas River provided much-needed water, while the nearby plains allowed the ancient Spartans to grow all the food they needed.” Sparta was already provided with enough supplies on their own and didn’t have to trade things with other city-states. Having rivers, mountains, and rivers gave the Ancient Spartans the right environments to grow many things such as figs and wheat, the Ancient Spartans also had enough room to raise cows for meat, milk, and cheese. Another reason why Sparta has the geographic advantage is shown in Document F, which states, “Sparta thus came to control some 8,500 km² of territory making it the largest city state

Athens and Sparta were both city-states in Ancient Greece. A city-state is a small independent country with its own laws and government. Although they were only 150 miles apart, they were very different from one another. They each have their own values, geography, government, economy, education and how they treated women and slaves. If given the chance to go back in time, I would suggest that Greeks settled in Sparta because of their better education, better treatment of women and slaves and better geography.

Choosing the right place will probably depend on you and your family’s lifestyle and values. Athens have more democratic values, while Sparta, they have more militaristic values. Athens believe participating in government a civic responsibility. While Sparta of course believes in participating in the military a mandatory. The Athenians live a very different lifestyle from Sparta. Spartans live very simple and strict lives, they focus on obedience and war. Boys are trained to be

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

Along with learning you will be allowed to participate in sports. The people in Athens believe that this type of education produced young people with strong minds and bodies. When you turn 18 and finish school, you will be expected to take an active role in public affairs. I believe that Athens is the right choice for you because you will be able to learn and still be active in sports, unlike Sparta where their boys leave their homes at age seven to join the military and only are only able to learn to read, write, and use