Athens Vs Sparta Essay

Athens and Sparta were the two major polis in the classical Greek world, both very powerful and influential, but in very different ways. The majority of the hundreds of polis that make up Greece, independently ruled themselves. Greeks would go to Oracles to divine their future or settle disputes. Young Greeks would meet in Olympia for athletic competitions; known as, The Olympic Games. Athens and Sparta both had the Olympic Games and Oracles. They also shared other things; such as, language, culture, and history. Sparta had a population of 140,000 people and Athens had a population of 200,000 people. In southeastern Greece on the small peninsula of Attica is where Athens is located. The people who live on Athens are forced to specialize in the production of cash crops, such as olive oil, wine, dried fruits, and nuts; because of limited agricultural resources. They traded these crops along with metal goods and wooden textiles for metals and grain from the Black Sea region and Italy. Landowners began to shift their focus to trade, which helped them in mercantile interests. In 594 BCE Solon became the sole

Boys would leave home at the young age of 7 to go train as hoplites in military camps. If men were married they were not aloud to live with their wives until the age of 30, but they had long military leaves so they could create larger families. An absolute code of discipline in male citizens dominated Sparta. It was not just the men who were in good physical shape; the women were fully invested in the ethics of the Spartan military and endured difficult physical training. Mothers and wives would see their men off to battles by handing them their shields while saying “come home with it or on it” They meant either they come home with their shield because if they returned with out it it usually meant they ran away and would be seen as weak, or “on it” meaning if they returned dead they would be returned on their