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Greek and Roman Education System
Sparta versus athens comparisons
Sparta versus athens comparisons
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Was Sparta a Better Place to Live than Athens?
Jayden Thai 7M
Ancient Greece was home to many wondrous city-states. The most powerful of these were Athens and Sparta. In ancient times, the features that made a city good to live in included infrastructure, health and wellbeing, well-built laws and good education. Living in Athens or Sparta were provided two very different experiences for their citizens and it has been a highly contested topic as to which place was the best to live in. However, it is undeniable that Athens was most certainly the better place to reside in. This is because Athens had a superior form of government, a strong focus on education and, finally, a wide range of careers that one could pursue.
Athens was a better place to live in than Sparta because it had a superior form of government. Athens’ system of
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Athenians could become teachers, doctors, mathematicians, philosophers, etc. and could also choose what they decided to pursue. This is largely enabled by their education system providing Athenians with a wide range of skills and knowledge. In Sparta “All citizens (only men could be citizens) had to be soldiers. Social roles such as farmers, merchants, potters and sculptors were not options for Spartan men.” (Saldais, Taylor and Young, 2011) They were forced to do this until they were sixty, when they retired. Spartans were deprived of their freedom to choose what they could do for a living and were instead forced to violently fight in Spartan campaigns. Athenians, on the other hand, had the freedom to choose what they did and only had to serve in the military for two years in order to acquire the necessary skills to fight. It is obvious that Athens was a better place to live than Sparta because Athenians could choose what jobs and roles they wished to pursue and had the freedom of
Throughout history, civilizations have organized their members and incentives in citizenship systems. Athens and Rome, both portray the traits of semi-perfect systems of their time. While Rome may have been the greater civilization, Athens had the better citizenship system, for having protective, unbiased, and open minded tradeoffs.
The governments of these two city-states were not alike in many ways. “It is true that our government is called a democracy, because its administration is in the hands, not of the few, but of the many,” (Document 3). Athens’ government was what we would consider today a direct democracy. This means that their government was run by the people, or in other words “the many”, rather than a couple government officials, or “the few”. Although Athens was running their city as a government by the people, Sparta had a different form of government. “it is made up of oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy,
My first reason to support that Sparta is a better place to live in is that I could be the leader of the army. I could because in Sparta they used oligarchy which means that the rich will have more power than the poor. This is
Like most Greek states of the Archaic and Classical Era, the Spartan city-state was a militaristic one. Sparta, however, took the idea to its extreme. In order to become the best soldiers, Spartan citizens had to dedicate their entire lives to the occupation. In fact to be a soldier – a hoplite – was the full infrastructure of Spartan society. While most Greek city-states looked down on labor, physical work, and even working for profit, they still had to work for a living, produce something. “The Spartans a...
One of the most important difference between the two city-states is the type of government they used. Athens was democratic and allowed the citizens to be a part of the law decisions. While, Sparta was an Oligarchy and ruled by two kings. The government was highly exclusive and only open to higher social standings. Athens lifestyle was modern and free, with an open outlook on life. The young men were not forced to join the army, unlike the Spartan boys who had no choice but to join the army. They concentrated solely on military strength and did not venture to the outside world. Another key difference is, how the woman are treated among the city-states. In Athens the woman had very little freedom, they depended on their husbands and could not own any land. But, Spartan women were stronger and could forge relationships with any man they pleased. They did not have to do any chores while the Athenian woman partook in weaving and cooking
Athens and Sparta were all very big, successful city-states in the ancient world that conquered many lands and won many battles. Ancient Athens and Ancient Sparta seem similar they have very different functioning societies. Athens was known for its impressive art and culture while Sparta was a very war-like city-state and their society was completely based on having a great military. The thing they had in common was that social status and the jobs that each rank of society had was very important. The social status was crucial to Sparta and Athens because, without it, both Greek city-states would not be able to function.
Women in Sparta had freedoms and rights like no other city-state throughout Greece. Spartan women would receive an education and physical training. They were fed properly and could eat whatever they wanted because the credit was given to women for making Spartan men strong due to them being able to have healthy babies since they were treated properly. Not only were Spartan women given a good education and were nourished properly, they were also given rights and freedoms which Athenian women would never have. Spartan women had the right to apply for citizenship at the age of eighteen while women in Athens would never be granted citizenship. Spartan women also had the freedom to wander throughout their city-state unlike women in Athens who were forced to remain inside. In Sparta, women had the right to own property and the right to divorce their husbands without losing their wealth which Athenian women did not have. Also unlike Athenian women, Spartan women would not marry at a very young age. They’d generally marry between the ages of eighteen and twenty. The person they married would often only be a few years older than them. In Athens, women were often forced to marry an older man during their teenage years. Another benefit of being a woman in Ancient Sparta instead of Ancient Athens is that Spartan women were in charge of the household and the cooking and cleaning was not left up to them.
Athens and Sparta are both infamous Greek city states. Both could not be more different, yet similar in the way they governed their own city state. Another, main difference was the women’s rights and roles in the system. Athenian and Spartan women both were considered to be second to their male counterparts. Spartan women had more rights than Athenian women. Through, research realizing that the Spartan women were slightly greater role than Athenian women.
Sparta and Athens - Explain and Contrast Both Sparta and Athens were Greek city-states. Sparta was a strict military ruled city-state where the people established themselves as a military power early. However Athens was more of a political city-state that was more involved with their economical stature than their military forces. Still changes from the Persian wars would change the powers of the city-state and somewhat unite them.
Athens and Sparta were both city-states in Classical Greece. While Athens embraced democracy, Sparta was a dictatorial fierce warrior state. Sparta was a militaristic community, Athens was a freethinking, and commerce minded city-state. Modern societies have modeled their government organizational structure and military discipline practices from lessons learned of these ancient city-states. There is much is to be praised regarding Classical Greece for their courage, their progressive thinking and the birth of democracy. However, I think it is important to remember that in both cases, Athens and Sparta were able to sustain their lifestyle on the backs of countless slaves, non-citizens and women and that there is a darker and less romantic side to the past.
When discussing the Spartan economy it is essential that the structure of Spartan society is explained. This structure directly effects Spartan economic production and its primary agrarian focus. The social structure of ancient Sparta was made up of three classes of individuals, the Spartiates, the Perioikoi, and the Helots. The Spartiates were native Spartans, those who had ancestry back to the first inhabitants of the settlement. The Homoioi—peers and equals—were at the top of the social pyramid, they were citizens with full rights, Spartiates. It was strictly forbidden for the Spartiates to engage in any economic activity at any time, rather they were devoted to military service and training. Family life for a Spartiate was limited, a
Athens was a much more superior polis compared to Sparta because the Athenians invented new ideas and creations that supported the people, such as democracy, the Athenians led the Delian League, and Sparta created the Peloponnesian League after the Athenians created their alliance, and the Athenians changed the ways of their government many times to suit the people, and the Spartans did not.
My impression regarding the comparison of the likely daily lives of the citizens of Athens and Sparta is that they were two very different things. The differences hold true for men, women and children alike. In this discussion I have focused on the "average" person with the understanding that the roles of people of higher or lower social elevation surely led different lives.
Greece is a country united by its name, but divided by its ways. Although Sparta and Athens were both Greek cities, their societies were different. Sparta was focused on having a perfect military, whereas Athenian daily life revolved learning and knowledge. When Spartan boys were being trained for an army, Athenian boys were being trained for life. Both of these societies revolved around different government, education from when kids to teenagers, the responsibilities each individual had to keep their spot, and how women played a role throughout each city state.
Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave and kept under a close eye to prevent insurgence (History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece). Additionally, Sparta had strict and trained soldiers that underwent intense physical exercising and instruction.