sparta vs. athens

1227 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Comparisons of Sparta and Athens

Paper 1: Sparta VS. Athens
Ancient Greece was rich in culture, as the country was separated into many polis (city-states). Among these cities, were the two most authoritative rivals—Athens and Sparta; having strived to attain power more than the rest, Athens and Sparta earned the most recognition. While both cities were two of the most powerful in Ancient Greece, the attainment of this power was approached in contradicting ways, as their values and lifestyle greatly differed. Athens and Sparta’s contrasting visions for their citizens framed their culture, which became the sole deciding factor in the kinds of laws that were implemented and enforced to form divergent systems including government, social class and gender roles.
Sparta and Athens had different governing systems; Sparta was an Oligarchy and Athens was a Democracy. Sparta’s government consisted of two kings whom had different powers; one served as the commander in chief of the armed forces, while the other supervised domestic matters at home and took charge if his co-king was killed in action. The kings’ judicial powers were shared with the members of the gerousia, as well as with the ephors (overseers). The members of the gerousia served for the rest of their lives, while the ephors controlled the education system and were in charge of the secret police, designed to control helots—this was a system present only in Sparta. The government aimed at training their army to the “highest degree of skill possible,” which would create a strong military to preserve their “domination over their helots,” while also obtaining a military advantage over their enemies. Sparta’s vision consisted of two main goals: “freeing male citizens from all but military obligations, and socializ...

... middle of paper ...

...ation, which goes to say that men were initially the dominating group and killing young girls created a greater imbalance in sex ratio, while in Sparta, men were lacking since they were always being killed in war, which allowed Spartan women to “inherit all of her fathers land” and become extremely wealthy (121).
While Sparta was “admired in peace and dreaded in war”(102), Athens was admired for their values of education and intellect. The two cities surely obtained different values and lifestyles, but did so with one ultimate goal: to attain as much power as possible, which led them to conducting drastic procedures, such as Spartan’s being trained from birth to become hoplites and Athenian girls being devalued and even eliminated from their inability to earn power. In conclusion, both cities framed their culture and system with the sole purpose of gaining power.

Show More
Related

  • Dbq Compare And Contrast Sparta And Athens

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine two countries, so different from each other, that conflicts were inevitable. Athens and Sparta were not countries, however, they were city-states of Greece with many contrasting values. Athens was the city of the arts, reading, and writing. Meanwhile, military was the only thing the on the Spartans’ minds. Athens and Sparta differ in many ways due to their governments, economies, and cultures.

    Read More

  • Comparing Athens, Sparta, And Miletus

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ancient Greece today is most known for the culture: the gods, the dramas, how people lived. What most people do not realize is that there were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different civilizations spread throughout Greece that all had different forms of government. The three main ones were Athens, Sparta, and Miletus. Each was very different from the other. The most powerful out of all three was Sparta: a military based society. The Spartan government had a strong foundation that was all torn down by one bad leader.

    Read More

  • Sparta: Infrastructure, Social Structure, and Superstructure

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    Spartan culture is a great example of how a society’s infrastructure will directly affect both, its social structure and superstructure. It also serves as a warning that any society that becomes too rigid in its structure and too static in its values will not last long when confronted with more agile and adaptable cultures. This paper will explore why Sparta became the Hellenic army par excellence, how this worked to create a very specific social structure founded on martial values, and, finally, how that social structure would ultimately be the undoing of the culture.

    Read More

  • Comparing Ancient Athens And Sparta

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Athens, women had no rights at all. The men would run the town, and women were left at home to keep the house clean and take care of children. If these ranks of society suddenly went away in these two Greek city-states, no one would know what to do. The citizens of Sparta would not know how to harvest fields or run a household because their whole lives were focused on either preparing them to fight in the military or actually going off to war. The Spartan military would probably also not be as strong because all men would not be required to fight.

    Read More

  • Women in Sparta

    1800 Words  | 4 Pages

    James Thompson’s research on women in Sparta is not clear where he got the information. However, he seems to be the only one who does not compare Sparta directly to Athens until the very end, were he provides a chart on why women were more dominant than their Athenian sisters. His main focus of work was explaining what women could and could not do. In the beginning he briefly talks about Spartan boys before beginning to talk about the women. Throughout the article he talks about how having the responsibility of the house, properties and children must have been enormous without the husband there. He mentions some of the responsibilities and explained why marriages were the way they were. He talks about the women having a strong voice in their societies and benign influential in the decision making of the country despise the fact that they could not vote. He often makes reference of other people’s opinions such as saying “some have suggested…”. He talks about women owned a third of the land and could inherited land like the boys too. His work is intended for a general audience and one can argue that it could be aimed towards children.

    Read More

  • Differences Between Sparta And Athenian Women

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Sparta and Athens - Explain and Contrast

    495 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Aspects of Spartan Culture

    1595 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sparta, an ancient Greek city-state, is well-known for its militaristic lifestyle and its soldiers’ prowess in battle. Though war was an essential part of life in Sparta, many other aspects contributed to its society. Sparta’s origin, unique government, slaves, bold women, and elite warriors all shaped the legendary city-state and defined its culture. In approximately 650 B.C., Sparta was formed in the Peloponnese peninsula in Laconia by several smaller city-states that merged together. Located near the fertile farmlands of the Eurotas River, the Peloponnese peninsula was an ideal area to establish a new civilization (Sekunda 3).

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Sparta And Athens

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Athens: The Superior Polis Compared to Sparta

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Polis Essay

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    The current governmental system employed by Western society is based on the ancient Greek concept of the polis. In order to comprehend how the West came to adopt the principles of democracy in the early modern period, it is integral to build one’s understanding of the ideas surrounding the establishment and maintenance of the Polis during the dark and classical ages in Greek history. For instance, prior to the development of democracy in Greek city-states, Greek poleis went through periods of oligarchical and tyrannical governmental regimes whose policies served the aristocracy at the detriment of the poorer classes. Of the two prominent poleis Athens is the primary city-state that embodies the qualities of the polis outlined by Aristotle.

    Read More

  • Political Differences Between Athens And Sparta

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    The ancient Greece was divided among several hundreds of city-states called “Poleis”. Within this poleis, Athens and Sparta were the most powerful, significant, largest and significant states.

    Read More

  • Greek Cities: Athens vs Sparta Essay

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sparta was a city-state based on strict military ruling, at the age of seven a young Spartan would start out training and be trained into killing machines. When a Spartan baby is born, high elite Spartan soldiers would observe the baby to see if it was healthy and strong, if not the baby was ill and weak so it would be taken up a mountain and left there to die. This is just one example that shows how Sparta only wants a strong army and doesn't care about anything else. Strict rules of the government made it so that every Sp...

    Read More

  • Government in Ancient Greece and Rome

    1598 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ancient Greece was not a unified nation. The Greek peninsula contained several islands with mountainous terrain, which made travel and communication difficult. Therefore, each community developed their own political systems, known as city-states. These city-states then formed their own system of government, which varied greatly among them. Corinth, for example, was an oligarchy. An oligarchy is a system of government that is ruled by a small group of powerful leaders. Other city-states developed a system of government that contained several governing styles. Sparta’s government, for example, contained a monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy. It contained two kings, a council of 30 noblemen, and an assembly of all the Spartan men. Athens, however, is considered the most influential city-state to Western civiliza...

    Read More

  • Greek Golden Age Essay

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about sparta vs. athens

Open Document