Compare And Contrast Sparta And Athens

HIST 1421
April 17, 2018
Athens & Sparta
As a part of Sparta’s community, you were either a slave, Spartan solider, or a mother. As a male spartan you trained for nearly your whole life to be a solider, and once you became a solider you would fight in battles for the rest of your life until you reached the age of sixty. Non-Spartans; also know as Periokoi, would fill “the roles of skilled craftsman and traders, occupations that the Spartan man themselves would reject.” (Web Text) If you wanted to make decisions for the com-munity, you must first be a part of either the Gerousia, Ephors, or one of the two Kings. These were the two branches of government that made all the decisions for how things were ran. In order to be a part of the Gerousia, …show more content…
“Athenian democracy was the large numbers of non-citizens, who had no political rights.” (Web Text) All free male Athenian’s could hold some kind of political role. The higher-up roles that would ultimately make the majority of decisions would be held by the wealthy. “The top executive posts in the Athenian system, such as the ten annually elected generals, went to the wealthy few, who were often aristocrats. Men of the lower financial classes could serve as minor officials. As many as 900 men were selected on a yearly basis.” (Web …show more content…
The one time Spar-tans and Athenians united together to overcome an obstacle was when the Persians threatened to invade all of Greek in two separate wars. Sparta showed up late to the first war and were no help defeating the Persians, but then were a leading force behind winning the second Persian War. An-other similarity between the these two Greek powerhouses, were that they only allowed male citi-zens to participate in political decisions.
One of the differences between Athens and Sparta would be the way Sparta solely focused on becoming warriors. Becoming a solider was a requirement for any male Spartan, whereas Athe-nians had the freedom to choose what they wanted to do with their lives. Spartan’s women were also a lot more outspoken than Athenian women. “While other Greeks often praised Sparta’s mili-tary culture, they were frequently outraged by the freedoms permitted to Spartan women who went about in public. Even worse, the Spartan ladies were notoriously outspoken and even insolent.” (Web text)
In summary, there are many ways Athens and Sparta have helped formed our modern way of living, through success and failures.

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