Your son has just been thrown off a cliff due to his weakness, your wife is distraught due to this event. This is just one of the many downfalls of living in ancient Sparta. I believe that Athens was a better polis in ancient Greece for the following reasons: their way of government was fairer than Sparta, it was well protected, and education was highly valued.
First off, Athenians highly valued education whereas Sparta did not.In Athens you were taught to read, write, play music, dance, math, etc. In Sparta the first thing on the list for you to learn is how to become a good soldier until you were 30. So you were kind of the underdog when it came to academics in Sparta so to speak. In a quote from Socrates, “Education is the kindling of a fire, not the filling of a vessel”. Out of this he is basically saying that athenian education leads to better things in life whereas spartan education is just worthwhile for one occasion and is used for military purposes. This shows that it is not only scientifically evisent but people who lived around that time thought this as well.
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Athens had a form of government called a democracy which is what we practice here in the United States. They would put all their citizens name in a pot and randomly choose people as representatives. In ancient Sparta on the other hand, they practiced a form of government called an oligarchy. This means that they had a few people ruling, as in fact they had two kings. The issue there is that the power remains in that family line and cannot change, whereas in Athens it can fluctuate. This allows many people to have the opportunity to become president. This shows that Athens’s democracy was fairer than Spartan
Athens or Sparta Sparta is better than Athens because at age 7 boys are trained their entire life to work in the army therefor Sparta has a better army. Athens isn’t as good because they don’t train for the army that much. They were taught sports and Athens wasn’t nearly as much. Sparta is better than Athens because they have a better army, women had more rights, and Sparta’s army was content and only used it when need be unlike Athens always using their army to try and get more land.
EDUCATION IN SPARTA HELPFUL OR HARMFUL? Sparta is the strongest city-state in all of Greece. Their army could smash through their opponents with their battle formation, the phalanx. What made it so that this powerful city-state so strong?
The way the athenian government gave power was very effective and fair. “Power is the hands not of a minority but of the whole people” (From Alternative Two, from Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War) In the Athenian democracy decisions are made by a vote of the majority and then a decision is made by the outcome of the vote. Since “all citizens could hold government positions” (From powerpoint used in class, Athens and Sparta) The majority was making decisions based on what the people wanted modified or advanced, not a unwanted aristocratic tyrant like in the Spartan oligarchy. The citizens of sparta did not have this luxury. “We give obedience to those whom we put in positions of authority” (From Alternative Two, from Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War) This quote implies that in order for the Athenian
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.
As we look back upon the two significant differences in the governmental systems of Sparta and Athens, there are also many other characteristics that distinguish the differences and similarities of these two city states. The difference in land as well as population perceives a relative historical comparison. Sparta lacked land area and was forced to seek other land in the fertile plain of Messenia. Although, if we look at the Athens, we see that they had no issues with plentiful land, as they possessed large and populous territory.
Athens had a better government in my opinion. I think Athens had a better government because they created a democracy. According to the Athens and Sparta Document Set, a democracy means “rule by the people”. The Athens also got to abolish politicians they did not like. Athens also had ten generals, meanwhile, Sparta has two kings. In my opinion, I think that having ten generals is better than two kings because they understand you more. Sadly not all Ancient Athens were citizens, but if a free male would be a citizen if his father was a citizen of Athens. Later on, they changed that law, it was then bothering the father and mother had to be a citizen for the child to be considered a citizen. Sadly the women didn’t get that many rights but they soon they got more status. The Athens also made it to where not only the wealthy can engage in the jury service. In the Athens, you have to be an 18-year-old man to complete military training. On the other hand, in Sparta, you have to be a 30-year-old to complete military training. Basically, I’m trying to say that the Athens had a better
During the times of Ancient Greece, two major forms of government existed, democracy and oligarchy. The city-states of Athens and Sparta are the best representatives of democracy and oligarchy, respectively. The focus of the times was directed towards military capabilities, while the Athenians were more interested in comfort and culture. It was the oligarchy in Sparta that put a war-like attitude as its first priority and best met the needs of Ancient Greece. These factors empowered Sparta and led to the development of an authoritative and potent state. Other contrasting issues included women’s rights, social classes, and value of human life.
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
Would Athens or sparta been a better place to live. In, “ Athens and Sparta” Mr. Duckworth states, “ Where they differed was that while the Spartans had militaristic values, Athenians were democratic” This shows that Athens would have been a better place to live because while the Spartans ruled by the few the Athenians were ruled by the people. Also Mr. Duckworth states, “ The Spartans emphasized only on their power and gaining control over other kingdoms while the Athenians also grew infrastructure wise in ancient times. However they understood the importance of such growth and concentrated on them besides only on military strength.” This shows that Athens would have been a better place to live because the people didn’t always pay attention to military strength like the spartans, but also education and growth.
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.
Athens was the largest polis in Greece. Its population was over five times as great as the other small city-states. Athens stood out from Sparta as well as the other city-states not only because of its immense population but also because it was the commercial leader of Greece and was home to a great navy. The Athenians valued their political freedom and free thought. Like the Spartans they too wanted to protect their state but unlike the Spartans, the Athenians strove for excellence not only in being warriors but also in their everyday lives. Since the Spartans were only concerned with being great warriors, the Athenians became the cultural center of Greece during the Hellenic period. Athens original government was a monarchy ruled by one king, however, the king's influence began to diminish with the changing times and soon Athens was under the rule of an oligarchy.
In Sparta, more opportunities to held the public office was given to aristocrats because of their wealthy and influence. Again, there was an equal opportunity only in army. In Athens, every citizen was free to take the public office without an hindrance.
One major difference between the two cities was the way in which their king or leaders were chosen. The process in which Athens elected their leader is referred to as limited democracy. It was limited democracy because not all the people in the city state were allowed to participate in the
In the Athenian Democracy, they had a form of government where citizens ruled directly and not through representatives. They had a legislature branch that would pass the laws, the executive branch would carry out the laws, and the judicial branch would conduct the trials with paid jurors. The executive branch was composed of a council of 500 men and the leaders were chosen by a lot. To be a citizen in Athens, you had to be a male, 18 years old, born from citizen parents, and your parents can't be a slave.
Athenian citizen makes more contribution to government rather than Spartans. The Athenian government allows citizen to be a member of the government except for the military position, as its stated on an article that ” each citizen can be voted for each legislation”(Echos in the past, page, print). Which signify that being in the government position means having the capability and not the wealth. In the athenian