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White, Athena

World History

Mr. Corbett

October 12, 2009


Athens And Sparta

(Struggles. Similarities. Differences.)


In Ancient Greece there were two main types of government, Oligarchy and

Democracy. An Oligarchy is when a small group of upper classed citizens rule a nation

revolved around the military. A Democracy is a government by the people, ruled by the

people. Which city-state was which? Well, Athens was more “free spirited” you could

say, so Athens was the Democracy. Sparta was the war-crazed nation so, that leaves the

Oligarchy for the Spartans ( go figure ).


Like I said before, Athens was a more “free spirited” than Sparta. The

Athenians had a choice of how the wanted to grow up. They could pursue a job of their

choice. Athens could care less about war and fighting. Athenians cared more about art,

literature, and knowledge more then anything. You COULD join the Military or the

Navy, but you didn’t have to if you didn’t want to.


Sparta and Athens are basically polar opposites ( even though they were part of

the same country ). If you lived in Sparta during Ancient times, life would be very

restricted for you. If you were a healthy male, at the age of seven you would be taken
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from home to train to be a warrior for Sparta. After that you would go to serve in battle.

If you survived that you would most likely be around the age of sixty and only then

would you really be a loud to be released to go back home to your family.


If you were female, you would run the household while your husband was

away and do most of the chores on your own, unless you had a daughter. Or if you were

wealthy you would most likely have servants to take care of that for you. You would also

have to worry about the birth of your children if you were pregnant. If your child was in

anyway imperfect he or she would be killed in the name of Sparta.


Since Athens and Sparta were so different, they didn’t take to each other so

kindly. Because of this hate for each other a thirty-year was war waged against the two.

Everything started fine, a “fair fight” you could say. But, during the third year a huge

epidemic flew threw the city of Athens. The Plague. It killed more than half of its’

people, including its’ leader, Pericles. It had killed all of the strong young men as well.

Athens was not looking so good as far as battle goes. Athens needed someone to take

control of the war. That was when Alcibiades came along to take hold of the reins of this

problem. He suggested that they raided Sparta in Sicily. Everything was set. They were

ready to go, but he got into a little trouble in a street fight and was forced to leave. So that

plan didn’t work so well as it was hoped. The city of Athens was in shambles.

They later waved their little white flag of surrender in April of 404 B.C.E.


Even though Athens had lost this great battle, you still have to think highly of

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the Athenians. They went through so much during the war and still did not give up.

Athens had big hope. The biggest thing was the plague and they STILL didn’t fall down

on their knees to Sparta. It took thirty whole years of failure to give up to the Spartans.


They did win to be worthy allies to Sparta. During the war, Athens attacked

the Spartans with a fleet of at least Three hundred battle ships. But this only ceased their

problems for a small period of time, instead of just solving the problem between the two

city-states. In this attack Athens captured many prisoners to have executed in name of

the war.


In the beginning Athens showed great potential of wining. They had several

outstanding organized attacks against the blood thirsty Spartans. However, not all of

these attacks worked. You must remember that Sparta had the best army by far out of all

of the Ancient world.


This was yet another difference between the two. Athens wasn’t so keen on the

idea of fighting, while Sparta on the other hand was. Athens was always ready to fight

if need be, but I don’t think anyone would be prepared for a fight against the great nation

of Sparta. For centuries Sparta came to the aid of defense in Greece. In battles like,

the Battle of Thermopylae, the Battle of Plataea, and the Persian Wars.


This seems like a lot of work, but Athens also provided many things.

Athens helped put an end to the “Dark Ages” by providing knowledge and learning.

Tons of inventions used today were inspired by simple research that Athenian scholars
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have done in their time.


A surprising difference between Athens and Sparta was how it got along with

other Greek nations. You would think that Athens would be friendly to it’s neighbors

and Sparta to be rude vagabonds to their neighboring nations. But, that is in fact, wrong.

Sparta was kind to all who needed help , in Greece , and Athens wanted to control and

take over of all the land around them.


Ironic or not to you Athens and Sparta were both great nations with many more

similarities than differences, even though they were close on a map.



























Bibliography

n/a, . "Athens and Sparta: Different Yet the Same ." Social Studies for

Kids . 06/Sep/2009. Social Studies for kids , Web. 10 Oct 2009.

<[link]

.htm>



n/a, . "Sparta Vs Athens." Study World. 10/Oct/2009. Test Prep Resource Center , Web.

10 Oct 2009.

<[link]

ens.htm>




van Loon, Hendrik. The Story Of Mankind. Yellow Springs: Authorama, Print.


Hanson, Victor . "Why did Athens lose?." The misery of war . Random House , 2005.

Print.