Athens And Sparta Compare And Contrast

Sparta and Athens were both city states that were formed from Greek civilization. They both had a different way of leading their citizens and running their governments. This caused each city state to have a different set of values and to have a different way of living. Sparta highly valued it’s military and war. The Spartans organized a group of reforms, known as the Lycurgan reforms, that promoted their military state. Spartans lived their lives strictly organized and very controlled. Young boys were taken from their family to live in barracks to become great warriors in the military. They were strictly disciplined and received military training. They were allowed to marry once they became adult, but they still had to stay in the barracks until they were 30. This made it to where their wives had many
Sparta highly valued military and did not let their citizens make many decision on government. They were strict on their people and tightly controlled them(p. 100). However, Athens was the complete opposite once their democracy formed. Athenians took their citizen opinions in to count during meeting they held every ten days. Together they passed laws and made final decisions on war and foreign policy(p.103) Another major differences between the two city states was their opinions on art. Stated before, the Spartan banned art and literature from their citizens due to fear of new ideas ruining their military state. This was not the case in Athens. Actually, the most successful writer of greek tragedies was an Athenian playwright named Sophocles(p. 105). The artistic standards established then dominated many parts of the world(p. 106) One of the ways the two city states were similar was how they raised their women. Women in both city states were mainly meant to serve the men by bearing strong children(p.100 & 112). Although, the Athenian women did not have nearly as many freedoms as the Spartan women(p.