Discover the main DIFFERENCES between Sparta and Athens

The cradle of Western culture was the Ancient GreeceThis being the place where the first European cultures developed and where the first common ideas of the European world appeared. There were many greek cops, but without a doubt the two most important were Athens and Sparta, being very different cities but both are vital to European history, and therefore in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about the main differences between Sparta and Athens.

Before going into talking about the differences between Sparta and Athens, we must briefly comment on both, to know each one of them in depth and to be able to see in a better way the differences that make them unique.

Athens was the greek polismost important in the Attica region, being an area located in the southeast of what we currently call Greece, which allowed it to have a port, called Piraeus, with great communication, this being essential to become the great commercial and maritime power of all Ancient Greece.

Athens was the first world power for several years, thanks to its trade being the polis that had the greatest wealth, and thus generating the best military fleet in the entire region. It was not until the wars with Sparta, coupled with a series of political crises within the polis, that Athens lost its role as the first Greek power to the detriment of the Spartans.

Even with everything to know in depth the region we must talk about some of the pmain characteristics of Athens, thereby analyzing the political, economic and other important factors of the area. The main characteristics of Ancient Athens were the following:

• Greek society was quite unequal, dividing into citizens, who were those born in the polis itself, foreigners who were engaged in commerce but who could not participate in political life, and slaves who had no rights and on whom society was supported Athenian.
• Agriculture was very important, existing large crops that served to feed the city, the greatest example being the great plain of Athens.
• The greatest fortress in Athens was its CommerceIts citizens being the best seafarers in Greece, and its ships the most prepared and best manufactured. Its main partners were the Egyptians and Asians, which is why we find Greek elements in such disparate areas.
• Greek education fed both the body and the mind, Military education being important, but also the understanding of politics and philosophy, being the reason that the greatest thinkers of the time were Athenians.
• The political system of Athens was a kind of democracy, in which all citizens participated and where a series of events was common where everyone made important decisions for the city.

Sparta was a Greek polis located in the Laconia area, in the lower part of the Peloponnese Peninsula. Unlike other Greek polis, the basis of Spartan society was military education, being the best terrestrial warriors of the time.

You could say that Sparta was the most special polis of all, having no walls or acropolis and basing his life on everything that surrounded battles and war. All this made it one of the most important polis, its interventions being vital in the wars that the Greeks waged against other peoples such as the Persians.

But not everything in life is military training, and it is therefore important to know data about the society and economy of Spartan culture. Some main characteristics of Spartan culture are as follows:

• His strange nature made many people they won't consider her a polis, since it had neither walls nor acropolis, being considered by many Greeks as a kind of union of tribes.
• The social system and organization of the entire state was based on the military training, making the Spartans the largest land war force in all of Greece, which is why they used to lead the other cops.
• The Spartan population was divided into citizens and non-citizens, the first being the true Spartans with political rights and who were the ones who were formed in the war. The non-citizens were divided into pereicos and helots, being the first descendants of the peasants near Sparta without political rights but who were not slaves, and the Helots the slaves of the Spartans.
• The education Spartan was called agoge, being compulsory and public for all citizens' children and consisting of a great military training.
• The spartan politics was divided into two kings, a senate made up of 28 people, an assembly made up of all citizens over 30 years of age and the ephors that they were five magistrates elected by the Assembly and whose function was to protect order.

To conclude this lesson on the differences between Sparta and Athens, we must talk about the most distances that existed between both polis and, thus, we will better understand what the two main societies of the Ancient Greece. The main differences are as follows:

• Politics: The political system of Athens was a democracy in which all citizens participated in the political life, while Sparta ruled by two kings, even with some influence from the citizens.
• Slavery: Both cities had slaves, although Spartan slaves had a little more freedom.
• Social status: Social rank was always maintained in Athens, not being able to change someone who was not before, while in Sparta great feats could change your life.
• Economy: Sparta was an agricultural subsistence economic society with little trade, while Athens based much of her economy on the trade of agricultural surpluses with other towns in area.
• Society: The basis of Athenian society was culture and art, while in Sparta the basis of everything was war.
• Education: Education in Athens focused on philosophy and art touching many subjects, while in Sparta education focused on everything related to war.