However the Spartan men would start their training at the age of seven and they were thought to be tough and self sufficient. The life in Sparta wasn't simple but others envied them for their straight forwardness and fanatical dedication. The law in Sparta that prohibited all foreign trade and foreign travelling kept ideas from coming in and they had surprises when it came to attacks. Spartan women had the freedom of rights except they could not vote. They were not forced to do the things Athenian women did.
The Spartan King ruled supremacy over his one hundred Spartan bodyguards. In fact, being part of the Kings squad held great honor and meant that they were as what they would call a true Spartan. During a war, only one of the kings went into battle while the other stayed in Sparta. This is evidently told by Herodotus as he states that this ‘conflict between Kings Cleomenes and Demaratus is what finalized this decision in a time around 507 BC. Following on, the King would generalize and plan out military campaigns.
Though all of these differences contributed to the idealogical barrier between both Athens and Sparta, none were more dividing than the Social practices that ruled their everyday society, as well as the ideologies of their people. Through Sparta’s need for conquest, their entire society became focused around war. From a child’s very birth, they were stripped of identity, and thought of as nothing more than another soldier for the Phalanx. When a child was born, its father would bring it to a group of elders of the tribe
A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because they lived and died to serve the state. Although the competing city-states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece. The political power of Athens is based on economic power. Democracy is based on middle class economic power. In slow evolution towards democracy, as their trade increased, Athenian craftsmen and merchants had enough money to purchase their own weapons.
Similarities and differences between Athens and Sparta By kirk kanjian In 5th century Greece Spartan and Athenian society was very different in many ways. However, at the same time, the two shared a number of characteristics in common. The differences are what set the two apart, while the things they shared in common are what united them as Greek city-states. Sparta and Athens shared similarities and differences in their systems of government, military focuses, education and rights of women. One of the bigger differences between Sparta and Athens was there systems of government.
Synoecism or unification affected the history of the polis because if synoecism was not introduced then Attica would not have had the great success that it did. Unification was brought into Attica because the territories needed to be brought together and be under one main ruler. “Synoecism is when many separate communities were formed into a single political union. Synoecism also referred to the actual movement of people from several communities into a new composite settlement. [1]” Synoecism was meant to help the small city-states into one political unit to make decisions on everything instead of each individual city-state making a different decision.
In this way, Cleisthenes moved Athens from an oligarchy to a democracy. | |Athenian democracy was, by nature, a direct democracy, unlike the modern representative democracy of America. In most | |cases, Athenians did not vote for representatives – but voted directly on the decisions of Athens. Go to war with Sparta – | |they voted. Build a navy – they voted.
The fascinating thing about Greece narrative is that both Athens and Sparta had a different audacious ideology and idiosyncratic systems of governance, Athens adumbrated the idea of a democratic state, while Sparta demarcated itself into a military society. Therefore, these differences in political idealism culminated different results. Athens and its territory of Attica flourished economically, and politically with iconic buildings like the Parthenon, while in contrast, Sparta, a city-state in the fertile
There were many poleis during the 5th century in Greece, but there were only two of which were the main dominant powers: democratic Athens and the military oligarchy of Sparta. Greek culture achieved prominence through these two poleis. Athens and Sparta desired to be a strong nation and achieved that through very different ways of life. The Spartans’ focus was directed towards the military, while the Athenians were more interested in their wellbeing and culture. The US constitution can be compared to government models of Athens and Sparta.
The Greeks and Romans were two strong societies that brought great things to the Mediterranean. These two societies although always thought to be the same, were far more different than alike in a number of ways from the way they lived to how they treated women. The Roman society adopted many things from the Greeks, but always adding their own beliefs or style. One difference was the styles of governing. The Greeks were a democratic society, believing that the power should be given to a group of men instead of only a single leader.