Similarities Between Athens And Sparta

Only adult male citizens played a political role in ancient Athens. Men rich or poor could vote, as long as they were qualified citizens, but usually the richest ones held the most political clout as Athens was a class based society. In contrast, Sparta was an oligarchy and could also be viewed as a military dictatorship in which all men served to defend the state. Both societies had an organized form of government, although the political structure was different.

The cultures of the Athenians and Spartans were wildly different. Athenian women were not educated nor did they have any rights, but as mothers of warriors, Spartan women did have rights because they were expected to take care of the duties around the house when the men were away at war or on military duty. Thus, it could be viewed that Spartan women had some rights similar to other Greek men. In both societies, the victors captured their enemies after defeating them in war and turned them into slaves. In Sparta, the majority of the population were slaves, because Spartans constantly engaged in battle, and those slaves that were captured were called Helots, and had to work for the Spartans. In comparison, the Athenian population contained a much smaller proportion of slaves.
Although in both societies there were aristocrats simply because they were the wealthiest among society. Athens believed in arts and education while the Spartans believed in a majority lifetime military conscription. In Sparta, officials were