Spart Similarities And Differences In Greek Civilization

As we know that Greek civilization was a very fascinating and captivating period in the history filled by legendary wars, Gods and beings with super natural strength , who would forget the Trojan wars even now many examples and references are taken from their way of life.

Athens and Sparta were two renowned city states in Greek civilization I will try and answer the questions and go a little deeper in the life’s and living style of the people in these two cities to understand how each group obtained their right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community. I will also write about who held the public office, what rules governed the selection of the public office holders, how the two cities were similar and different
Men were required to join the army between the ages of 14 to 20. Women’s aim was to give birth to future soldiers. If a male was considered physically unfit, eugenics were practiced on them. Interesting fact that the Nazi Germans took this same road in creating a perfect White Aryan race. Babies who were born with defects were killed right away. Little education was provided to the Spartans where men were trained to become physically strong and women were trained to have healthy babies, Spartan women were prohibited from wearing makeup or jewelry, and were expected to keep themselves in top physical condition. People’s rights were very limited and were based on their class in the
However the top ruler of Athens were elected while Sparta were inherited. Both city states had extremely large slave population, slaves were the bottom of the social order in both cities, while military men were top in the social order.

As a matter of fact, there were some similarities between Athens and Sparta, the most prominent one is that both were polis from Greek which had a lot of influence on the world’s civilizations In both the cities Aristocrats had more rights and were leaders of the public office. They were both ruled by the wealthier class, both cities were subdivided into the class system. Both were male dominated societies and men had more rights. Women were considered second class citizen and had no say in the community’s law and decisions.

As for the differences were they were significant. Athens was considered as the center piece for architecture with the famous Parthenon located in the heart of the city. Sparta’s main focus was on military and wars. Sparta was a dictatorship and Athens was a democracy. Many modern western concepts such as the philosophy and theater came from Athens but when thinking of Sparta, examples of the military system is mostly remembered. The women of Sparta were rough and tough but the women in Athens were feminine and considered fragile (n.d., Dr. Brand