Compare And Contrast Spartan Men And Athenian Education

A Spartan Male is taken from his home at age seven to train for the military, and is required to serve until he is sixty years old. Athens has been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years, becoming the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium. The two civilizations are close geographically but things like: Education, Military, and Government, were very different in both Athens and Sparta. Athenian Education and Spartan Education were very far from alike. An Athenian male would study poetry, literature, mathematics, and science, much like we do today. All Athenian citizens required basic knowledge of reading and writing in order to become a member of government. Spartan Education was very different however. At the early age of seven a young boy would be taken from his home and sent to live at military school. The boy would live and train there until he turned thirty. “The entire education these boys had was to make them strong soldiers that were prepared for war.” The two education systems were very different and had little to no similarities.

A Spartan male was required to have nearly twenty five years of military training. He needed to serve in the military from the time he was thirty until the age of sixty. However in Athens after graduating from eleven years of Academic school all males were required to complete two years of military school. Even though the two militaries were different, the two did share similar tactics and formations, such as: The Greek Hoplite, and The Phalanx formation. “Spartans' whole lives were dedicated to training and serving in the military.” The two military systems had some similarities but for the most part they were very