Sparta And Athens Comparison Essay

So Close, yet so Different

Can two city-states, bases of political units, be only a few hundred miles apart and differ greatly in ways of life? Some people would say yes and others, no. However, two certain city states in ancient Greece, known as Athens and Sparta, lay roughly one hundred thirty miles apart, sharing some similarities but mainly butting heads with their differences. These two city-states are perhaps the most famous ones in Greek history since they fought against each other in the famous Peloponnesian War. This war, triggered by a rivalry of differences, left a devastating mark on Greece, but the rivalry did not start or end there. For years before and after the war, Athens and Sparta, although alike in some aspects, proudly displayed their various differences, as follows: their geographic positions, governments, and ways of life.

To begin with, Athens and Sparta differed in geographic positions. Athens, in modern days, finds itself as part of the

Athenians nurtured creativity, commercial endeavors, democracy, and individualism, accepting all inhabitants as who they are and welcoming them to their cause. This mainly caused the Sparta-Athens rivalry because the Spartans spit upon the Athenian way of life and attempted to destroy it. Spartans centered on training boy and girl warriors, only accepting the strong and healthy. Babies, if determined unhealthy by the elders, found themselves abandoned on a hillside. Children were beaten and starved to learn endurance and encouraged to steal and do other terrible things to prove resourcefulness. Boys did not get a choice in their future, for they either shortly died after birth or became warriors, and girls also had no choice, dying shortly after birth or enduring hard training and becoming mothers who raised warrior children. Clearly, the peaceful, Athenian ways greatly contrasted with the harsh Spartan