Daily life among the people of Athens and Sparta was geographically and culturally different. Athens was near a seaport on the Aegean Sea. The maritime resources from the Aegean Sea provided Athens with fishing, trade, and naval strength. The Peloponnesian War against Sparta lasted years which caused Athenians to build a wall of protection from Sparta. During the Peloponnesian War, a plague struck Athens where one-third of the population was lost. Nevertheless, daily life in Athens continued on. Athenian families had slaves captured from war. A family slave(s) often helped to raise and teach (pedagogue) children in addition to household chores (TED-Ed, 2018). In Athens, parents often viewed their daughters as a liability, so a dowry system …show more content…
The military dictatorship depended on economic trade due to its geographic isolation. Geographic isolation did not hinder progress in the polis. Since helots were captured from previous victories, much of the labor from helot slaves provided resources necessary to farmland and contributed 50% of the yield to the city-state. Resources gathered from the helots permitted Spartans to target their efforts toward military training and battle. Early in the life of a Spartan, a newborn boy would be evaluated for defects by an elder. If a baby had any flaws, the newborn was left to perish. Newborns passing the first degree of evaluation would stay with their mother until age seven. After age seven boys entered a military education system known as the Agoge until age twenty. Students in the Agoge were stripped of their identity and publicly flogged. Pupils in the Agoge were forced to endure the beatings and highly regarded if they did not pass out. Furthermore, students of the Agoge lived in barracks to strengthen emotional connections among comrades. These social connections were encouraged by military leads to increase bonds among the soldiers and heighten battle. Daily life among Spartans mainly focussed on military needs with little concern for the general welfare of its citizens. In comparison to Athens, Sparta was a military dictatorship known as an oligarchy where