What Are The Similarities Between Athens And Sparta

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HIST 1421

Written Assignment Unit 1

Introduction

Athens and Sparta have dominated the Greek history. While Athens is known for its first well documented democratic system, Sparta is known for its brave soldiers who are always ready for battle. Even, today the Sparta soldiers are being recognized for their bravery and tactics in war. However, despite of Sparta very powerful army, Athens has given them a very strong opposition in the great Peloponnesian war. Probably the Spartans were very strong because they were farmers which is a very labor-intensive job while the Athens were mostly tradesmen.

How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community?

The only way …show more content…

In both states only influential male citizens were allowed to help public office. In Athens qualify citizens were allowed to function in public office while in Sparta the militarily help most public offices. According to (History.Com, 2019), “In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or “rule by the people” (from demos, “the people,” and kratos, or “power”). It was the first known democracy in the world.”

What rules governed the selection of public office …show more content…

The main similarity between the two government structures is the government were only made up of males citizen. Both states also had a system where slaves were utilized.

The differences include Athens top official were elected while Sparta top officials were not elected. The main economic activity in Athens was trading while some agriculture was also done while the main economic activity in Sparta was agriculture. This was mainly due to the geographic locations of the two states, Athens was the capital of Greece while Sparta was situated in a revering location. Athens was also known for importing large quantity of steel and fabricating ships which Sparta strength was its army.

In conclusion, Athens was the first state to take steps to adapt democracy. Citizens were allowed to participate in selection of public officers despite just a small percent of persons met the criteria at that time. There are a few similarities between Athens and Sparta and many differences, this was expected because of Athen's policy, and it is also the capital city of Greece and therefore the economic activity in this state is expected to be very