Differences And Similarities Between The Athens And Spartans History Essay

The Athens and Spartans were two civilizations with many differences and similarities. The Spartans were the ones that wanted a strong army, a civilization with no freedom and less education for men so they could fight in the army. The Athenians had a strong army but freedom was very important and the education to the people was a priority. The life as a Spartan was very difficult because the kids started to train at the age of 7 and finish at the age of 18, then they must go to fight on the army. The girls were also trained, but at the age of 15 they married, had kids and stayed at home. At the age of 30, they gained a full citizenship just like the men. In Athens, the baby boys were more important than girls and wealthy children were raised by a special tutor; from age 7 the boys started to go to school and received special training for different works. Girls remained at home and learned crafts and poetry from their mothers; they often marry at age 15. At age 18 men go to the army for two years and then they get back home to work. Women, however, stayed at home to raise and take care of children.

These 2 civilizations were based in 3 ways of government (monarchy, oligarchy and democracy). The monarchy is based in a government ruled by a king or a queen. On the other hand, oligarchy was based in a government that was ruled by a small group of citizens that make decisions. However, the democracy is a system in which the citizens vote to make governmental decisions. The disadvantage of the monarchy is that the king does what he wants, the citizens can’t choose the king and that the people can´t choose the laws. The disadvantage of the oligarchy is that the people can´t decide anything in the government, just a small group of citizens have the right to vote and choose the laws. The disadvantages of the democracy are that anyone may be a candidate, also that some citizens were not decided and that the people may not agree so there may be fight. However these types of government have advantages like the monarchy, the king may control everything so he could make the right choices. In the oligarchy the group of citizens may make good laws that help the civilization. Finally the democracy was the best because the citizens may choose the government.

As the Athens Spartan`s military protect he government and the government gives education to the civilization “The two most powerful and best-known of those city-states were Athens and Sparta” (http://plaza.ufl.edu/tlombard/). As the Spartans the Athenians have a strong military, the two civilizations have a majority in land soldiers rather than sailors. As Athenians the Spartans had a good education but the Athenians were more interested on it, the two civilizations made that the children start education at the age of 7. As the Spartans the Athenians had different way of government but their government was good, they used 3 ways of government: monarchy, oligarchy and democracy.

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As they had similarities they also had differences. The military of Sparta was huge and the best of all but the Athens military was a simple but strong military, the young boy started to train at the age of 7 but the Athenians went to the army at the age of 18, the Spartans kept on the army up until 60 years old but the Athenians just started to work when they get back from army. In the government The Athenians were the ones who started the democracy, it was called limited democracy that means that not everybody could vote only the ones with citizenship and the important people, and the one who started the democracy was Draco when he took the power. However the Spartans had a way to govern that they had an assembly named the council of elders, the made up the laws and the ones that choose instead of the people. The Spartans had less education than Athens because they need to go to the army “Sparta seemed to be content with themselves and provided their army whenever required” (http://www.diffen.com/difference/Athens_vs_Sparta); in school they had physical education that was very hard. The Athens had a good education and many subjects to study on, the women also study but they need to be at home and learning about crafts and poetry from their mothers and they marry at age 15.

The roles that Spartans men had in the civilization was very hard, when they are born the healthy kids were raised by the mothers but the unhealthy kids were taken to a cave so they die. When they had 7 years old they were trained and by physical education, they training were made up of punishments and hard training. When they get to age of 18 they serve the army for their whole life, when the women was born they were not so important as the men so they were raised, at the age of 7 they hay physical education but at the age of 15 they got marry and raised the kids. However when the Athenian boys were born the healthy ones were raised by some special tutors, the unhealthy were send to the gates so people passing by may take them. At the age of 7 the boys receive education but the girls stayed at home learning crafts and poetry by their mothers “Athenian girls did not attend school” (McDougal 129). At the age of 18 the boys serve to the army for 2 years then the go back home to work “when they got older, boys went to military school to help them prepare for another important duty of citizenship-defending Athens”(McDougal littell 129). However the women marry at the age of 15 and had kids and raise them.

The Peloponnesian war was a bloody war, the Athens were based on the navy but the Spartans were based on the land army, when the war started it was very bloody and no one was winning so they signed a treaty to stop war, the war lasted 9 years. 4 years later the Spartans burned the food supplies of the Athenians because they thought that they had a very good army, the Spartans win the wars but they led the Athenians be the cultural center of Greece. In conclusion the Spartans and Athenians were a well develop civilization but in my point of view the Athenians were best civilization because they were better people but the Spartans were bad and dangerous.