FREE ESSAY ON THE TWO FACES OF ANCIENT GREECE

THE TWO FACES OF ANCIENT GREECE

The two most dominating city-states in Greece of their time, Athens and Sparta, were great
rivals with two very different ways of life. Sparta's overbearing military and Athens'
impartial justice system and government are models for many modern day countries. Even
though these two city-states differ greatly from one another, they share many
characteristics of their country and their time period.
Athens and Sparta were the two most powerful Greek territories of their time. Like most
cities of the same country, they have the same Greek culture, worshipping the same Greek
gods and speaking Greek. Like all Greeks, their people loved to talk and tell stories.
Although they fought against each other, their citizens equally had great amounts of
pride for their entire country as well as their city-states. The two rivals were both
devoted mainly to agriculture and based their wealth, but not their success, on
agriculture. Both also participated in the annual Olympics, an ancient Greek national
athletic competition which is now a worldwide tradition. These to Greek city-states were
the most feared city-states in all of Greece.
Though Athens and Sparta were similar, they were also very different. Athens was the
first democracy, and it was also the first to govern with trial by jury. Athens' main
accomplishment was that it had a very strong Navy. It was the command of the sea and the
head of the Naval Alliance, or the Delian League. Athens was the most feared city-state
to fight at sea. Its other achievements were that is had excellent forms of art,
architecture, drama and literature, philosophy, science, and medicine. It was very
wealthy and had beautiful, extravagant temples. The boys of Athens went to school between
the ages of five and eighteen, where they learned reading, writing, mathematics, music,
poetry, sports and gymnastics. The girls stayed at home and learned spinning, weaving and
domestic arts. Athens had well educated men, a good sense of art, and an all-powerful
navy.
Sparta developed the most powerful military oligarchy of their time. They had a very
strong army and were the most feared city-state to fight on land. Sparta was a member of
the Peloponnesian League and was the most powerful people in it. Its excellent military
conquered many territories, which they controlled with slaves. Sparta's sole achievement,
other than military supremacy, was that its people possessed a simple life style, with no
care for the arts of Athens. When Spartan boys turned seven years old they began training
for the military, and they ceased their training at the age of twenty. There was much
more gender equality in Sparta than in Athens, and girls went to school where they
learned reading, writing, athletics, gymnastics, and survival skills, and they could even
join the military. Sparta was militarily supreme over Athens, and it also supported
better equality and simplicity of life.
Sparta and Athens contrasted greatly in military, art, education, government, and in many
other areas. The few similarities they had were mainly based on their country's rituals
and traditions. These rituals and traditions are what the modern world remembers of the
Greek culture.