Professor Saperstein
Foundations of Civilizations
18 December 2017
Comparing Greek City States
Sparta and Athens are very distinct early Greek city states. In early Greece, many citizens had easy access to water above all things. Both city states have many differences despite the developing of both. Sparta and Athens differ in many ways including geographic, economy, government, education, women and military differences. Geographically, Sparta and Athens are not too far apart from each other. They are one hundred and fifty miles apart from one another. Athens is in central Greece, only four miles from the Aegean sea (C). The athenians were so close to the sea that it made trading a lot easier or them. They were able to survive …show more content…
They developed coins to make trade better and more efficient. Athenians had a marketplace known as The Agora to buy and sell their goods (c). In Sparta, the Spartans relied on farming. The Spartans also relied on conquering. There were many slaves in Sparta that were in charge of producing goods and the people would steal from them because they were powerless. Spartans had limited space for cropping because they had less land to use. Spartans discouraged trade in fear of it weakening their government (c). Athens had rocky and bumpy soil which prevented a healthy growth for crops while it also limited their amount of crops. Spartans had good soil which helped the growth of good healthy …show more content…
Young Athenian boys were taught at home until the age of seven and were then sent to school to learn useful skills such as reading, writing and math. Once young Athenian boys turned eighteen years old, they were sent to military training. The population of Sparta consisted of three main groups: the Spartans, or Spartiates, who were full citizens; the Helots, or serfs/slaves; and the Perioeci, who were neither slaves nor citizens (History.com Staff). In Sparta they believed all children were born to protect the city state and join the military to do so. If a child appeared to not be strong, they were to be left to die and not cared for. Their only concern was to keep the city state up and running with the best military possible. All children were trained to fight as soon as possible. Spartan boys were expected to become soldiers and began training as young children. Both city states had slaves who also shared differences. These slaves were people captured in war or people born into slavery. Slaves were everywhere in Athens and everyone has a slave. Even the poorest of the poor has slaves. Spartan slaves had more rights than slaves in Athens which had none. The Spartan slaves enjoyed some freedoms like marriage or buying their own freedom. All those living in these city states were treated differently and all had different