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During
Greece’s Classical Age, Greece flourished in wealth, security, and power. Among the success, only two city-states stood
out from the rest: Athens and Sparta.
While both cities were powerful, they were quite different from each
other, regarding their social, political, and cultural characteristics.
Athens social lifestyle was different
from that of Sparta. Athens’ society was
based on its land, which was divided into ten tribes. Under the rule of Cleisthenes, Athens was
divided up into three large sections.
Each large section would be divided up into ten units, creating thirty
units in total. Three units would be
combined to make one tribe creating ten tribes.
This played into the political system because fifty citizens from each
tribe would be selected to participate in the government. While Athens’ society was based on land
distribution, Sparta actually had a social hierarchy. Sparta’s society had three social rankings:
the Spartiates, the Perioikoi, and the Helots.
The Spartiates were the upper class, who consisted of military warriors
who were part of the army. Unlike Athens
where all the citizens had political power, only Sparta’s upper class had
political power. The middle class, the
Perioikoi, consisted of merchants and traders.
They did not have any political power, yet they were the only ones who
could leave the city for trading purposes.
The lowest class were the Helots, who were slaves captured on previous
Spartan military campaigns. They did not
have any political power and were even targets for murder by the Spartiates as
a part of the warriors’ training.
Both city-states had different political
systems. Athens was a democracy where
the people ruled. Each citizen belonged
to one of ten different tribes. Every
year, fifty men of each tribe would be randomly selected to be part of the boule, or a council of five hundred
men. Each month, one tribe would rule
and one military leader (a Strategos)
would become the supreme ruler for a year.
The council would discuss any sort of issue regarding the state of
Athens and everyone had a chance to speak (excluding women, children, slaves,
and those who sis not own any land).
Sparta’s government was completely different. They had an oligarchy, which is the rule of
very few. Unlike Athens, only a few men
actually controlled the government.
Sparta had two kings who ruled together.
They also had a senate-like body called the Gerousia, who were a group of old Spartan warriors who advised the
kings about certain decisions. First,
only those from the upper class (Spartiates) could ever be considered for
government positions. Also, those who
had lived to the age of sixty after all the training and warfare, could
actually particupare in the Gerousia. Unlike the Athenians where everybody could
vote even if they were inexperienced, the Spartans only had those who became experienced
in battle and survived play the center roles in the society.
Athens and Sparta both differed in
regards to their cultural lifestyle. The
Athenians had a diverse culture, where they supported the pursuit of knowledge,
sports and competition, poetry, and much more.
They had many festivals celebrating the different aspects of their
culture. More famously, the Dionysia was
one of the festivals, celebrating theater and acting. Many philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle
taught many about the meaning of life and how to live a happy life. They even had public recitations of Homer
(introduced by Pisistratus). Sculptures
of famous figures were found everywhere in the city, and new architectural
buildings such as the Parthenon were built, many of which were temples to the
gods, usually to Athena. The Spartans
had a more conservative culture. Their
main focus on life was not how to live a happy life (like in Athens), but how
to become the strongest and well-trained warrior. Their entire culture revolved around creating
the strongest warriors, and thus the strongest army. They did have festivals, although they were
more serious, more competitive, and more violent. They did not focus on philosophy or any sort
of intellectual knowledge (unless it played a role in battle and warfare, such
as strategy). Also, they did not even
write anything down about how their lifestyle or training, or military
strategies. All in all, the Spartans did
not like any new ideas and had a very traditional attitude about how to live
their lives regarding culture.
In conclusion, both Athens and Sparta
have different social, political, and cultural systems. Athens’ society is divided up into ten
tribes, while Sparta is divided into three classes. Athens’ government is a democracy, where
every citizen could participate, while the Spartans had an oligarchy, ruled by
two kings and a council that only the upper class could participate in. Finally, the Athenians encouraged the pursuit
of knowledge, many fun festivals, and much more. The Spartans only focused on how to create
the most deadly and diligent soldier, and did not regard for anything
else. The differences would eventually
lead to a rivalry between the two city-states that eventually resulted in the
Peloponnesian War.
