I'm writing an essay for my ancient civilizations class. The topic being: Where would rather live, ancient athens or sparta. If you guys have any points on this topic I would really appreciate it. Thanks! I'm writing this in the view of a woman.
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1 :
Sparta.
2 :
sparta because they were stronger sparta and athens fought 3 wars sparta won two of them
3 :
Athens in its Golden Age was perhaps one of the most interesting civilizations that humans have ever produced. Their contributions in so many fields are so historically profound that they form the bedrock of Western Civilization. Sparta was a militaristic, harsh, non-individualistic society. You choose.
4 :
Unless you were lucky enough to be one of the 10,000 warriors at the top of Spartan society, your life was likely to be harsh and unpleasant. Even if you were one of those lucky few, your life was going to be harsh and unpleasant; you'd just have more power than the lower classes. If you were unlucky to be in the slave class - as the vast majority of the people living in Sparta were; your life was likely to be Hobbesian: brutal, nasty and short. Athens, on the other hand, valued the individual as well as the state, and was the birthplace of democracy. The quality of life there was much higher, overall. There was the possibility of upward mobility, which was entirely lacking in Sparta. Life was still tough in Athens, and disparity abounded, but nothing like that of grim Spartan society. Even contemporary writers said as much. Of course, if you were a woman, all bets were off. You were going to be a second class citizen in either city state. I'd take Athens, thank you.
5 :
Sparta was not a free society. It was described as a militaristic, authoritative state. Forget abortion, they killed unsuitable babies after birth. Women, were just breeders for more warriors. Athens was a free society, IF you were a man, educated and from the upper class. If not, it wasn't the best place to live. You had no access to education, if you were born into a lower classes. Women were not allowed to vote. Men practiced pederasty (look it up). For all its intellectual greatness, it was an elite society run by elites. The Persian Empire, which existed at the same time, might have been a better place to live. Regardless of your class or status, you could rise up and become educated, you could become a successful business person, and women were not treated as property but equal to their husbands. There was no democracy in the Persian Empire, but the more money you made the more freedom you had. There was no restriction on your ability to make money. Greek society both Sparta and Athens was fairly homogeneous, where as the Persian Empire reached far into Central Asia, into Europe and down into the Middle East and was multi-cultural. So I would have preferred to have lived in Ionia, which was a primarily Greek populated region on the Anatolia (present day Turkey) coast. It was ruled by the Persians, but was given a great deal of autonomy.
6 :
People seem remarkably ignorant on this topic. Athens was far more oppressive than Sparta. Of course the military life is not for everyone, but it's better than being a slave. Sure, you might be a slave in Sparta, but unless you were a member of the elite Athenian class you were essentially a slave there too. Athens was democratic, but far from equal; the two are not synonymous. Sparta emphasized equality far more than Athens did, even to the point of forbidding the accumulation of private wealth. Women were not "mere breeders" as one poster stated. In Athens women had no rights, but in Sparta they were valued and had rights. Ancient visitors to Sparta often commented on the freedom of the women. Athens was a weak bloated cow based on inequality and led by elitists who had their own interests at heart. The Spartans actually had ideals worth fighting for.
7 :
Blakenyp is right. The previous posters are very ingnorant and obviously just glancing at the 2 city-states. Athens: Women of Athens had very few rights, let alone legal rights. By comparison to present day standards, Athenian women were only a small step above slaves by the 5th century BC. She had no rights to wander about the town, without a just cause, had virtually no political rights of any kind and were controlled by men at all stages of their lives. Probably many people know that they are not allowed to go to Olympics. Chariot racing was the only game women could win, and only then if they owned the horse. Her father would chose her husband- for most Athenians, marriage was basically living together. The ancient Athenian girl did not know or meet her husband until the dowry(the girl's portion of the father's estate) and betrothal had been agreed to. Sparta: Unlike the women of Athens, Spartan women were taught reading and writing. Spartan girls were better fed their Athenian counterparts, and were taught writing, something which Menander (an Athenian) said, "Teaching a woman to read and write? What a terrible thing to do! Like feeding a vile snake on more poison." A girl's education was equally as brutal as the men's; many athletic events such as javelin, discus, foot races, and staged battles were also for both sexes. In many such events, Spartan women would run naked in the presence of their male counterparts and were respected for their athletic feats. Conclusion: Spartan women had many rights that other Greek women did not have. Namely, they could own and control their own property. They could also take another husband if their first had been away at war for too long. A woman was expected in times of war to overtake her husband's property, and to guard it against invaders and revolts until her husband returned; hence many Spartan women are pictured as warriors. Now choose.
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