World Civilization to 1500: Comparing Ancient Athens and Ancient Sparta

Introduction

Ancient Athens and Ancient Sparta were both Greek city statesbut they were two very different civilizations in spite of the fact that they existed in some proximity to one another. Athens was known as the seat of culture and learning in the ancient world, and Spartan culture was often ridiculed by Athenians because it was much more focused on sports, physicality and brutality. The Spartans and the Athenians were often at war with one another as well, but on some occasions they worked together against a common enemy, as they did against ancient Persia. The Athenian playwright Aristophenes wrote about the differences between the two civilizations in his famous comedy Lysistrata, in which the Spartan women and the Athenian work together to deprive their men of sex so that the men will stop fighting their silly wars with one another. The play was a success because of its social commentary on the times, the fact that these two civilizations were always fighting each other when not fighting the Persians, and the fact that the idea of Athenian women and Spartan women putting their heads together for a common aim was so ludicrous it made Aristophenes audience laugh. In reality, the Spartan civilization would eventually conquer the Athenian civilization, which became weak through corruption (after all, its leaders put to death its most famous philosopher and teacher, Socrates, just because he was teaching the youth how to ask questions and think criticallyand they viewed that as a threat to their authority). This paper will discuss the differences and similarities of the two civilizations and show why, in spite of their nearness, they were actually much more different than they were similar.

Differences

Although both civilizations owned slaves, slavery in Athens was much less harsh than it was in Sparta (PBS). It was often remarked that one could not even tell much of a difference between who was a slave and who was a free man in Athens. In Sparta, this was not the case at all. There were actually more slaves in Sparta than there were free men, and the slaves were not treated with much respect. As Herodotus points out, in the fifth century BC at the time of the Battle of Plataea, there were seven slaves for every Spartan man. That is why there was a great slave revolt in Sparta and the Spartans were always fearful of losing control of the slaves.

The slaves in Sparta were called helots and it was essentially a population of oppressed people that the Spartans tried to control. The Spartans would abuse them and even wage war on them, slaughter them, and beat them into subjugation routinely. The relationship between the Spartans and the helots was similar to the relationship between modern day Israel and Palestine: the Spartans always carried their spears and never relaxed except when at home for fear they might be attacked by the helots. This was one reason the Spartans placed so much emphasis on physical fitness and conditioning. They were always concerned for their security, even though they ruled over the helots. The fact that the helots outnumbered them considerably and were filled with anger towards the Spartans was the main cause of the Spartans unease.

In Athens, there was no such discomfort. The slaves were not mistreated or abused like they were in Sparta. Athens placed more respect on human life. In Sparta, if a child was born with a defect it would be killed as the Spartans despised weakness and felt that any weak individual among them would be a threat to their own civilization. Athens did not boast of such cruelty or barbarity.

The two also had different forms of government. Athens was the seat of democracy. Sparta was an oligarch: ruled by a few powerful families. Athens prided itself on civic dutyon the role of the individual to go vote for its leaders, to sit on juries, and to be part of the governance of society. Sparta had no such type of system. In Sparta, civic duty consisted of training and preparing for military combat, which one had to do from age 7 all the way up to age 60 (Diffen). Spartan was much more focused on brute physicality than it was on education or philosophy. If the most important thing for Athenians was to be intelligent, cultured, artistic, and philosophical, the most important thing for Spartans was to be courageous and brave in battle (Christesen).

Another big difference was the fact that in Athens, women had almost no role in society. They were not educated in schools, and their rarely left the home other than to attend events. Athenian men did everything in societythey voted, received education, ran the government, did the work, trained for their military. The women had an entirely domestic role. In Sparta, it was much different. Sparta was actually led informally by its women, as Redfield points out: women dominated, and men obeyed. Figuiera notes that Spartan gynecocracy appears most clearly in...…was warlike and fierce. Athens was soft and philosophical. Sarta lived in fear of uprising from the helots. Athens sought to dominate more and more in order to add to its monopoly on trade and grow in wealth and influence. Sparta did not focus much on education and philosophyit was primarily interested in physical endurance and training in the martial arts. Athens did not require its boys to engage in military service, and for adults mandatory service was very limited in terms of a couple yearsit was nothing like the lifetime of service expected of Spartans.

Sparta simply had an entirely different culture. Sparta expected its girls to by physically fit just like its boys. Athens wanted its women to be entirely domesticatednot fighting on the battlefield or influencing politics, economics, art, or philosophy. In Athens, monogamy was an important cultural valuebut it was not in Sparta. The most important thing in Sparta was that children be strongso it was a common practice for people to breed based on strength and genes.

Spartas military was also not as invincible as it wanted to be. It was eventually defeated by the Thebans, and it never really recovered. It lost all its slaves, and it became a shell of its former self. Athens was conquered but it never really went away. It still exists and is still an important part of Greece today, which says a lot for its longevity and cultural traditions.

Athens is remembered for many famous namesPericles, who commissioned many great works of art that gave glory to Athens and its culture, for instance (Racine). Then there was the great trio of philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, that gifted to the Western world a philosophical tradition that would last for two thousand years. Athens produce Solon, who laid the foundations for democracy in the civilization, and it produced the great four playwrights whose works are still performed today: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophenes, and Euripides. Sparta never produced anything even close to what these artists put out. For these reasons, the two civilizations were very much more different from one another in spite of their geographical proximity within the wider ancient Greek world.

Conclusion

Civilizations are sometimes thought of in terms of empire, but as the case with Athens and Sparta shows, civilization can be understood in small terms because it is all about how closed or open a system is. Athens was very open, as a major trade destination. Sparta was very closed, as it was landlocked. Each faced different concerns and held different values. They were close…