From
the Persian War to the Peloponnesian War
An excellent description of the events leading to the Peloponnesian War can be found at History for Kids!
Peloponnesian War
An excellent description of the Peloponnesian War can be found at History for Kids!
The Sicilian Expedition and Alcibiades
An excellent description of the Sicilian Expedition, Alcibiades, and more information about the Peloponnesian War can be found at History for Kids!
COMPARING SPARTA AND ATHENS
The Greeks of Sparta and Athens spoke different dialects and developed
different political systems, and very different societies. Sparta
sought conformity, Athens allowed individual expression. The two
city-states would serve as the role models for most other Greek city
states. Their differences would lead to the downfall of Greece.
Category |
Sparta |
Athens |
P
O
L
I
T
I
C
S |
- Solution to its land hunger was to conquer its neighbors,
enslave them (helots)
- Began with Messenia , which outnumbered them 7 to 1 (750
B.C.)
- Ruled by two kings (compromise made between two powerful
families), five ephors, who were elected by an assembly of
citizens (men over 30)
- Harsh laws (Lycurgus Code)
- Run like a military state (totalitarian)
|
- Athens solution to growth was colonization
- Athens began as a monarchy, then aristocracy, tyranny,
then democracy (the Greeks invented democracy)
- Began with Draco (621 B.C.), who sought order (tough code)
- Solon (594 B.C.), who rewrote the laws, ended debt slavery,
est. peoples' courts, expanded the right to vote (property,
not birth)
- Peisistratus (560 B.C.), who exiled nobles, divided their
land, encouraged trade, supported the arts, instituted new
festivals; however, his son was a harsh ruler
- Cleisthenes (510 B.C.), he opposed class divisions based
on wealth, divided citizens into 10 tribes based on where
they lived, set up the Council of 500 (50 members from each
tribe), made all citizens over 20 part of the Assembly (30,000),
and it could choose archons and generals, used ostracism
to oust unworthy, began paying officials, term limits established
- By 500 B.C. Athens was a democracy (but for only male
citizens, about 20% of pop., still practiced slavery), it
would blossom under Pericles
|
E
C
O
N. |
- Based on farming
- Little industry
- Discouraged trade (outsiders)
- No coin money
|
- Sea traders, small farmers
- Encouraged trade
- Lots of small industry
- Encouraged artisans (lured away from other places, gave
them citizenship)
|
S
O
C
I
E
T
Y
|
- Structured to ensure military might
- Rigid social divisions: Spartiates (full citizens), Periocci
(free, but not citizens), and Helots (always feared revolts,
used spy networks, had helot seasons, license to kill trouble
makers)
- All dressed much alike, ate together (and really bad food),
no luxuries
- Family life sacrificed to the polis
- Practiced infanticide
- All boys closely monitored, taken from families, given
rigid military training
- At 7 - given to the state
- At 12 - began military training
- From 20 to 60 - mil. preparedness (the Spartan warrior
was most feared)
- At 30 - made citizen, allowed to marry
- For girls
- Taught right values, to make Spartan babies
- Married at 14 (ritualistic ceremony)
- Often ran homes, businesses
|
- Society also structured, but more fluid: citizens, metics,
slaves (women could not be citizens)
- Education was needed to promote democratic values
- Boys studied Homer, music, rhetoric, read and wrote poetry,
gymnastics, math and science (became citizens at age 19,
and between 20-49, some mil. requirements)
- Girls not worthy!
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