Athens Vs Sparta Research Paper

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Aimee Orozco Ancient Greece was composed of many different poleis, each having its own personality. Among the most extraordinary are Athens and Sparta. Athens and Sparta were different in many ways. Some aspects in which their differences are visible are through their military force, trade, and their positions in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. Athens was known for its drive for dominance (Dutton, 51). They wanted control over an extended area. Though most of the poleis were similar in ways such as religion, Athens was distinct in worshipping Athena, as most of the areas outside did not (Dutton, 51). During this time Persia was a common enemy among the Greek poleis, due to the fact they ran the danger of getting conquered. Athens tried to persuade the areas surrounding to stand up to Persia, however many of the poleis preferred to remain uninvolved (Dutton 53). During the First Persian Invasion of Greece, 10,000 Athenians went against 25,000 Persian soldiers (Dutton, 53). Athenians defeated the…show more content…
It turns out that Cylon’s plans in fixing Athens were a failure, so Solon came with new plans and a new agenda. On his agenda was helping the poor and involving citizens more. By helping the poor he was able to ease tension between people (Dutton ,58). Also, he allowed more people to have a voice in politics. In Sparta, there were two kings. (Dutton, 56) These two kings occasionally led armies, but more importantly they represented Sparta in the outside world (Dutton, 56). These kings were not respected due to the fact they were not trained military men like the rest of the Spartans. Besides this they had 5 “ephors” that more so ran the state (Dutton, 56). Having these different powers made it extremely hard for Sparta to be stable and overall solid. Since they were quite hesitant of the world around them, they formed a Peloponnesian League, which was created to assure the cooperation of the surrounding

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