Why Is Athens Better Than Sparta

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Kailee Sharp 15 September, 2014 EUH 2000 Historical Paper II Around 500 BCE, Greece was one of the major powers of the world, controlling a large portion of land along the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Much of this and was separated into what are called poleis, or city-states that controlled an area of land. These poleis were also grouped within regions within the area of Greece. Two of the major poleis were Athens and Sparta. These two poleis were very separate from one another. Athens being on the main portion of the peninsula in the region of Attica and Sparta being on the Peloponnesus just of the edge of the peninsula in a region called Laconia (Dutton 57). Athens was much more social than Sparta. Since Athens was very near the Aegean Sea, it made it much easier for them to trade with outsiders. Sparta on the other hand was landlocked making it difficult for them to trade using anything other than land. Due to their placement on the Peloponnesus, they were a very introverted society, trading very little with other poleis and rarely getting involved in the issues of other poleis. During the years of 490 and 480-479 BCE, Greece was invaded twice by the Persian Empire. At this time, many poleis of the Peloponnesus had decided not to involve themselves in…show more content…
Xerxes lead a very large army of around 300,000 both by sea and across land (54). This group of soldier eventually met with a small group of Spartan soldiers led by King Leonidas at Thermopylae (54). The Persian army eventually defeated the tiny Spartan army but at a great cost. Since the Spartans had devoted their lives to being soldiers, they had been abel to do a great deal of damage to the Persian army, due to great strategy but also due to the advanced training of their soldiers. After Sparta lost this battle, Xerxez was then able to invade Athens, causing its inhabitants to flee and buring the city to the

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