Athens vs. Sparta Essay Sample

📌Category: Ancient Greece, History
📌Words: 721
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 01 April 2022

Athens or Sparta, you ask? When we started this unit basically all we wanted to do was choose a place and talk, talk, talk and talk about it. But as we went deeper and learned more we started to listen and care about what others had to say. We learned that Sparta valued strength and loyalism and Athens valued intelligence and wit.  Spartans were always at war and were considered to have the best army of the times; however, Athenians were known for their schooling and their record keeping.  I made my decision after hearing everyone’s opinions and reading/researching each city-state/polis. If given the choice between Athens and Sparta I would pledge my allegiance to Sparta, despite the harsh training and lifestyle in Ancient Sparta I would choose to live in Sparta because of their structured government and their treatment of women being better than Athens. 

A reason that Sparta is a better place to live than Athens is because of their government. According to Britannica Quest the government in  Sparta was ruled by two kings, but to make sure they weren’t letting power get to their head, Sparta elected 5 ephors- overseers who watched over the kings, making sure they didn’t make bad or corrupt decisions. (Britannica) Typically, a monarchy has one ruler, a king or queen who has power over nearly all decisions. Throughout history this has led to issues of power struggles and corruption. I like Sparta's government because it has five ephors that make sure the kings aren’t or don’t become dictators and can’t do whatever they want. Also according to Britannica Quest the ephors make sure the decisions and laws that the kings pass are right and fair. The Athenian government is chosen by a lottery. The lottery selects 500 people at random who are free, white, males. Free meaning not a person who is enslaved.The 500 people form the Council of 500, which is responsible for making the laws that another group will vote on. I don't like this about Athens’s government because the selection of the government is random and so the people who are chosen could be not smart and also not experienced. This could lead to bad laws being passed and lacking the wisdom of the government in Sparta. Sparta makes sure that those participating in their government have a high level of expertise.  This is a reason why I like Sparta better and you should too, would you want an inexperienced government ruling over your city-state? I know I wouldn’t

Another reason I chose Sparta over Athens is because of Sparta's treatment of women. Mr.Sparta says, Sparta Women are allowed outside, to talk to their husbands friends, to own property and marry someone else while their husbands are at war, none of these things are allowed in Athens for women. I don't agree with the fact that this has to be said for women when really it shouldn’t be this way women and men should be equal,  but at least in Sparta they have some rights where as in Athens they don't really have any. Ms.Bach once had a project, it was to see how hard it would be to only leave/go outside with a boy so they made the girls do this and if Ms.Bach got pared with a boy  who didn’t really care about being late to class and she then was late she would get detention. This shows how hard it would have been for women in Athens everyday because Ms.Bach only had to do  it for one day and it was hard. If men didn’t know how it felt to have/feel powerless they could pass laws affecting women while being naive to what the women are feeling, therefore the laws could be extremely unfair.This is another example of why Sparta is better for me because I identify as female. 

Athens may have been given an education and intelligence but Sparta also values these things; they just value strength more. As a female I wouldn’t have to participate in war and so Sparta is much better than athens. Their government, their treatment to women and most of all their treatment to citizens! If you were to choose, wouldn’t you choose the city state that wasn't extremely biased towards gender? I know I would!  Neither Athens or Sparta were perfect or close to perfect but given the choice between Athens and Sparta I would pledge my allegiance to Sparta despite the harsh training and lifestyle in Ancient Sparta I would choose to live in Sparta because of their structured government and their treatment of women was much better than Athens.

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