Free Argumentative Essay Example: Athens was Better than Sparta

In my opinion Athens is the better city-state compared to Sparta, But before I get started here’s some info about the 2, Athens is a democracy while Sparta is an oligarchy. Athens is in southwest Greece while Sparta lies on the Peloponnesus. Sparta was more focused on war and conformity. Athens has some temples that are the most famous and good looking in the world. 

Both Sparta and Athens had slaves, In Sparta slaves were called helots. And despite Athens not really being focused on war and mostly having untrained soldiers they were able to defeat Persians.  

Firstly, slaves in Athens were treated better than slaves in most city-states. Some even had roles in their communities. Another reason is that Athens had a democracy(a direct one). Citizens were allowed to vote for people they thought would be good leaders, Whilst Sparta had an oligarchy which meant only a few people lead the city-state. My 3rd reason is that Athenian women had rights, although they couldn’t vote in both Sparta and Athens. Athenian women were allowed to leave their homes and were able to have great power in small villages. People on Sparta's side may say they had a powerful military which is true. Sparta was very feared by other city-states. But Sparta basically forced themselves to have a strong military, by taking boys away from homes at the age of 7 to train in the military. And lastly men weren’t allowed to live with their wives until they became 30. 

In conclusion, this is why I think Athens was better than Sparta; they had a democracy which in most cases is better than an oligarchy. Slaves were treated better in Athens compared to other city-states. Athenians created some very good looking temples. Athen’s women had a decent amount of rights. Spartan women had to take care of the household by themselves since men weren’t allowed to live with them. I feel like Sparta would’ve been better if they did not focus on war so much. But hey, they won against Athens when it came to wartime.