Download Greek City States: Athens vs. Sparta

Greek City States:
Athens vs. Sparta
• 621 BCE Draco develops legal system in which all
Athenians (rich or poor) were equal under the law
• 594 BCE Solon outlaws debt slavert for citizens
• 500 BCE Cleisthenes organizes citizens into ten groups
based on where they lived rather than wealth
• Allows Assembly to submit laws for debate
• Creates the Council of 500 to advise the Assembly and
propose laws to be voted on
Athenian Government:
Road to Democracy
• Three main bodies
• Assembly ALL Athenian citizens allowed to vote and
debate laws
• Council of 500 chosen at random- could be ANY
Athenian citizen
• People’s Court
• Citizenship
• Males, 18 years or older, Athenian, landowners
• Excludes women, slaves, and Metics (Greeks not born in
Athens)
Athenian government:
Road to Democracy
• 4 main branches
• Assembly
• Voted on laws, elected officials
• Composed of ALL Spartan Citizens
• Council of Elders
• Made up of 30 older citizens
• Proposed laws for the Assembly to vote on
• Five Officials
• Carried out the laws
• Controlled education
• Prosecuted court cases
• Two Kings ruled over military
Spartan Government:
Military State
• Citizens people descended from original inhabitants of
Sparta
• Could participate in government
• Could own land
• Spent their life serving Spartan military
• Free Non-Citizens born somewhere else in Greece.
Could own businesses but could not participate in
government
• Helots conquered people, or slaves. Worked in the
fields or as house servants
Spartan Social Order
• Education available for sons of wealthy families began
at age 7
• Centered around the idea of good citizenship
• Classes in reading, writing, public speaking, logic, history,
and math (needed to be good speakers and debaters in the
Assembly)
• Spent time in Athletic and military training as well, to be
able to defend Athens
• Took classes in Sculpture, poetry, music, literature using
the mind to create beauty was valued in Athens
Education: Athens
• Boys left home for military barracks at age 7
• Stayed there until the age of 30
• Education in the barracks consisted of marching, battle tactics,
fight training
• NO individual expression- Spartan boys were one of the group
• Did not value the arts, literature, or intellectual pursuits
• Emphasis on developing “toughness”
• Wore no shoes and light tunics
• slept without blankets on hard benches
• Meals= porridge; boys were encouraged to steal food if still
hungry produced resourceful soldiers
Education: Sparta
• Girls did not attend school
• Educated at home learned to make clothes, cook, manage
a household, raise kids
• Some women did learn to read and write, but overall,
women kept out of Athenian society
• NOT citizens, could not participate in government
Women: Athens
• Spartan girls received military training
• Played sports, wrestled, ran
• Considerable Freedom
• Allowed to run the home and business while men were at
war
• Service to Sparta over Service to Family
• Tough girls gave birth to tough soldiers
Women: Sparta