Download Sparta v Athens Focus On Culture

Sparta and Athens: A Focus on Greek Culture
1 Ancient Greece was home to groups of people who shared a common language,
common religion and a common form of city-state type government but these groups were
very different in the education of their children and preparation of their citizens for public
service within society, as well as the rights and privileges they afforded to their citizens. In this
article we will focus on two groups of ancient Greeks, the Spartans and the Athenians, and will
share the unique characteristics of these ancient and interesting societies.
2 The people of Sparta focused on cultivating strong
military skills to prepare their citizens for public service. At age
seven, boys left their family to live in barracks where they were
harshly treated, encouraged to fight, and given scant food,
clothing, and shelter in order to make them tough. Although
reading and writing were taught for military purposes, they were
considered less important than survival skills which were stressed
greatly. At age 18, Spartan men were required to pass a physical
fitness test and then entered the regular army where they lived in
barracks and remained in military training until the age of 30 when they were allowed to return
home, choose a wife, and start a family. Men aged 30 – 60 continued to train for combat and
remained ready for battle where they were expected to ‘win or die trying but never to
surrender’. Men who reached the age of 60 were eligible to serve in the Spartan government
on the Council of Elders which wrote and presented laws to the assembly of which all Spartan
men over the age of 30 belonged. The Spartan government was an oligarchy type city-state in
which a few people held power. The Spartan government discouraged foreign visitors,
supervised travel abroad, and frowned upon citizens who studied literature or the arts. So
focused were they on military training, the Spartans soon fell behind other Greeks in trade and
knowledge about science and the arts.
3 Athens, a city-state which lay at least a two-day trip away, was
miles more apart in their values and methods of preparation for the
future. Though they were known for their strong Navy, Athenian
education centered around preparing their citizens to be well-rounded,
productive individuals with strong minds and strong bodies rather than
focusing solely on military might. Athenian boys were taught at home by
their mothers, or a male slave, until age seven when they entered a
primary school which taught them not only to read, write, and do
arithmetic but also to sing, memorize poetry, play musical instruments,
practice public-speaking, and excel in athletics. Early Athens, like other city-states such as
Sparta, utilized an oligarchy type government. In the Athenian system, a council of 400 wealthy
citizens wrote the laws and an assembly which consisted of all male citizens over the age of 18
voted to pass the laws. The Athenian government’s forward-thinking attitude allowed their
society to excel in not only mathematics and science but in the arts such as music, literature,
poetry, and architecture as well.