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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.