Sparta Vs Athens Dbq Analysis

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What are two Greek city-states that you know? I know two popular city-states of Ancient Greece: Sparta and Athens. Sparta and Athens are known as city-state with many contrasting beliefs. Sparta was a strict military society while Athens was a free democracy. Sparta prohibited any new ideas while Athens accepted it. Sparta was about fitness, survival, and war while Athens was about public speaking, debate, and music. As you may see, Sparta and Athens may seem like two whole different worlds, and it’s clear that they deemed each value of theirs’ important, but which city-state would go to great length to preserve that value? Sparta was more committed to their cultural value than Athens. Spartans valued military power. For instance, “Their whole lives were about military training even after 30 the Spartan boys were required to serve the military until they were 60” (Document 2). This statement from the document shows that Sparta takes …show more content…

To illustrate, Spartan girls would also be sent to school to learn how to fight and stay fit. “Spartan women were expected to protect the city from attacks when men were not home, for this reason they were trained for battle” (Document D). One reason for the Spartan women to stay fit and know to fight was to protect Sparta if it was to be attack when the men weren’t home. Women also stayed fit so they have and raise a new generation of healthy children. These motives were taken gravely as this purpose was drilled to the girls minds as they learn these skill at school much like the boys. Another example is that every Spartan girl at age eighteen would have to take a strength test. If they pass, they are set up to get married, but if they fail, they were not allowed to marry and lose their civilian’s rights. This shows that Spartan women roles were taken seriously that they would take a test where their life and rights would be at stake. Thus, women roles played a big part in Spartan

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