Athens VS. Sparta

athens

Get it in writing For years, the laws in Athens were never written down. The Aristocrats would often bend the rules to suit themselves. The aristocrats would justify it by saying the gods had given them the power. People eventually became unsatisfied with this explanation. They demanded for the laws to be written down.

Steal food? Sleep on sidewalk? Dead. The first written laws were by a man named Draco. They were said to apply to all members of society, not just the poor. Death was a very common punishment including for stealing fruit or sleeping in a public place. These harsh laws added to the anger of the poor who were already losing their land to wealthy aristocrats. If a person could not repay their debts they became a slave to their debtor. The poor began to threaten violence.

Solon The Athenian ruler Solon was asked to solve the problem. He created a compromise that eased the tension between rich and poor. He created four social classes based on wealth. He outlawed debt slavery. He only allowed members of top 3 classes to hold political office. But, any citizen could participate in the Athenian assembly. Also any citizen could bring charges of wrongdoing against any person.

Cleisthenes Allowed all citizens to submit drafts of laws for the assembly to consider. Created the Council of 500 whose job was to propose law to assembly. The Councils’ members were supposed to be chosen at random.

Citizen? Only free adult males were able to participate in the political process. Women slaves and foreigners were excluded.

Athenian education The Athenians believed in a well rounded education for boys. They focused on most of the same subjects we teach in American schools. Girls were expected to learn from their mothers or nanny’s about child raising, weaving, cooking and other skills that they believed would create good wives and mothers.

Sparta

The Spartans In 725 B.C. they were running out of farmland so they conquered the neighboring Messenians. They made slaves of the people and called them helots. They made the helots give them half their crops each year. The Messenians revolted. The Spartans were outnumbered 8 to 1 and they barely won. This increased their dedication and focus toward war.

Spartan Daily Life Boys were taken from home at age 7. They could not speak at will. They were purposefully underfed to encourage them to steal food and learn to be stealthy. They slept without blankets on hard benches. Some of the most promising teenagers were sent to live in the woods and murder helots who plotted revolt. Study of literature, arts and music was forbidden in order to maintain unity in thinking.

Governmental system There was a council of 28 men over the age of sixty along with 2 kings. This “Council of Thirty” wrote and proposed laws to be considered by the assembly. The assembly could approve or reject the laws. There was also a group of men called Ephors who were elected annually. They could bring charges against the king and even imprison him.

The Persian War