Why Is Athens Better Than Sparta

Athens and Sparta are the most well- known city-states of Ancient Greece. Sparta was known for its military might and prowess, as well as its equality. Women were able to receive an education, have property, and as girls were trained in group exercises and agility. The source of power for Sparta was found in the military, where boys enroll at eighteen years of age and they serve for ten years in the military. Their training starts at seven years of age, where the boy is taken from his mother and lived in a Spartan training camp. One thing that Sparta had that the other city-states didn’t was order and discipline. By law, a father could beat his son for misconduct. Sparta also had a goal to have fit and disciplined citizens to keep the barbarians

The reasons why they had such a good military was: 1). They spent all their time training, and 2). They disciplined their youth. Youth in Sparta grew up learning about order and discipline, as it was lawful for a father to beat his child. The second reason why Sparta is superior is equality. Unlike Athens, women were able to own their own property as well as learn to read and write along with domestic duties. This helped them contribute to society, as well as help guard their homes as the men go off to war. Sparta also allowed homosexual relationships, seeing it as a normal and natural part of life. However, those engaging in that relationship must be the same age. Otherwise, the relationship is unlawful. This is another reason why Sparta was so successful: Sparta had an equal community. Men fought wars while women did domestic chores and raised children, but no gender was considered more superior or more important in Spartan society. The last reason is the most important: they withstood the Persian Empire. Athens had the will and drive to fight but didn’t have the army or the resources to defend their home. It was Sparta who was the stronghold in the Persian war, holding off the Persian military at Thermopylae for three days. This helped Greece defeat the Persians, causing Persia to fully retreat from Greece, leading to Greece winning the Persian war. This is why Sparta is more superior than Athens,