Help me on my classroom debate on "which city-state is better-- Athens or Sparta"?

Question

Which city-state is better Athens or Sparta

Answer 1

Athens was more democratic and participated in more wars concerning greek territory than Sparta did.Sparta had its own codes.It had a very strict polemical education and wanted to be counted as an independent town among the rest greek ones.I think its political system was dictactorial.So Sparta was an aboriginal town with its own strong army and didn't get it that well with Athaenians the most of the time!There was a rivalry between them I think...To show how strict Spartans were, when young soldiers left their home for a war they heard the below command from their families:"Ή ταν ή επί τας",-"I tan i epi tas"which means "Or with the buckler or on the buckler".It could also be translated as "You will come or alive and proud or dead ".They wouldn't accept deserters and betrayers.It would be a dishonour for the whole family of the soldier!

Answer 2

Sparta and Athens, the two most powerful cities of Hellas, did not have much in common. The Athenians attempted to develop their artistic and intellectual capabilities, while Sparta remained isolated from the rest of Hellas, without art or literature, without beautiful buildings, without any development of their social and political traditions. Sparta lived on as a fossilized military city, though its military capabilities and more or less stable form of government still were admired by many other Greeks. The two city-states that best represent each form of government were Sparta (oligarchy) and Athens (democracy). The democratic government in Athens, though de cently equal, fair and fairly advanced for its time, did not meet the needs of the Greeks. During a time of many military battles Athens decided to worry more about comfort and culture. It is the oligarchy in Sparta that put a war-like attitude as it's first priority and best met the needs of Ancient Greece. The Athenian democratic government, which may have given the citizens in Greece more freedom, was not the best form of government at the time. The democracy in Athens cannot really be called a true democracy since there were several flaws in the governme nt and the way it worked. Only ten percent of the total population of Athens actually had voting rights and allof these citizens were upper class men who were over thirty years old. Women, no matter what the class or age, were given no freedom at all. In the city-state of Sparta, the government was controlled by an oligarchy in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. It may not seem very fair that the citizens had little say in the decisions made by the government but, at the time, this was the better government. For that specific time period the oligarchy government in Sparta was better for the Ancient Greeks than the democratic government in Athens. The government in Athens worried more about the citizens of its city-state then its own well-being. The Spartan oligarchy may not have given its citizens a lot of freedom but it was successful in gaining attention and respect from the other Greeks and their rival nations.

Answer 3

I prefer Spata over Athens due to their warfare and stoic lifestyles. Athens had more free thinking in my opinion though. Sparta was a tougher town and it took the Romans years to conquer their capital city in a siege. Gotta respect that.

Answer 4

athens is the capital and very busy and messy, sparta is a small city people do not have the pressure of the capital, i would vote for sparta

Answer 5

depends on whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. Democrats would prefer Athens. Republicans Sparta.

Answer 6

I prefer culture over hard discipline and military state.
I would always choose Athens (although I admire Sparta in one way, Thermopylae battle for example is something magnificent).

Answer 7

Sparta.

Answer 8

Athens: democracy, philosophy, mathematics, rule of law, drama, poetry, medicine. Not a bad list
Sparta: extreme, authoritarian, military regime with almost no remaining artifacts. They were responsible for holding back the Persians at the Gates of Thermopolea (find out about Leonidas). If they hadn't, much of the Athenian cultural advance would have been lost.

Answer 9

Athens!

Answer 10

Depends what the criteria are. If you want the better disciplined state then it would be Sparta. And on and on.