Why was Sparta better than Athens?
Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War. The Spartan army was a full time,professional standing army that spent all its time - even in peacetime - training and drilling.The Athenian army was part time citizen soldiers,who were called up for a given campaign or battle,and who went back to ther day jobs after. Spartans valued silence over empty words,such as those spoken by the rhetoricains and sophists in Athens. This meant that when they did speak,what they said was important and well considered.As Socrates said "Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and speaking" Spartan women had a fulle ducation,the same as Spartan men (Athenian women were given no education - even Pericles claimed that educating a woman was useless).Spartan women could also choose who,or even if,they wanted to marry.Athenian women did as they were told by the male head of the family,and were not even allowed out except for important family events such as marriages and funerals.Spartan women could go where they wanted when they wanted.Cynisca,a Spartan woman,owned the team that won the 4 horse chariot race at the Olympics in 396 BC and 392 BC;Athenian women were not allowed to own any property. No literature ? Not so. Tyrtaeus Alcman Isyllus were all well known Spartan poets No philosophy?Again,not so. Lycurgus Chilon were both famous Spartan philosophers. No architecture? Wrong agian. Sparta had baracks for its soldiers (something Athens did not have) as well as a theatre All Spartan citizens were considered socially equal and of equal status and wealth.Athens had class divisions,with wealthy aristocrats and the poorer masses as citizens.
What was the difference between ancient Athens and Sparta?
Sparta was a society built entirely around military life. Spartan citizen males were taken at the age of seven to be trained as warriors. They were expected to spend their time in miltary training, and live in communal barracks. meanwhile their farms were run by the woman and the slaves. In Athens, all citizen males were expected to do two years military training from the age of eighteen, and they were expected to be ready to go to war at any time, but they were not entirely devoted to miltiary purposes. Athens, like Sparta, was a slave-based economy, 50% of the population were slaves. Athens was a democracy, male citizens would gather in an assembley where they would elect officials, and vote on various issues. Sparta had two kings, both hereditary, but there were five ephors, elected by the citizen assembley, who oversaw and had veto power over the kings, so it was an interesting mixture of oligarchy and democracy. In Athens, women would generally marry at quite an early age, around twelve to fourteen. They were expected to stay at home most of the time, and busy themselves spinning and weaving, and supervising the slaves. Women of the lower classes would go out and about more, as they would have to work for a living, and would not have slaves to do things like fetching water etc. Women took no part in political life, but they did participate fully in religious life, taking part in festivals, joining the msytery cults etc. In Sparta, women were expected to exercise and keep fit like men, so that they would bear healthy children. They generally married later than Athenian women, at around eighteen. The women were mostly left to run things while the men were away, which gave them more freedom on the whole than Athenian women had. The arts were more important in Athens than they were in Sparta. Athens produced many notable philosophers, writers, mathematicians, etc, whereas in Sparta military glory was everything. Even their poets were martial. Early Sparta produced some beautiful pottery and bronzes, but unlike Athens they had no coinage, they used iron spits several feet long for money.
What was ancient Athens' military like?
It was a militia force. Citizens served when called upon. Each kept his hopla (shield) and armor at home, ready for action. Each Athenian decorated his own shield, unlike the Spartans who all had shields with the letter lambda, signifying "Lacedaemon", the city's name. Probably didn't hurt that it looks rather like a spear point. Athenians valued individualism (up to a point); Sparta didn't. This did not provide so large a force as one might think. Only about ten percent of the Athenian population were citizens. The rest were slaves or "resident foreigners" (who may have lived in Athens for generations, but were still considered foreigners). Still, the population of Athens and Attica was very large compared to places such as Sparta. The port of Piraeus was protected at all cost, it being the lifeline for a net importer of grain to feed all those mouths.Wealthier citizens served as cavalry, in that they could afford the training and upkeep of warhorses. One does not take a horse from the plow and ride it into battle. That would be worse than useless. A warhorse is a precision weapon.Similarly in Rome it was early practice for the wealthy to serve as cavalry. Hence came the name of the classes below Senatorial rank: "Equites". However, an up-and-coming politician on the cursus honorum wanted glory in battle. This was to be had with the infantry. Cavalry without stirrups, which would not be devised until centuries later, had limited battlefield impact. So in Rome the cavalry became an unpopular branch; the Romans instead used mostly auxiliary cavalry.Incidentally, horseshoes was a rather late invention. Greek philosophers sought means to toughen horses' hooves. One recommended repeated pounding in sand for the purpose.Citizens of Athens took pride in their preparation for battle. It was the mark of a citizen, one of the 10% of privileged people. The expedition to attack Syracuse embarked to great fanfare. The troops looked lovely in their regalia of war. They didn't fare so well in the battle on Sicily.Generals and politicians were pretty much one and the same. Most if not all had had some experience in earlier battles, so they didn't come to command entirely clueless. Honor in battle and politics were intricately intertwined, much as they still are today with candidates touting their military service as qualification for legislating or executing laws.
Were the ancient Spartans bisexual?
Important to look at the evidence on this. Closest evidence is from Xenophon as his own son went through the Agoge system in Sparta and we have no reason to doubt him when he tells us that pederasty was illegal, strictly taboo in Sparta, very different from the laws in other city states. He describes a mentoring system in the Agoge where older youths were attached to younger, but he also is at pains to emphasise that Spartan society drew strict boundaries around this.Other sources are more removed from Sparta, in some cases by several centuries such as Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus and Pausanias. The custom of dressing the bride as a boy for her first meeting with her husband, we have from Plutarch. In itself, it is not conclusive proof of anything, it may not even have happened, but it is a source for plenty of speculation. The Hyakinthia festival, possibly the most important festival in Lakonia, held near Sparta each year at Amyklae in late Spring, celebrates the love of Apollo for a youth or young man by the name of Hyakinth. Again, the myth and the festival can lead us to speculation but they are not proof of anything about people’s lifestyles in Sparta.Was it true, as Plutarch tells us, that confirmed bachelors were forced to march naked around Sparta to be publicly humiliated? We cannot know for certain, but we cannot doubt that Spartan society strongly emphasised the importance of child bearing and the crucial role of women in helping to build a strong society. Spartan women were the most free of any women in Greece. They owned and managed property, ruling over the Helots on their estates. They were educated, literate and participated in sports. While, as with males, they were expected to marry, it did not take place until their education was completed and they were at least 18. While arranged, political marriages certainly occurred, it is likely that most liaisons were formed through mutual attractions and personal choice.In some ways, the most egalitarian society in Greece, and yet built on the brutal subjugation of the Helot majority - but that is another story. Visit my website Ancient Sparta for more information about Sparta.
Why were the ancient Greeks so smart, why were they so different than all the others?
"Smart" is the wrong choice of words because it suggests they had a superior natural intelligence. I think a more defensible statement is that they were exceptionally INNOVATIVE. Despite what some other posters wrote, their innovations were not "baby steps" but giant leaps. I'll admit that I have an clear bias - I'm Greek. But pound for pound, I've never heard of another civilization that moved ideas forward as much as the Greeks did during the classical and early Hellenistic periods. This isn't a simple matter of how much is documented by the Romans compared to other societies. Show me another civilization which, in the midst of all the backwardness of the ancient world, was able to create analog computers (an invention whose complexity was not surpassed till the 1600s AD). I won't speak of the more serious intellectual advances in philosophy, political thought, or science. As to what causes this kind of behaviour, I think that's a difficult thing to answer There has to be a willingness in society to question things, rather than resort to the mentality of "it's true because my parents/ancestors/god told me so". The Greeks questioned everything: the nature of the universe and god, the nature of mankind, what is desirable in politics, etc. Nothing was sacred - even things that were sacred! This willingness to question was combined fruitfully with a spirit of constructive argumentation. Rhetoric was an important lesson in a boy's education. Again, this reveals a society that values ideas. Economic power must also have been an important factor. After all, more affluent societies in history tend to produce more artistic and scientific innovations than less affluent societies. And some Greek cities, like Athens, were fairly wealthy for their time. But the affluence factor breaks down when you consider that (a) Persia was far, FAR wealthier than the Greeks, and (b) most Greek cities were not as wealthy as Athens. So I go back to my first point - willingness to question. When a society starts shaking off pre-conceived but unproven ideas, it can move forward very quickly.
What is the biggest city-state in Greece? (sparta or athens)?
For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/axeV7 Ancient Greece wasn't one large empire but a collection of smaller city-states. The term the Greeks used was polis, which meant (more or less) "city-state." A polis was bigger than a city but smaller than a state. They were scattered throughout the Mediterranean area. Some were sea-ports; others were more inland. Some of the more famous city-states were Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Delphi, and Thebes. The reason why Ancient Greece had developed city states was due to the fact that the people of each city-state did different things and had different beliefs. Sparta, for instance, was a place of great determination. The Spartans believed in a strong army. All Spartan boys were trained to be soldiers. When the Persians invaded Greece, the other city-states looked especially to Sparta and its army to keep them safe. Athens, another large city-state, was the birthplace of democracy, or the idea that each person could have a voice in what laws were passed and who made up the government. This, of course, meant each citizen could take part in government. A citizen was a person who was born in Athens and who owned land there. This was nowhere near the majority.
Why did the ancient Greeks favour homosexual relationships? Where did the women stand in all this?
Sexual orientation was something altogether different in ancient Greece, if it existed at all. Modern-day morality, preferences and ways of life are all influenced—directly and indirectly—by Christianity, Modernity, post-modernism and the findings of science and psychology el al.; none of these existed then, though, at least in this form.To begin with, it is essential to understand that erotic life for the ancient Greeks was, so to speak, a somewhat "political thing". By that, I don't mean that the state played a major part in it, but that people were not so much individualists as they were political beings; that is to say, they tended to view themselves and their social relations as mirrors of their political status. Therefore, a person without a city had few differences from a wild animal; a woman, a slave and a young boy were human beings of an inferior status; only free men were the true citizens, the very foundation of the polis (city-state). In that sense, a young boy was thought to be closer to the sociopolitical role of a woman than to that of a free man. This "inequality" formed the foundation of their society and had to be projected onto sex too.Now, sex itself was a field where an asymmetry of power also existed. Instead of focusing on the gender of the two participants in an erotic relationship, society categorized them based on their role in the sexual/erotic act, "passive" or "energetic". A man who would penetrate another human being, be it a woman or an teenage boy, had nothing to be ashamed of; a man who would let others penetrate him was considered impudent.I see that Garrett Thweatt explained very well that the relationship between men and teenage boys was not simply lustful and that women held a minor, secondary social role, therefore few—if any at all—people could see themselves on the same level with their wives. I want to add that men were allowed to keep concubines (Gr. pallakides) and could often turn to hetaerae (Gr. hetairai), high-class prostitutes who provided their clients—who were relatively few—with intellectual and erotic companionship, and common prostitutes (Gr. pornai).
Ancient Greece: Were there any Spartan renegades?
Interestingly, there were Athenians who defected to Sparta. To many Athenians, their image of Sparta was of a hyper-efficient, meritocratic utopia, compared to what to them felt like a dithering, semi-egalitarian mess in Athens. Socrates and his student Plato both revered the Spartan ideal, although Plato’s student, Aristotle, gave a scathing critique of Sparta in both practice and theory in Politics.In general, Greek city-states were really quite xenophobic. Foreigners, even ones legitimately devoted to their new home, were mistrusted, and laws often applied differently to “outsiders”. We do know, however, that Athens, for one, could and did incorporate immigrants as long as they had made a meaningful contribution to the city or her people. Sparta, under the veneer of strength-based meritocracy, was elusive to effectively all foreigners. One, however, was an exception, and that was Xenophon. Xenophon was immensely pro-oligarchy and, although never explicitly anti-democracy, was far from favourable towards it. He was also chums with the Eurypontid king, Agesilaus II (the Spartans had two kings, one from the Eurypontid clan and one from the Agiad clan), and served with him on campaigns, and so ended up considered an honorary Spartan.Basically, there were Spartan renegades in the same way there are North Korean defectors, but there was the odd non-Greek defector in the same way that there is the odd non-North Korean defector.
Did Ancient Greek men have affairs with young men?
I wrote this answer before in another question about homosexuality in Ancient Greece but because I read all the answers about the mentor/ lover relationship between adults and minors I had to chip in.I am actually shocked by the depth of these analyses even though their basic Premise is completely wrong.my answer was the following“The truth is that there are several accounts of pederasty through writers (for example the Hippocratic oath forbids sex with minors, adults, men,women, free and slave patients, meaning it was a thing…), however there are also the legal systems of Lycurgus and Solon (Athens and Sparta ) that punish by death the mentor who engages in sexual intercourse with his protege’.The same can be said for adult homosexuality. While in the Symposium there is a clear homosexual reference done by Plato, Solon’s law forbid any kind of man-2-man game. If the accused was found guilty in court , he would lose civilian rights. If he was caught in the act then punishment was death”it is very clear that even though there was homosexuality and pederasty, and even though it was somewhat socially acceptable by some, it was far from being a society norm. Rather the contrary.The terms lovers (erastis/ eromenos) have a spiritual meaning rather than an actual meaning. Don't forget that Ancient Greek society was not a very sexual one. Pleasures in general were disregarded and even listening to music was discouraged because it “ made men girly”.
How did ancient greek city states field such big armies?
Greek city states managed to get relatively big armies because every free man aged 18–60 could and would be called to arms when the city was in war. This was not the case for most nations in antiquity, so up until Napoleonean wars the armies used to be relatively small compared to the population. But not in Ancient Greece. There, most of the men had to fight each time their city was in war.The distances were small when we’re talking about wars within Greece. Usually you just fought with the neighbouring city state, just a few hours walk from your house. There were limitations of course. People had to come back home quickly since they had their jobs. Most of them were farmers and they did have some free time in the summer and that was when they fought. If you had to send an army to a distant city state you couldn’t send all your men. When Athens decided to attack Syracuse they sent some Athenians and told their allies to send additional forces. Their generals were instructed to hire mercenaries too. But this was a time Athens was very rich and it was a special case. A typical Greek city was relatively poor and it didn’t really care for wars more than a day’s march from its walls so it could send all their men.And another point. People tend to think of Greeks as serene, white bearded old philosophers. That’s the way Romans thought of them because it was a common type in Roman era, an old Greek making his living as a teacher of philosophy in the house of a Roman. But in reality, Greeks were a warrior race, famous for their skill at war and expensive mercenaries in the Persian empire and Egypt. The was a war in Greece every year and most of the wise old men people tend to think as peacefull thinkers were war veterans. In fact, democracy was developed through the power of the army. The gathering of the army that used to elect kings and essentially rule the state became the gathering of the citizens. Each person that could or had served the army (free, male, aged 18+) could vote and decide the fate of the state too. Which is why kids, women, foreigners and slaves didn’t vote. Sometimes foreigners and slaves did fight and were given rights(or just money if that’s what they wanted) for that. We see that in both democratic and oligarchic states.