Why Is Athens Better Than Sparta

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Would you rather live in Sparta where military is number one, or in Athens where trade is key? Athens and Sparta were both city-states in ancient Greece. They’re both located on the Iberian peninsula, yet about 150 miles apart. Athens in on the coastline, about 4 miles from the Aegean Sea. Sparta however, is farther inland about 25 miles from the nearest harbor. I would rather live in Sparta because of how they treated women and slaves, and their military.

One of the reasons Sparta is preferable is because of how they treated women and slaves. In section 6 it mentions that women in Athens couldn’t own property, vote on or attend the Assembly, and some couldn’t even choose who they married. Some slaves in Athens worked in silver mines 300 feet below the
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Sparta has an oligarchy where the power is in the hands of a few people. In section 3, it states that in Athens, laws had to be approved by a group known as the Assembly containing 6,000 people. People in the Assembly could be young, and vote for what’s best for them and not everyone. The economy in Athens were coins, which are easy to steal. However in Sparta they had big silver bars making it hard to steal and replicate their currency. In section 2, Comparing Two City States, it reveals that Sparta was surrounded by mountains. The mountains made it hard for enemies to attack Sparta. In addition, it made it so that Spartan soldiers could see the enemies for miles away. These are just some of the many reasons why Sparta is better than Athens.

Now answer the question, would you rather live in Sparta where military is number one, or in Athens where trading is key? All in all, Sparta is a better city-state to live in due to how they treated women and slaves, and their military. Women were treated with more rights in Sparta. Spartan boys also had more experience, making their military much more capable and put