Would you rather be an Athenian or a Spartan?
The two rivals of ancient Greece that made the most noise and gave us the most traditions were Athens and Sparta. They were close together on a map, yet far apart in what they valued and how they lived their lives.
One of the main ways they were similar was in their form of government. Both Athens and Sparta had an Assembly, whose members were elected by the people.
Sparta was ruled by two kings, who ruled until they died or were forced out of office. Athens was ruled by archons, who were elected annually. Thus, because both parts of Athens’ government had leaders who were elected, Athens is said to have been the birthplace of democracy.
Spartan life was simple. The focus was on obedience and war. Slavery made this possible by freeing the young men from household and industrial duties and allowing them to focus on their military duties. Young boys were trained to be warriors; young girls were trained to be mothers of warriors.
Athenian life was a creative wonderland. As an Athenian, you could get a good education and could pursue any of several kinds of arts or sciences. You could serve in the army or navy, but you didn’t have to. (This applied only to boys, however: Girls were restricted to other pursuits, not war or business or education.)
Would you rather be an Athenian or a Spartan?
Your task for today is to find out more about the life of an Athenian or a Spartan and decide whether you would rather have been an Athenian or a Spartan in Ancient Greece. Your argument needs to be persuasive and you must explain your point clearly.
Some useful links:
What was it like to live in an Ancient Greek family?
Women in Ancient Greece (ask yourself if you think they were treated fairly)
In your Home Learning books, start by drawing a Venn diagram or a comparison table to compare Athenians and Spartans.
Then in the blog comment section below, let us know which one you would have wanted to be. Please reply to your classmates if you agree or disagree with their points – we can try to have a debate in the comment section, just like we used to do in the classroom!
We look forward to reading your responses,
Mrs Avdiu & Ms Robertson
You can find a printable version of this blog here: athens v sparta
Please consider the environment and only print if necessary.
Hi Everyone !!!!
I hope u are all well and safe for today`s ancient Greece task I have made my decision ( after a really long time)!!!
🙂
I would really love to live in Athens because in Athens instead of your whole life being about war and obedience you could have a education and live a normal and wonderful life but still fight in the war.
I hope you have an amazing day!!!
Thank you for sharing your opinion Elena.
Athenian girls were not formally educated; instead, their mothers taught them the domestic skills necessary for running a household. Does this change your mind? ?
Hi everyone!!
I think I ‘d rather be a Athenian because they had more luxury and there were theatres. In my opinion Spartans were just boring and mean because they abandoned babies they thought were weak and fed them to the wolves. Also the Athenian’s had a democracy which means people were allowed to vote on the ruler of the country, so if you didn’t like them you could vote them out.
Hi Sara, thank you for your opinion. I’m not sure I agree that Spartans were boring! Although Athens had a democracy, only adult male citizens over the age of 20 could take part, and it was a duty to do so. What do you think about this?
Hello everyone! I hope that you are all enjoying your day so far. I agree with Sara that they had more luxury and entertainment. This is my opinion:
I think I would live in Athens because as Elena said, there was less focus on war and obedience. People would have more freedom and more entertainment, such as learning arts, science and many more. But I don’t agree with how they treated woman. In think that girls deserve an education just as much as boys do. But I would defiantly prefer to live in Athens because I would not like everything I do to be focused on War and fighting.
Very good arguments. What does everyone else think? Do you think it may have been beneficial to be strong warriors?
Hi everyone hope you are all well this is what I have decided.
I would rather be an Athenian because you would have more freedom than a Spartan. This is because you don’t have to be told your entire life has to be wasted on war. Also Athens had more things and more things were invented at their time. Also Spartans weren’t very nice people they were very cruel they didn’t care that much about what happened to other people not even themselves because they had lots of rules you had to follow.
Thank you Claudia. Athenians were definitely more creative.
Do you think all Spartans were horrible and all Athenians were nice? Why might someone argue with this point?
Hello everyone,
I would probably rather be an Athenian than a Spartan because they were educated and got to vote on public matters. Also the Spartan boys were forced to be soldiers while the Athenian ones were not. If you were a Spartan who was going to war your wife would say “come home with your shield or on it” which meant come back alive or dead. Finally, the Athenians got a much larger choice of jobs and if they wanted to, they could join the army or navy too.
As well as thinking that I myself would rather be an Athenian, if you were a woman or poor person life would probably be better in Sparta and here’s why. Firstly, while the men were away fighting, the woman was in charge of the house and secondly all boys had to join the Spartan army so if you were poor, you would still get to join and earn money which was better than having no money and no food. Poor girls on the other hand would learn to rob like the other girls so it was not like they got a lot less.
Thank you Zavan for your very valid points. I can see you have been doing thorough research on this topic. Spartan women were known to be well respected while Athenian women were trained to be housewives. I think you are right – being an Athenian boy would have benefited you greatly! However, would you have been happy to know your sisters could not vote like you and could not be educated in the same way as you?
I would rather be an Athenian because they studied a lot, they created and fostered philosophy. Also I could have lived in Athens, which was the center of political, economic, financial and cultural activities in Greece. Athenians were also famous for their navy, so it means that they could cross the sea and conquer countries far away.
Also I don’t like the fact about Spartans leaving unhealthy babies alone to die if they weren’t healthy enough.
Yes, I find that quite mean as well. They were ‘born to fight’ and they thought they would not have been able to train an unhealthy baby to become a warrior so they left them to die. Very sad!
Do you think that living in Athens, you would have been well protected?
Hi everyone, I would much rather be a Spartan than an Athenian because although you have a chance of dying I’d love to be in a battle and go to war. I would like to go to war because it would be exciting and scary also I could make some friends along the way! To be a true warriors you need strength, intelligence, bravery and teamwork. I think these things are really important to be a great warrior. Go Spartans!
Thanks for sharing your opinion! You would make a very heroic Spartan 🙂 Iggy, do you think Spartans or Athenians would have been better protected?