Spartans and Athenians
Spartans and Athenians
Mountains, valleys, and water isolate Greece. Hundreds of islands are scattered along its coast. As a result of this type of geography, Greece could never become a large unified empire, so instead, small city-states were created. A city-state was known as a "polis". A polis was made up of a two different parts; the lower ground was the main city, which was housed within a large wall. The upper ground was the hilltop acropolis.
These acropolis' were used as military posts, and for religious practices, for each acropolis was for a different Greek god. The two most powerful city-states were Athens and Sparta. Both of these cities differed greatly from each other.
Athens had a direct democracy, in which a large number of male citizens took part in the daily running of the government. Athenian democracy is not like the one we have today, it was very limited and biased towards women. Women could not participate in the Athenian democracy, as they were believed to be inferior to men.
Slaves became another group that was completely restricted from taking part in the government. They could not participate in the democracy, nor did they have any personal freedom. Even through the unusually cruel democracy, the Athenian democracy gave a greater number of people a voice in government than did any other civilization at the time.
The assembly, a high group of select members in the government, made laws. Athenian economy was based solely on trade with other city-states. Athenian's shipped whines, olives, oil, and marble to other countries as well. This trading led to more ideas that were influenced by other cultures. The Greeks took what the others knew about and always made it better, some say.
Education in Athens was only available to boys. It was morally correct...