Comparing Athens and Sparta; Poetry by Olivia

This is a sketch of a trireme.
Triremes were Greek warships used during the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.

Today we talked about similarities and differences between the ways of life in Athens and Sparta, including:

1.   Education

• Boys in Athens learned about a wide range of subjects, including reading and writing, philosophy, math, and music.  


• Education in Sparta, on the other hand, focused on physical training: running, jumping, swordplay, javelin-throwing.

2.   Government

• Initially, the government of Athens was an aristocracy.  Then, a series of tyrants led the government; finally, Athenians created the world's first democracy.


• In Sparta, the government was officially led by two kings, but it also included elected officials (wait just a second: did Sparta have certain characteristics of a democracy?!).  One of the major responsibilities of the government in Sparta was to control the large number of slaves.

3.   The Military

• Athens had an especially strong navy. They built a ship called the trireme, shown in the sketch at the top of this blog post.  Most of the troops in Athens' army and navy were not full-time soldiers or sailors (it was not their primary job).


• Sparta had an especially strong army.  The troops in Sparta's army were full-time soldiers: it was their primary job from age 18 until age 60!  Between the ages of 20 and 30, soldiers lived in isolated buildings (called barracks) and were only allowed to see their wives and children every once in a while.

4.   Women's Lives

• Women in Athens had very few rights.  Even after Athens became a democracy, women were not allowed to vote. They had to obey their husbands and fathers at all times.


• Women in Sparta had more rights and more freedom than women in Athens.  While their husbands were serving in the army, the women in Sparta ran their households and made important decisions.

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Now, for your reflection and enjoyment, I hope you will enjoy part of Olivia's beautiful poem about ancient Egypt. Olivia wrote the poem for the Battle of the Ancient Civilizations project.

Rosetta Stone, A Pharaoh's Curse,

Three Pyramids and Mummies,

Wrapped in Linen, Papyrus,

conserved for over one thousand years,

The Ba travels upwards,

upright, down from the 

bottom, to the very point,

A ray of sunshine leans

to catch it, and up it travels

to the heavens above,

Ra goes down to fight

the demons, as Khonsu 

takes the lead, 

School for young, 

ending at fourteen.

Gold for the dead 

Pharaohs, 

Passing on, 

to this life 

to the next.