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Sparta and Athens Poleis:

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On the eve of the Roman-Persian Wars, Sparta and Athens’ polis where completely different from each other, yet they shared similar characteristics. There is a lot to analyze when it comes to the differences between the two polis political views, social differences, and economic options. Discussing some of the major points discussed in the text book helps learn and explain how each polis thought process developed. What was most important to each polis and what was done to achieve those important duties to make their civilization successful and flourish. Spartan’s “code of conduct,” revolved around discipline, ethics, and education. To them those three things were most important to have successful people walking about their communities. The government consisted of a wide mixture of a monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy based society pyramid. The head of the social “pyramid,” are two kings that are in command of the armies, and the council of the elders. Then there are five ephors followed by a cluster of citizens that approve all decisions brought forth from the ephors. The government also made the decision that they would stay out of and Greek foreign affairs and isolate themselves completely from any other polis. Because Spartans decided to pull themselves away from any other Greece polis they ended up missing out on major changes on the creative sides of the western history and the artistic and intellectual activities that were being introduced. All in all the example the Spartan people brought forth was an example that, “clearly illustrates what the citizens of polis were supposed to do” {Text. Pg. 83}. Their main goal for their polis was to attain the most frightening army in all of Greece, and every person’s main objective in life was to help their polis achieve those goals. Because the Spartans were the only Greeks who were capable of devoting all their time to the massive amounts of training, and physical preparing that was expected to obtain the title of greatest army of all time, and for that they did accomplish their goal of being a terrifying army. T

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