Athens produced a great deal of thinkers philosophers and mathematicians so they did authors in literature, arts included tragedies and comedies. They were also fairly good warriors and superb seamen.
Sparta were born warriors, they were fearless in combat, most of the time invincible, It is said that the wives would not accept a man back if he didn't return victors from battle. Originally were not to good as sailors but they did not do too bad when the city need them to be.
Ancient Greece was comprised of small city states, of which Sparta and Athens were two. Athens was renowned as a center of wisdom and learning. The people of Athens were interested in arts, music, and intellectual pursuits. Sparta, on the other hand, was recognized for its military strength. A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because he lived and died to serve the state. Although the competing city states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece.
Seven years before the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple and took Judah into captivity, Athens became a democracy under the rule of Solon in 594 B.C. In addition to eliminating serfdom, Solon altered the stringent laws of a previous ruler, Draco, making murder the only crime punishable by death. Under the democracy, Athens entered its golden age, becoming a center of wisdom and learning. The Spartans also entered their golden age with the forming of their military state. This military state was established to control the people they had conquered, the Messenians. Because the Messenians outnumbered their conquerors on a ratio of ten to one, the Spartans turned them into agricultural slaves, or helots. Thus, while Athens was liberating everyone by becoming a democracy, Sparta was enslaving a large amount of people for its own benefit.
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