Two Cities, Two Wars

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Lead figure of a warrior · Greek, Laconia (Sparta), 6th–5th century BCE
Spartans left thousands of little warrior offerings like this, a sign of a society built around the soldier.

Sparta developed into something close to the opposite of Athens. Where Athenian citizens debated in an open assembly, Spartan society was built around military discipline, obedience, and a rigid social order that included a large enslaved population, called helots, who vastly outnumbered Spartan citizens and whose labor supported the entire system. Spartan boys entered a demanding state-run training program around age seven, designed to produce disciplined soldiers above all else.

Sparta was ruled by a small group, two kings and a Council of Elders, a type of government called an oligarchy. Spartans often battled their neighbors, and they believed the military was the most important part of a city-state. At age seven, Spartan boys left their families to live in military barracks, where they trained, ate, and slept with other boys. Even after marrying, a Spartan man lived with his unit until about age thirty, and he could be called to fight until age sixty.

An upper-class Athenian boy lived a very different life. At about age ten, he would spend his days at school, escorted by a trusted servant, learning reading, writing, and arithmetic, memorizing poetry such as Homer's epics, studying music on the lyre, and training his body at a wrestling school. Athenians wanted well-rounded citizens who could speak and vote in the assembly. This difference points to the issue on which Athenians and Spartans disagreed most: what kind of government, and what kind of citizen, a city-state should have. Athens valued democracy and a broad education, while Sparta valued rule by a few and military discipline above everything else.

Despite their differences, in the early fifth century BCE, Athens, Sparta, and other Greek city-states faced a common threat: the massive Persian Empire, which launched invasions of Greece in 490 and 480 BCE. Heavily outnumbered, an alliance of Greek city-states won decisive victories at battles including Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis, preserving Greek independence and producing some of history's most retold stories of resistance against overwhelming odds.

Unity against Persia did not last. In the decades that followed, Athens built a powerful alliance system that increasingly resembled an empire, funded partly by contributions originally meant for shared defense. Sparta and its own allies grew alarmed at Athens's rising power, and long-simmering tensions erupted into the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. The war dragged on for twenty-seven years, devastating both sides and leaving Greek city-states, including the eventual winner Sparta, significantly weaker than before.

Why did unity turn into war? The answer lies in leadership. Athens used its alliance, the Delian League, to unite the Greek city-states under its own leadership, moving the league's treasury to Athens and forcing members that tried to leave to stay. Sparta, which led its own Peloponnesian League and had the strongest army in Greece, opposed any alliance led by Athens. The contest between Athens's navy and Sparta's army for control of Greece kept the two city-states in conflict for much of the fifth century BCE, and Sparta was even willing to accept Persian gold to build a fleet and defeat Athens.

Spartan women had more personal freedom than women in Athens. Because Spartan men lived in barracks until about age thirty and were often away at war, married couples lived apart for much of their early lives, so Spartan women managed households, owned property, and even exercised to stay strong. Athenian women, by contrast, rarely left home and had no role in public life.

The Athenian historian Thucydides explained how Athens's alliance became an empire. Many members of the Delian League chose to pay money instead of providing ships, and Athens used that money to enlarge its own navy, which it then used to crush allies who revolted. Thucydides also described Greeks facing invasion hurrying to protect themselves, digging trenches and building walls from earth, wooden stakes, stones, and bricks. The Peloponnesian War grew out of these tensions: Athens controlled the Delian League and wanted to expand its empire throughout Greece, and Sparta finally declared the peace treaty between them broken and went to war.

Adapted from Studio Aletheia's World Builders Academy curriculum library, drawing on classical world history resources on the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.