Two Rival City-States: Sparta and Athens

Government, Society, and the Road to Democracy

Guiding Question: What different systems of government did Sparta and Athens have, and how did those systems shape daily life and later ideas of democracy?

Overview

In archaic and classical Greece, the city-states of Sparta and Athens developed sharply different political systems, social structures, and values that made them influential rivals across the Greek world.[web:1][web:4][web:5]

Sparta built a **military** oligarchy that controlled a conquered population of helots, while Athens moved from aristocratic rule and harsh law codes toward a broad male-citizen democracy centered on an active popular assembly.[web:1][web:2][web:5][web:6][web:10]

Sparta vs. Athens at a Glance

Key Contrasts

Feature Sparta Athens
Basic government type Oligarchy with two hereditary kings, council of elders (Gerousia), five ephors, and a limited citizen assembly.[web:1][web:4][web:10] Oligarchy of aristocrats evolving into male-citizen democracy with a law code, magistrates, Council of 500, and powerful assembly.[web:2][web:5][web:6]
Core value Military discipline, obedience, stability, and collective security.[web:1][web:4][web:7] Political participation, debate, trade, and cultural life (law, philosophy, arts).[web:2][web:5][web:6]
Main non‑citizen labor group Helots, state-owned serfs from Messenia and Laconia working the land for Spartan citizens.[web:1][web:4][web:7] Slaves and non‑citizen residents (metics), often engaged in household work, crafts, and commerce.[web:5][web:6]
Assembly powers Assembly of male citizens could vote, but mainly ratified proposals; it could not initiate laws.[web:1][web:4][web:10] Assembly of male citizens debated and passed laws, decided on war and peace, and held final authority in key matters.[web:2][web:5][web:6]
Women’s public role Spartan women controlled households, managed estates, and trained physically to produce and raise strong warriors.[web:1][web:4][web:7] Athenian women usually stayed in the household, managed domestic work, and had no formal political rights.[web:5][web:6]
Openness to outside ideas Suspicious of foreigners; discouraged travel and luxury arts to protect traditional discipline.[web:1][web:4][web:7] Open to trade, travel, and new ideas; used coinage and maritime commerce to build wealth and influence.[web:2][web:5][web:6]

Why These Differences Matter

Spartan oligarchy shows how fear of revolt and constant war readiness can lock a society into rigid discipline, while Athenian reforms illustrate how economic crisis and social conflict can gradually expand citizen power into a recognizable democracy.[web:1][web:2][web:4][web:5][web:6]

Together, these city-states provide two **models** of Greek governance: one prioritizing military stability above all, the other experimenting with broad political participation among free male citizens.[web:1][web:2][web:4][web:5][web:6][web:10]

Timeline: Sparta and Athens, c. 800–500 BCE

c. 800–700 BCE Many Greek poleis, including early Sparta and Athens, take shape as independent city-states with their own institutions, cults, and territories.[web:5][web:6]
c. 750–730 BCE Sparta, seeking more land, conquers neighboring Laconian communities and then larger, more populous Messenia; the conquered populations become helots, state serfs compelled to work the land for Spartan citizens.[web:1][web:4][web:7]
c. 730–600 BCE To control numerous helots and prevent uprisings, Sparta develops into a militarized society in which male citizens undergo rigorous training and the state discourages luxury, travel, and contact with outside ideas.[web:1][web:4][web:7][web:10]
by 700 BCE Athens becomes a unified polis on the peninsula of Attica, initially ruled by kings but increasingly dominated by aristocratic families who control the best land and key political offices.[web:5][web:6]
c. 620 BCE An official named Draco issues the first written law code at Athens, known for its severity, including death penalties and allowing debt slavery for those who fail to repay loans.[web:2][web:5][web:8]
Late 600s BCE In Athens, mounting debt, land concentration, and the sale of citizens into slavery for unpaid debts bring the polis to the brink of civil war between aristocrats and poorer farmers.[web:2][web:5][web:8]
594/593 BCE The Athenian elite grant extraordinary powers to Solon as archon to avert civil conflict; he cancels debt secured on persons, frees Athenians enslaved for debt, and reforms the constitution to weaken aristocratic monopoly on office.[web:2][web:5][web:8]
after 594 BCE Despite Solon’s measures, land hunger and factional rivalries persist; no land redistribution takes place, and tensions between aristocratic groups and poorer farmers continue.[web:2][web:5][web:8]
c. 560 BCE Peisistratus, an Athenian aristocrat and relative of Solon, uses popular support and a personal bodyguard to seize power as tyrant; he maintains Solon’s laws but centralizes authority in his own hands.[web:2][web:5][web:9]
546–528/7 BCE During Peisistratus’s long rule, he promotes trade, appoints rural judges, provides loans to farmers, and uses public works and festivals to strengthen his popularity and the city’s economy.[web:5][web:9]
528/7–510 BCE After Peisistratus’s death, his sons (often called the Peisistratids) continue the tyranny until Spartan intervention and Athenian opposition force out the last tyrant, Hippias, in 510 BCE.[web:2][web:5][web:6][web:9]
508/507 BCE Cleisthenes, a noble of the Alcmaeonid family, wins popular backing against rival Isagoras and enacts reforms that reorganize citizens into new tribes, create a Council of 500, and give the assembly central authority in Athenian politics, laying foundations for democracy.[web:2][web:5][web:6]

Sparta: Military State and Oligarchy

Helots and the Military System

Sparta’s need for more arable land led it to conquer neighboring Laconian communities and the larger region of Messenia, whose inhabitants were reduced to the status of helots, an unfree population bound to the land.[web:1][web:4][web:7]

Helots were obliged to cultivate estates and deliver a fixed share of produce to Spartan citizens, and their large numbers made the Spartans organize their society as a permanent military camp to deter uprisings and maintain control.[web:1][web:4][web:7]

Spartan Education and Daily Life

Spartan meals were intentionally austere, symbolized by the famous “black broth” made from pork boiled with blood, salt, and vinegar, reflecting a broader ethos of toughness and rejection of luxury.[web:1][web:4]

Spartan Women

Because men spent so much time in barracks or on campaign, Spartan women managed households and estates, enjoyed relatively greater freedom of movement, and were encouraged to exercise so they could bear and raise healthy sons for the army.[web:1][web:4][web:7]

Cultural expectations stressed courage and loyalty; later sources report Spartan mothers urging sons to return “with their shield or on it,” meaning they should either win or die without discarding their arms.[web:1][web:4][web:7]

Spartan Government: Kings, Ephors, and Council

  • Kings Sparta had two hereditary kings from different royal houses who led armies, performed religious functions, and held a prestigious but limited political role.[web:1][web:4]
  • Gerousia The council of elders (Gerousia) included the two kings and 28 men over age 60 appointed for life; it prepared proposals, advised on policy, and acted as a high court in serious cases.[web:1][web:4]
  • Ephors Five annually elected ephors supervised education, civil administration, foreign policy, and the conduct of citizens, presided over the council, and could even bring charges against kings.[web:4][web:7]
  • Assembly The citizen assembly of Spartiates voted on proposals concerning war, peace, and offices but could not introduce laws on its own.[web:1][web:4][web:10]

This system created a **balanced** oligarchy in which kings, elders, and ephors shared power while ordinary male citizens endorsed but did not direct policy.[web:1][web:4][web:10]

To protect this order, Sparta tightly controlled contact with outsiders, discouraged travel, and treated literature, philosophy, and the arts as distractions from the central art of war.[web:1][web:4][web:7]

Athens: From Aristocracy to Democracy

Early Aristocracy and Crisis

By the seventh century BCE, Athens was dominated by aristocratic families who held the best land, occupied key magistracies, and controlled an assembly that had limited real power.[web:5][web:6]

Economic stress, growing debts, and the sale of indebted farmers and their families into slavery created intense social tension between poor peasants and wealthy landholders by the late 600s BCE.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

Draco’s Harsh Law Code

Around 620 BCE, Draco produced a written law code that replaced unwritten customs, but it imposed extremely severe penalties, including death for many offenses and legal recognition of enslavement for debt.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

Draco’s laws established the principle that laws should be public and written but became a byword for cruelty, prompting later reforms that preserved only parts of his code, particularly homicide provisions.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

Solon’s Reforms

In 594/593 BCE, Solon was empowered to resolve the crisis; he introduced the Seisachtheia (“shaking off of burdens”), cancelling debts secured on persons and freeing those enslaved for debt, while banning future loans on the person.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

Solon also reorganized citizens into property classes that determined eligibility for offices, broadened access to political roles beyond the richest aristocrats, and created a council and law court structures that allowed wider participation.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

However, he refused to redistribute land, so many poor Athenians remained without farms, and political rivalries among elite factions persisted after he left Athens.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

Peisistratus and the Peisistratid Tyranny

About 560 BCE, Peisistratus leveraged popular support and the request for a personal bodyguard to seize power as a tyrant, using force and alliances to dominate Athenian politics.[web:2][web:5][web:9]

He retained Solon’s laws but centralized authority, promoted trade, instituted itinerant rural judges, and offered loans and public works that benefited many poorer Athenians while strengthening his regime.[web:5][web:9]

After his death, his sons continued the tyranny until a coalition of exiled nobles, Spartans, and discontented citizens expelled Hippias in 510 BCE.[web:2][web:5][web:6][web:9]

Cleisthenes and the Birth of Athenian Democracy

In the struggle that followed the fall of the tyrants, Cleisthenes of the Alcmaeonid family sought support from ordinary Athenians against his rival Isagoras and gained backing to implement deep constitutional reforms around 508/507 BCE.[web:2][web:5][web:6]

He reorganized citizens into new tribes based on residence rather than kinship, created a Council of 500 to prepare business for the assembly and oversee finances and foreign affairs, and expanded the assembly’s role in making and approving laws.[web:2][web:5][web:6]

With these changes, the assembly of male citizens became the central institution in Athenian politics, establishing a democratic framework that would later reach its height in the fifth century BCE.[web:2][web:5][web:6]

Key Figures: Brief Biographies

Draco (Drakon)

Athenian lawgiver, active c. 7th century BCE

Draco is known as the first Athenian to produce a written law code, issued around 620 BCE, which replaced unwritten aristocratic custom with strict, publicly posted penalties.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

His legislation allowed debtors to be enslaved for failure to pay and imposed death for many offenses, which later Athenians judged excessively severe and largely replaced, except for homicide rules.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

Solon

Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet, active c. 594 BCE

Solon was appointed with special powers to avert civil war in Athens; he enacted the Seisachtheia, cancelling personal-debt obligations that led to enslavement, and freed those already enslaved for debt.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

He restructured political participation by dividing citizens into property classes and opening many offices beyond the narrow aristocracy, laying important groundwork for later democratic institutions despite not creating full democracy himself.[web:2][web:5][web:8]

Peisistratus (Pisistratus)

Athenian tyrant, ruled mainly 546–528/7 BCE

Peisistratus, an aristocrat related to Solon, used popular backing and armed followers to seize power, ruling Athens as a tyrant while formally keeping Solon’s laws.[web:2][web:5][web:9]

He promoted economic development through loans to farmers, local judges in the countryside, public works, and religious festivals, strengthening central authority and temporarily easing social tensions.[web:5][web:9]

Hippias (son of Peisistratus)

Athenian tyrant, deposed 510 BCE

Hippias inherited power from his father Peisistratus and continued the Peisistratid tyranny until growing opposition and foreign intervention drove him from Athens.[web:2][web:5][web:6][web:9]

After the assassination of his brother Hipparchus, sources indicate he ruled more harshly, which increased elite and popular hostility and contributed to his eventual overthrow.[web:5][web:9]

Cleisthenes

Athenian reformer of the Alcmaeonid family, c. late 6th century BCE

Cleisthenes emerged as a leading reformer after the fall of Hippias; with popular support, he defeated his rival Isagoras and restructured the political system in 508/507 BCE.[web:2][web:5][web:6]

By organizing new tribes, establishing the Council of 500, and enhancing the role of the assembly, he placed Athenian government on a democratic footing that expanded citizen participation.[web:2][web:5][web:6]

Spartan Kings and Ephors

Hereditary rulers and annually elected officials in Sparta

Sparta’s two kings, drawn from separate royal houses, shared military leadership and religious duties while operating within an oligarchic framework dominated by councils and ephors.[web:1][web:4][web:7]

The five ephors, elected yearly, oversaw education, civil administration, foreign policy, and discipline, could supervise or prosecute kings, and represented a powerful executive authority within the Spartan constitution.[web:4][web:7]

How Their Governments Worked

Spartan Oligarchy

  • Power shared among two kings, the Gerousia, and the ephors, with the assembly confirming decisions.[web:1][web:4][web:7][web:10]
  • Citizen body limited to male Spartiates who had completed military training and maintained communal obligations.[web:1][web:4]
  • Institutions aimed at stability and control of helots rather than broad debate or policy innovation.[web:1][web:4][web:7]

Athenian Democracy (Early Form)

  • After Cleisthenes, a Council of 500 prepared business and supervised finances and foreign affairs, while the assembly of male citizens debated and passed laws.[web:2][web:5][web:6]
  • Citizenship and office-holding were restricted to free Athenian males, but participation widened beyond birth aristocracy due to Solon’s and Cleisthenes’ reforms.[web:2][web:5][web:6][web:8]
  • The system set precedents for later concepts of democracy, including majority decision-making and civic responsibility of ordinary citizens.[web:2][web:5][web:6]