Archaic Greece. The differences between Athens and Sparta at very least shaped the history of Ancient Greece, and could even be contended to have shaped the Western world today. Their violent struggle for supremacy in the Peloponnesian war destroyed many

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Archaic Greece

   An essay attempting to compare and contrast the development of the Spartan and Athenian Poleis during the Archaic period, with particular focus on the underlying similarity between the seemingly diametrically opposed social and political systems.

  The differences between Athens and Sparta at very least shaped the history of Ancient Greece, and could even be contended to have shaped the Western world today. Their violent struggle for supremacy in the Peloponnesian war destroyed many smaller poleis, and crucially weakened the Greek world enough for Philip and Alexander of Macedon to achieve their absolute military dominance. However, beneath the apparent differences, the two are actually remarkably similar, as this essay will outline.

  To compare these two main powers, firstly they must be described. Sparta, the great land power of the Greek world, with the only standing army, and Athens, the naval superpower and economic, cultural and scientific heart of the ancient world, both rose to their positions of dominance in markedly different ways.

  Athens followed a similar path to the other poleis of Greece. Initially controlled by an aristocratic elite, the advent of hoplite warfare in the six century shifted the military burden onto the general population, and in a manner akin to many of the other Greek states power passed to a single despot. The aristocrats, no longer fulfilling their role as the military forces, and riven by internal struggles, lost their grip on power when one of their number appeals to the population at large, betraying his class for the benefit of himself. In this case that aristocrat was the tyrant Peisistratus in around 560 BC. Peisistratus reign was not negative, for tyranny is not always a poor government form, however he faced continued resistance from the other nobles and was even driven out of Athens at one point. However, having removed him, the nobles fell back into fighting amongst themselves and Peisistratus was swiftly restored.

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  It is the nature of tyrannies that, no matter how excellent the first ruler is, his successors shall swiftly fall into corruption and madness, and in Athens it was no different. Hippias and Hipparchus, the successors of Peisistratus, took control in 527 BC and failed to show the political cunning of their father, adopting regal airs and engaging in scandal. After one such scandal turned foul, Hipparchus was murdered, and Hippias began a brutal purge which proved too much for the Athenians to bear. Calling upon Spartan help, they overthrew their tyrant and created a uniquely radical form ...

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