Can anyone tell me about SPARTA and ATHENS?
SPARTA It’s hard for textbooks to say anything nice about the Spartans. Take up any world history textbook and read; you’ll find that the Spartans were “an armed camp,” “brutal,” “culturally stagnant,” “economically stagnant,” “politically stagnant,” and other fun things. The reality, of course, lies somewhere behind the value judgements. Greek history does, after all, come down to us through the eyes of the other major city-state in Greece, Athens, a bitter enemy and rival of Sparta. The two represent diametrically opposed concepts of the Greek polis and its relations with other city-states; they also represent diametrically opposed concepts of the individual’s relationship to the state. Despite all the rhetoric in Athens and in the European historical tradition, we should keep in mind that the Spartans believed they lived in the best of all Greek worlds, and many of their Greek neighbors agreed with them. The rivalry, then, between Sparta and Athens, which would erupt into a disastro
