How was Athens better than Sparta?
They were better at different things. Sparta was a military state, run by a junta of elders (two kings, a small group of ephors, a senate – the gerousia.) Boys were separated from their mothers when still young and trained in toughness and fighting skills; a Spartan wasn’t even allowed to live with his wife until he was over military age, but had to eat and sleep in the mess building. The Spartans did not like, and did not allow any music or arts apart from wind bands for their regiments to march to and traditional epics (e.g. Homer). Spartan citizens were in theory equal, and (except that they had enslaved the original owners of the land – the Helots – and exploited them mercilessly) lived under a sort of communist system; every man had his own land which he could not sell, and on whose proceeds he lived. Ordinary money was banned; goods were issued on a needs-based system. The Ephors in practice were all-powerful, and in effect had the power of life & death. There was also a secret p
