The two greatest cities of ancient Greece could hardly have been more different. Sparta was a militarised land power built around its feared army; Athens a democratic sea power of trade, culture and empire. They joined forces to beat Persia, then turned on each other in a long war that exhausted them both.
| Sparta | Athens | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Classical Greece; their rivalry peaks in the 5th century BC | Classical Greece; its golden age is the 5th century BC |
| Government | A militarised oligarchy with two kings1 | A direct democracy of its citizens |
| Strength | The finest land army in Greece | The dominant navy and a maritime empire |
| Economy | Farming worked by enslaved helots2 | Trade, silver and tribute from allies |
| Culture | Austere and military, leaving few writings | Philosophy, drama, art and rhetoric |
| The great war | Won the Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC3 | Lost the Peloponnesian War |
| Lasting legacy | The enduring image of the warrior state | A birthplace of democracy and Western thought |
Key points
- Sparta was a land power with the finest infantry in Greece; Athens a naval power and a democracy.
- Together they led the Greek resistance that defeated Persia in 480-479 BC.
- Their rivalry erupted into the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC).
- Sparta finally won, with Persian money and a fleet, but the long war weakened all of Greece.
Sparta: the warrior state
Sparta organised its whole society for war. Its citizens trained as soldiers from boyhood1, supported by a large subject population of helots who worked the land. This produced the most respected heavy infantry in Greece, the men who held the pass at Thermopylae. But Sparta was conservative, suspicious of change and weak at sea, and its rigid system depended on keeping the helots down.
Athens: the democratic sea power
Athens took the opposite path. After the Persian Wars it built a maritime empire around the Delian League4, funded a great navy and developed the first large-scale citizen democracy (of adult male citizens), alongside an extraordinary flowering of drama, philosophy and art. Its power rested on its fleet and its walls5, which let it dominate the sea while sheltering behind fortifications on land, where Sparta was strongest.
From allies to enemies
The two cities led the Greeks to victory over Persia at Salamis and Plataea, but the alliance did not last. Athenian expansion alarmed Sparta, and in 431 BC the Peloponnesian War began.6 For a generation the land power and the sea power struggled to a standstill, until Sparta, backed by Persian gold, built a fleet and destroyed Athens' navy.7 Athens surrendered in 404 BC3, but the war left Greece exhausted and open to new powers.
The land power and the sea power fought to a standstill, and Greece paid the price.
The verdict
Sparta won the war, but neither side truly won the peace: a weakened Greece soon fell under the sway of Thebes and then Macedon.3 See the moments where the two cities stood together against Persia, from Thermopylae to Salamis, among the greatest battles of ancient Greece.