School Stories

Athens

     Imagine, being a citizen in the crowded streets of ancient Athens. Surrounded by art, intelligence, and beauty. A place of peace, not war. A place where everyone had a say in government. Not all citizens of Greece got this amazing experience, as well as freedom. Take the city state of Sparta for example. All they ever did or cared about was war, war, and more war. They conquered all city states located around them and took the natives as slaves. The city state of ancient Athens was more admirable in every way. 

    Athens way of government being democracy, was amazing. Athens was the first city state to fully develop democracy. Athens became a democracy around 500 B.C.E. Their government was slightly complicated, but basically they had a group of men all over the age of 30, known as the council who suggested laws to be voted on. This group of men were selected by a machine. Every free man over the age of 30 had a stone with a series of letters on it. This series of ancient letters represented their name. If they were one of the 500 drawn they suggested laws for a year. Then yet another, 500 were picked to make laws to be voted on, for a year. In addition, Athens had assemblies. These assemblies were used to voted on laws suggested by the council. Athens government was one of the most important reasons Athens was the most superior city state.

    Athenian art and culture were amazing. To illustrate, Athenians wore fabulous long robe. Showing "Athens valued reason and logic," as the source Athens and Sparta video exclaims. Instead of,plain boring military clothes like Spartans wore. As well as, how accepting they were to inviting writers, artists, and philosophers into their city to share ideas with their people. Sparta was not as welcome to outsiders. Yet another, big place were there art was shown was an Agora. Agoras were marketplaces were items such as beautiful pottery, furniture, and clay oil lamps were sold. All the merchants at Athenian agoras were probably all citizens of Athens. Meaning there beautiful merchandise was made by the people of Athens. Amazing right! Therefor, art was what shaped the beauty and culture of Athens. Without art Athens would have been like any other city state.

Not only- but also, Athens trading ways were magnificent. As stated in the book History Alive, "The Athenian economy was based on trade. The land around Athens did not provide enough food for all the city's people. But, Athens was near the sea and it had a good harbor." Hence, Athens peacefully traded for the supplies they needed. Unlike, Spartans who took the land they needed by force and enslaved all the natives living on the lands. Athens needed to trade because their land was bad for farming, and the food they could farm was not enough to feed their people. The main places Athens traded with were the small islands by the Aegean Sea. Athens also traded with Italy and Egypt. With Italy and Egypt near them they traded wood, and grain, in exchange for honey, olive oil, silver, and painted pottery. As far as currency went, Athens developed their own coin. One side of the coin had a picture of a owl, Athena's favorite animal, because Athena was one of the most worshipped gods in Athens. Trade helped Athens to develop their art and build friendships with the city states located around them.

    To conclude, ancient Athens was remarkable with the way they ran their government, there beautiful art, and their peaceful way of getting the supplies they needed. Just think where would someone rather live? In a place where their kids are taken from them and put in harsh terrible schooling, or a place like Athens where kids can thrive just like children do today. They can learn writing, math, history, and music with actual meaning, instead, of a place like Sparta that doesn't take education seriously, like schools today do. For these reasons Athens was better than Sparta.