Katie Lynch

Mr. Fronk
AP World History
3 January 2017
Athens and Sparta DBQ
Historical evidence has shown that although Sparta and Athens greatly differ, each citystate has successfully developed their own specific way of life. While Sparta focused on
secluding themselves and training their military, Athens was involved in the arts, expansion, and
trade. Therefore, Sparta had a stronger military, but Athens overall quality of life was superior.
Documents 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9 provide evidence that support the claim of Athens superior quality
of life over Sparta. Document 4 gives another perspective on how Athens is better than Sparta by
harshly criticizing Sparta on its rigid foreign affairs policy. Document 8 also paints Sparta in a
bad light, which gives evidence to support Athens superiority.
To begin, documents 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9 all contain data that discusses Athens excellent
quality of life. Document 2 is written by Pericles, who was the leader of Athens during the
Peloponnesian War. Therefore, his perspective of Athens would be positive despite Athens loss
in the war because Athens played a huge part of the war. Also, his book tells the world of the
successes of Athens so that Athens would not be forgotten. Pericles writes in his book that
Athens was a democracy and its laws provided equal justice to all. This is one point that differs
from Sparta, and proves that Athens quality of life was better because justice for all is better
than justice for some. Document 3 is an excerpt from an Athenian pamphlet, so the purpose of
writing this would be to give information to the reader about the positive things of Athens. For

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example, this excerpt describes how the poor and common people have advantages over the
nobles and rich because the poor and common people are the ones who work the tough but
necessary jobs. Document 6 is a table that documents the difference between Athens and Sparta
in terms of citizens, resident aliens, residents with no vote, and slaves. Athens had more citizens,
more resident aliens, all residents with a vote, and less slaves. Overall, this table demonstrates
why Athens quality of life was better than that of Sparta because it was bigger, accepted
foreigners, everyone had a vote, and had less slaves than Sparta. Sparta was smaller, did not
accept immigrants, did not allow its people to vote, and had more than double the amount of
slaves compared to Athens. Document 7 is also a table. It documents Athens and Spartas imports
and exports. Athens imported luxury items and exported artisan items. Sparta, on the other hand,
only imported materials necessary to make weapons and exported basic items, such as grains and
votive items. This shows that the people of Athens were free to create pottery, perfume, jewelry,
and other things in order to export it. Plus, gold, amber, wool, and other expensive items were
imported for the people of Athens. During this time period of 5th century BCE, the Silk Road was
not yet established. Therefore, trade was not as extensive during this time period, but it was very
important to maintain survival among societies that did not have all the resources necessary to
feed its people. Lastly, document 9 is a quote by Aristotle, written in 4th century CE. In this
quote, Aristotle describes how Pericles, a ruler of Athens, established a plentiful food supply for
all people. The audience he is writing for would be the current and future people learning about
ancient Athens. This quote was written many centuries after Pericles ruled, analyzing the efficacy
of his strategies and accomplishments during his rule.
Document 4, a speech, criticizes Sparta for its conservative ideas and means. This speech
was delivered to the Spartans by a rival of Athens. The diplomat of Corinth delivering this

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speech compared Sparta to Athens and described how they differed. He said that Athens traveled
to the ends of the earth while Sparta just stayed at home. He also said that Sparta deprecates new
ideas and never accepts foreigners, as documented by document 6 with no resident aliens in
Sparta. This document supports the claim that Athens is superior by describing its inclusive and
enthusiastic ambition to expand, explore, and trade. Therefore, Athens is much more diverse and
has experienced other cultures attempts to lead a successful city-state, bringing these ideas back
home to implement or remove. During this time period, exploration and trade were the most
important means of success. Exploration meant discovering new inventions and ideas to improve
their home civilization. Trade meant using ones available resources to get resources necessary to
survive, but unavailable. As demonstrated by the Roman Empire later on, conquering
surrounding civilizations is an effective way to provide a buffer from attack. Sparta, however,
chose to completely cut itself off from the rest of the world. Even after the Persian and
Peloponnesian Wars, Sparta chose to be secluded. It put its people down and suppressed them,
forcing them to adhere to a serious set of laws. This is because they feared uprising. Sparta
constantly trained its military in case of invasion. During this time, Spartas biggest rival was
Athens, although they put their differences aside to work together in the Persian Wars. This is
because the Persians were invading the Greek states, and in order to fight them off, the two most
prominent city-states at that time, Athens and Sparta, needed to work together. Sparta had an
extremely strong military for the reasons stated above. Athens had a strong naval force. Together,
they won the war against the Persians.
Additionally, document 8 is an excerpt from a geography book written in the 1st century
CE. It describes how Sparta deprived surrounding people of equal rights. Sparta turned these

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people into slaves. These people of the neighboring cities, called Helots, were subject to Sparta.
Sparta was in control, so it decided to use these Helots as slaves.
Athens and Spartas rivalry that was put on hold in order to fight off the Persians can be
connected to the United States and the Soviet Unions alliance during World War II. That
relationship had high tensions. The United States thought Communist countries posed a huge
threat to the rest of the world, especially to democracies around the world. Further, the Soviet
Union had started the war as an ally to Nazi Germany. This eventually ended when Nazi
Germany invaded the Soviet Union, thus allowing the Soviet Union to join forces with the
United States to fight Germany. Just like Athens and Sparta, the United States and Soviet Union
put their differences aside to fight the bigger threat. For ancient Greece, that was Persia. For
World War II, that was Nazi Germany.
In conclusion, the documents provided supply a considerable amount of evidence to
analyze the similarities and differences between Athens and Sparta. Upon reviewing these
documents, one may come to the conclusion that Athens quality of life is better than Spartas,
although Spartas military strength was superior to that of Athens. Despite these differences,
Athens and Sparta did have one major similarity. This was the desire to overcome the Persian
invasion. Just like Sparta and Athens who overcame Persia, the United States and Soviet Union
overcame Germany as well.