Hello Class, my name is Cor. I am currently living in Safari, CA, which is great for outdoor activities to unwind. The current job market is full of opportunities in San Diego and around many parts of the country, which is why I am pursuing an MBA through the University of the People to increase my market value. Currently, I am a few classes away from finishing an Associates in Small Business Management/Entrepreneurship from the San Diego Community College District. I'd like to own a few small businesses in the near future.
A polis is a city-state that is organized as individual small countries with separate rules of governing than the other polis, many of which were small in size. However, there were a few distinctively larger cities that were described in the article. The author Dr. Peter J Brand wrote, "At the opposite end of this spectrum were the two largest, most powerful and ultimately most influential Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta" (Brand, pg. 1). Athens and Sparta were virtually opposite in their government structure. Athens was democratic, meaning the decisions were made by a group of aristocrats who were a small group of wealthy landowners. Athenians believed in philosophy and the arts, which developed more educated aristocrats. Whereas, Spartan culture was based on the development of warriors who occupied the top positions within the governing hierarchy. Spartans believed in toughness and gave power to notable warriors by giving them land. The differences in the Spartan and Athenian cultures is the reason why the architecture of the two cities was vastly different. Athenians were more intellectually advanced, so their architects built more advanced temples, academies, and public forums. On the other hand, the city of Sparta had less advanced city buildings, but put more emphasis on barracks and training grounds for their soldiers, instead. The Spartan warriors subjugated the surrounding poleis in the Peloponnesus and turned their citizens into slaves. The expansionist strategy by Spartans was based on the brutal force of the military, which was different than the Athenian democratic approach to occupying new territory. The citizens in the poleis that were occupied by Athenians would experience life much differently than the slaves captured by Spartans. Athenian slaves were bound to a life of servitude based on their debt to the wealthy aristocrats.
References
Brand, Peter J. (n.d.). Athens & Sparta: Democracy vs. Dictatorship.
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