Daily Life & Social Structure
Ancient Greece was a very interesting civilization. Two of their most successful city-states were Athens and Sparta. They had their similarities and differences in education, government, and economy. They also had very different perspectives on men, women, and slaves.
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Daily Life |
Social StructureAthens
In Athens, men were considered citizens, but women and slaves were not. As a result, women and slaves had fewer rights than men. For example, Athenian women could not inherit or own much property, and they weren’t even allowed to vote or participate in the assembly. Most women were not allowed to choose their own husbands. Some women had jobs, such as selling goods at the agora, or being a priestess. However, most of them had a great influence at home and spent their days managing the household and their children. The women could never leave the house without a man. There were many slaves in ancient Athens. Most people who weren't poor owned at least one slave. Slaves performed wide varieties of jobs including running the house, tutoring children, craftsmen, farming, factories, and working for the city as a clerk. The unlucky slaves worked in silver mines. These slaves worked up to 10 hours a day in cramped tunnels, located 300 feet below the surface. They had little air to breath, and if for some reason they stopped working, the slaves would be whipped. Sparta The life for Spartan women was superior, compared to the lives of Athenian women. Women had lived the same simple life as Spartan men. They were free to speak to their husband’s friends, and they could even own and control their own property. Women here could even choose to marry another man if her husband had been gone away for too long. A women was expected to look after her husband’s property in time of war, and the wife had to guard it against the slave revolts. Spartan slaves, also known as helots, were people who had been conquered by the spartans. The spartans were afraid that the helots would revolt, so they believed that they should treat the helots very harshly. The government sometimes even declared war on the helots so that it could legally kill any slaves it thought might rebel. Despite this treatment, helots actually had some rights. They could marry whomever and whenever they wanted. They could even pass their names onto their own children. If they had enough money saved, they could buy their own freedom. |
Athenian Economy Athenian economy was based on trade. Athens was near the water and they traded with other city-states for the materials they didn’t have. They bought and sold goods at a marketplace called the Agora. People bought lettuce, onions, olive oil, wine, honey, silver, and pottery. They also bought and sold slaves. Athenians developed their own coins that were made of gold, silver, and bronze. They decorated the flat sides of the coins they used for trade. Spartan Economy Sparta’s economy was based on farming and conquering other people’s land. Sparta didn’t have enough land to plant crops and give food to all the people, so they took land from their neighboring villages. They turned neighbors they conquered into slaves called helots. Perioikoi were free men but not citizens. They could serve in the army but not participate in the government. Perioikoi made clothes, shoes, tools, and pottery. Spartans discouraged trade because they believed that interactions with other cities brought new ideas and weakened their government. They used heavy iron bars as money instead of coins. |