Thoughts and Reflections: "Two Ancient Cities"

       The cities of Athens and Sparta were bitter rivals in ancient Greece. Geographically they were very close to each other but had had very different values, lifestyles, and cultures. Where they differed was that while the Spartans had militaristic values, theAthenians were democratic. The Spartans emphasized mainly on expanding their power and gaining control over other kingdoms while the Athenians developed their infrastructure and built great buildings. Athens built up a great navy, while Spartans built a great military army. Athenians valued education far more than the Spartans. They understood the importance of growth and concentrated on growth besides on military strength. Both Athens and Sparta hold historic value for Greece and the world and Greece itself made great accomplishments. Athenians developed the world’s first democracy. Great Greek philosophers like Hippocrates invented scientific  medicine while Sophocles and Euripides were great playwrights and still read today. Euclid invented Euclidean geometry. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle developed the art of philosophy and the search for wisdom and truth. The Greeks created great buildings, and sculptures and columns. They gave us the Olympics. The senate and the house, the American type of government, were in invented in Greece. Also the jury system for deciding guilt or innocence using a jury comes from Greece. Greek architecture appears everywhere in America while Euclidian geometry and the scientific method are very important in America.