Sparta and Athens are like apples and oranges: the same but different. Both are fruit grown on trees in the case of the apples and oranges, and both are city-states in Greece in the case of Athens and Sparta. Apples and oranges have distinctly different tastes, textures and flavors. Athens and Sparta had markedly different types of origins, social class, government and military history. In this paper both similarities and differences between Athens and Sparta will be explored, so as to learn the real truth about these two ancient city-state giants.
             The origins of these two city-states have some similarities and some differences. What started as two uninhabited small parcels of land ended up as Athens and Sparta. Around 3000 B.C. the Mycenaeans inhabited Athens. Mycenaean rule lasted for 2900 years. From 1100 B.C. to 950 B.C., the Dorians invaded Athens along with other Mycenaean city-states. Mycenaean rule and civilization were destroyed. Athens survived the Dorian invasions and developed into an advanced city-state. The city-state Sparta was formed as a result of the Dorian invasions. In 900 B.C., fifty years after Athens was invaded, the Dorians invaded Laconia in southeastern Greece, destroying almost all of the small villages. "In 800 B.C. many Dorian villages banded together to form Sparta" (Encyclopedia Vol. 4). Sparta was the ideal place for the evolution of a military because it had natural protective barriers; mountains in the north, east, and west.
             The development of social class and government in Sparta and Athens had a long road that had many bumps before the two city-states reached their final goal or destination. How each city-state took the bumps separated one city-state from the other. Sparta's social class was first made of two kings who were descendants of the Dorian king. In 735 B.C. the Spartans invaded Messenia, making its people the lowest class of citizens, helots. Sparta used Messenia'...