Ancient_Greece

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece was a land of contradictions and conflict. Located amist rugged mountains, the Greek mainland was both protected from its enemies, and isolated from its allies, making communication between the many Greek city-states extremely difficult. Each city-state and the lands around it were referred to as a polis, and each polis functioned as an independent country, with its own laws and government. Despite the unwillingness and inability of the Greek city-states to unite, the Greeks were able to leave a long-lasting mark on western civilization. The two principle city states in Greece were Athens and Sparta. The two cities had little in common. Sparta, located on the Peloponnesus was a militaristic society, which prided itself above all and foremost in its army, while Athens, which lay northeast of the Peloponnesus, was a center of art, philosophy, architecture, and theater. The importance of the military was clearly evident in the Spartan society, which believed that strong men could protect the city just as well if not better than a wall. The government was founded on the principle that the life of an individual belonged to the state. There were three distinct classes that inhabited Sparta. Spartan citizens lived in the city itself, and athenians, government, sparta, city, citizens, athens, war, military, army, spartans, philosophy, much, great, men, male, because, art, although, society, majority, made, literature, laws, however, greek, cultural, between, beautiful, assembly, architecture, understanding, two, spectacular, spartan, social, public