In ancient Greece there were many different settlements being formed. They were called poleis. This translates to "city-state", however many of them were nothing more than a small village or town. The polis was a community of a group of citizens, and most of the time carried its own government. Athens and Sparta were two main city-states in ancient Greece. Even though Athens and Sparta were both Greek city-states, they had more differences than similarities. Athens was more of a commercial trading center, while Sparta was strictly a military state whose citizens were either warriors or slaves (helots). Other differences included pottery and sculpture, role of women, education, government, and so on.

The characteristic that made Sparta truly unlike any other city-state was its military-based state. In Sparta, the men were full time soldiers, and that and producing new soldiers were their only jobs. When a new male...