Favorite Greek City-state

[Valens]

Of the 5 Ancient Greek City-States(Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Argos, and Corinth), which is your favorite? Why are they your favorite?

 

I'd have to choose Sparta. I admire their dedication to excellence, the males spending the majority of their lives in the military, and the female dedication to making themselves top specimens for breeding the perfect soldier child. Another impressive aspect of Sparta would be the stability of its government. In the hundreds of years that Sparta existed, they faced no internal rebellion save for that of their slave people, the Helots. Something interesting to note is that before Sparta went into its cultural isolation view of things, they were at the head of Greek cultural influence and advances(interesting as they were later known for being so primitive).

[Viggen]

I go for Athens...

[Primus Pilus]

Also would go for Athens. Athens was the cultural center of the world for several millenia, including during the Roman Empire. Militarily they could be quite impressive as well. An interesting history 'what if?' would be: What if Sparta and Athens had maintained cooperative relations instead of being rivals. Who knows how far or how long Greek culture and power would've dominated.

[journaldan]

I am gonna say Athens.

[Valens]

Also would go for Athens. Athens was the cultural center of the world for several millenia, including during the Roman Empire. Militarily they could be quite impressive as well. An interesting history 'what if?' would be: What if Sparta and Athens had maintained cooperative relations instead of being rivals. Who knows how far or how long Greek culture and power would've dominated.

That is indeed interesting to think of. I would venture to say that Athens might start a war to end Macedonia, and Sparta, not wanting to break friendly terms, would likely assist. With the two 'city-state leaders' in war, the other Greeks would be sure to follow their lead and join in. Wonder how the Athenians and Spartans would react when the Romans acted against their now quite large(after the taking of Macedonia) country?

[Primus Pilus]

But perhaps Alexander would've never risen to power in Macedonia and Greek/Hellene influence may have been less than it turned out to be. But I digress...

[Domitianus]

I'm gonna go with Corinth. Rivalled Athens and Thebes in wealth, and Corinth's great temple on its acropolis was dedicated to Aphrodite, which, according to most sources, had more than one thousand temple prostitutes employed. Not to mention it was the host of the Isthmian ganes, held the year before and the year after the Olympic games, in honor of Poseidon.

[Ursus]

I'll go with Athens due to its cultural achievements.

 

Sparta's military excellence is blunted by the fact they always seemed to find an excuse not to fight.

 

Now if the Athenian Empire had not collapsed after the Peloponnesian war, there might have been a Hellenistic world without Alexander at the helm.

[Valens]

Sparta's military excellence is blunted by the fact they always seemed to find an excuse not to fight.

This only happened every so often. For instance, when the Athenian messenger arrived to ask the Spartans for assistance against the Persians at Marathon, the Spartans were in the middle of a religious holiday. However, they have proven themselves many times over as the masters of the battlefield in Greece.

[DecimusCaesar]

I'd have to agree with a lot of others on this thread and go with Athens. It's cultural achievemnets were spectatular (as are its monuments), it was the home of Democracy and Philosophy for some time as well.

Sparta I find to be a lot worse, they had the best army but their society was a totalitarian militaristic one that shunned learning and remained so opposed to new ideas that they allowed themselves to be defeated numerous times by the Thebans under Epaminondas. Although they saved Greece at Thermopylae (even though they lost) they were still a terribly brutal society.

[Ursus]

As you can see I voted for Athens ... but really, what do we know about Ancient Greece besides Athens and Sparta? We don't have nearly as much information on the other city-states.

 

Corinth was rich in trade and had a large temple to Aphrodite staffed by sacred prostitutes - perhaps not such a bad place to live, particularly if you want to get away from stuffy Athenian intellectualism.

[Aurelianus]

I dont know enough about Thebes, Corinth, or Argos to comment on them, but out of Athens and Sparta. I find Sparta has too little to recomend it; only its brain-dead single mindedness on its obsession with bravery. I have personally always found Athens a little hypocritical and elitist. Then you can't expect the epitome of societie develop overnight, and they did cultivate some brilliant philosophers. So I would have to say Athens.

[Andrew Dalby]

I'm gonna go with Corinth. Rivalled Athens and Thebes in wealth, and Corinth's great temple on its acropolis was dedicated to Aphrodite, which, according to most sources, had more than one thousand temple prostitutes employed. Not to mention it was the host of the Isthmian ganes, held the year before and the year after the Olympic games, in honor of Poseidon.

 

Domitianus reminds me of two literary mentions of Corinth. Here's the first, a poem by Pindar (about 475 BC) addressed to the temple prostitutes:

 

Young girls who welcome many strangers, handmaids of Persuasion in rich Corinth, who burn the yellow tears of the green incense tree as often as you fly in your thoughts to heavenly Aphrodite, mother of the Erotes: she has privileged you, children, far above all reproach, to pick the ripe fruits of youth in your beds of desire. When Need compels, all is beautiful.

 

And here, by Dio of Prusa (about 100 AD) is a picture of goings-on on the fringes of the Isthmian Games: evidently it was a fair, not just an athletic contest:

 

Bad-tempered professors could be heard shouting and reviling each other round the temple of Poseidon while their so-called students fought with their fists. Writers were reading their nonsense aloud. Poets were reciting their verses to the applause of other poets, conjurors and fortune-tellers were showing off their tricks. There were countless lawyers perverting the law and not a few pedlars hawking everything and anything.

 

St Paul's Letters to the Corinthians are interesting too. I think I might vote the same way Domitianus has.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

My knowledge of ancient Greece is pretty limited, i really do need to improve it, but of the choices i would have to go for Athens, again because of the cultural aspect, closely followed by Sparta because of it's military expertise. As for the others i dont know enough about them to be able to give a valid reason.

[Rameses the Great]

I would say Athens, because they were able to influence others without the use of force. Even though Athens did not have much in terms of military it reflected a bit on their society. The thing I love most about Athens is it just made the best out of the situations.

 

Also the architecture, technology, and government was above and beyond their counterparts.