Was Sparta or Athens more powerful?

Answer 1

In ancient Greece, Sparta was more powerful. While Athens focused more on literature, Spartan children went to school to train for war. They went through multiple hard tests like stepping on needles and fighting each other.

Answer 2

Sparta had a better and stronger army but Athens has a stronger Navy.

In terms of numbers Athens and Sparta could field armies of roughly the same size, though in its prime Sparta could perhaps have outnumbered Athens on land but due to the restrictive and brutal nature of life in Sparta there were never many Spartiates and Spartans did not employ many Perioikoi or Helots in their armies, this meant that a Spartan army would rarely exceed ten thousand men.

Athens did not have such a restrictive social structure as Sparta but Athenians still had to buy the necessary and expensive equipment for war so Athenian armies also rarely exceeded ten thousand, the poorer citizens would be rowers and marines in the navy.

However Spartan warriors were undeniably superior to Athenians as a Spartiate was purely a soldier while Athenians were armed citizens. Despite this battles between ancient Greek armies involved little skill as they were essentially a shoving match meaning the side with the most men would win.

This means that the relative strength of the Spartan and Athenian armies varies from battle to battle with the number of troops.

Answer 3

Sparta is thought to have had the most powerful land army throughout most of its' history, but Athens had a much stronger navy, the strongest if not on par with that of Corinth. However keep in mind that the Athenian army was much larger than that of Sparta.

Answer 4

Sparta had the stronger ground forces, Athens the stronger navy. Athens could defend its walls and send its navy to harass its opponents and import food during sieges. Then Persia bankrolled a large fleet for the Spartan alliance which defeated the Athenian fleet and then starved Athens out.

Answer 5

The same.