Social Sciences and History / Unit 3 SSH 0210 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sparta or Athens? Classifying a Feature
The idea
The exam pairs Sparta and Athens and asks which city a feature belongs to. Sparta: two kings, a small law-making council, an assembly of men over thirty, and citizenship limited to men who survived the military training that began at seven; a tiny warrior elite over the largest enslaved population in Greece; conquest of the Peloponnesus from about seven hundred BCE; austerity. Athens: wealth from trade, Attica's population of about six hundred thousand by six hundred BCE, art and drama; a long struggle between aristocratic landowners and everyone else that produced the first democracy; a large enslaved population too; a navy.
In practice
Ask what the feature is for. Boys trained in barracks serve a warrior elite: Sparta. A reform widening the vote answers a wealth conflict: Athens. A fleet serves trade and empire: Athens. Two hereditary kings checked by councils: Sparta. Given "celebrated drama and sculpture", choose Athens; given "citizenship earned by military training", Sparta; given "controlled a large enslaved population", both, and a question treating slavery as Sparta's alone is wrong.
Where people slip
The trap is the modern word spartan, which suggests Sparta was poor. Sparta was austere by choice and rich in land and enslaved labor. The second trap is calling Athens equal: about a tenth of its people voted, on top of an empire.
Your place on the trail
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Builds on
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