requirement for full citizen rights as an adult. Not until the age of 30 could they set up households on their
own and live as part of a family. Even after that, the men were required to dine in the communal messes,
the fare of which was notoriously austere and unappetizing. Spartan women were also subjected to
rigorous physical training, in the expectation that they would as a result give birth to strong and healthy
citizens. The aim of this training was to create uniformity among the Spartan citizens and, in fact, the
Spartans were in the habit of referring to themselves as “the peers.” For, in consequence of the equal
distribution of conquered lands among the Spartans, all citizens were at least nominally landholders of
equal status.

The Spartan fighting force was consequently remarkably disciplined and obedient to the dictates of the
Spartan state. Spartan society was, as might be expected, quiteconservative: Innovation and foreign
influence were firmly resisted, and Spartan citizens were uncomfortable about straying very far from their
home territory, where they might be needed on short notice to react to disturbances or outright rebellion
on the part of the helots. Another reason for the Spartans to be apprehensive of contact with the outside
world is illustrated by the fate of Pausanias, the commander at Plataea. In the years immediately
following the victory at Plataea it was necessary for the allied Greek forces to liberate from the Persians
some of the Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor. In the course of this campaign, exposure to the luxury
and wealth of the east, along with a consciousness of his extraordinary success at Plataea, seems to have
unhinged Pausanias’ Spartan sensibilities. He began dining on exotic delicacies and dressing up in
oriental finery. Pausanias even went so far as to suggest to Xerxes that he would be willing to help the
Persians in a new attempt to conquer Greece, hoping that he would himself be given mastery of all
Greece. When the Spartans learned of this, they recalled Pausanias from overseas to face trial at home,
where he eventually died without causing further damage. This experience reinforced the Spartans’
already firm reluctance to engage in operations in alien territory.

The Development of Democracy in Athens: Solon

The Athenian reaction to the successful outcome of the Persian Wars was very different, largely because
of the very different character of Athenian society. By the time of the battle of Plataea, Athens had
developed into a vibrant democracy that saw its influence expand within the Greek world. In addition, the
reluctance of the Spartans to assume a position of leadership in Greece after the departure of the Persians
from mainland Greece encouraged the Athenians first to assume that position and then to attempt to
impose their will on the Greek poleis in and around the Aegean Sea. We are much better informed about
the development of Athenian society in the Archaic Period than we are about Sparta, and it will be
instructive to outline that development as a means of understanding Athens’ rise to power in the aftermath
of the Persian Wars.

It is paradoxical that the basis of Sparta’s oligarchic government lay in the supposed equality of Spartan
citizens, whereas democracy in Athens arose in response to a crisis brought about by an uneven
distribution of wealth. As we have seen, Sparta attained its eventual size by expansion, with members of a
relatively small territory, the area in the immediate neighborhood of the town of Sparta, incorporating and
dividing up the surrounding territories. Attica, the territory of Athens, had by contrast attained unity by the
consolidation, perhaps at the end of the Dark Age, of several scattered villages into a political entity with
the urban center of Athens as its focus. The citizens of this entity included subsistence farmers, craftsmen,
merchants, and prosperous landowners. By the beginning of the sixth century BC, inequality in the
distribution of wealth had reached such a point that many landowners had had to give up their rights to
their own land in order to pay off debts and some had even been sold into slavery. The conflict that arose
as a result of this situation was only resolved when a respected member of a prominent Athenian family