How did athens and sparta differ? a athenians and spartans worshipped different gods and goddesses. b athenians wrote great drama, while spartans focused on poetry. c athenians were not interested in sports, while spartans were. d athens had direct democracy, while sparta was ruled by kings.

Sparta was oligarchical and conservative. Conservative meaning they were not daring. It sounds paradoxical because they were so martial, but military awesome doesn't equate to risk-taking. They were very conservative when it came to making a move until they were confident of victory, and they were slow to act. Athens was liberal and democratically. Liberal meaning they had opened up the political system to access by the public. They were also very powerful and more daring when it came to expending resources. So a huge difference is, Athens had to spend a lot of effort to convince the public when it came to fighting, because of the need for deliberation since it was democratic. Sparta was a more political system in which the people had less of a voice, so it could make decisions faster. However, the leadership in Sparta was conservative, whereas in Athens, once the people latched onto something, they committed. So the big difference is, and this is very important, Sparta would never have attacked Sicily! Oh and yeah they had different deities. Athens was Athena, Sparta was Ares.