Athens and Sparta Worksheets

Press Print worksheet for twelve words to sort under two headings, Athens and Sparta.

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NameDateMade at homeroomtools.comWrite each word of the word box under its heading.Word boxAthens or Sparta?AthensSpartaLaconiacitizen juriesagogeAtticatwo kingsephorsDelian LeagueCouncil of 500barracksBattle of ThermopylaeParthenondemocracy
NameDateMade at homeroomtools.comWrite each word of the word box under its heading.Athens or Sparta?Answer keyAthensSpartaParthenonAtticaDelian Leaguecitizen juriesdemocracyCouncil of 500two kingsBattle of ThermopylaebarracksagogeephorsLaconia
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All 24 words

Athens 12

  • Acropolis Athens. The rocky hill above the city where its great temples stand.
  • Attica Athens. The region of Greece that surrounds the city.
  • Battle of Marathon Athens. In 490 BC its soldiers defeated a Persian army at Marathon.
  • citizen juries Athens. Large juries of citizens decided the cases in its law courts.
  • Council of 500 Athens. Five hundred citizens, chosen by lot to serve for a year.
  • Delian League Athens. The league of Greek city-states that Athens led, formed in 478 BC.
  • democracy Athens. Its citizens met in an assembly and voted on the laws themselves.
  • Long Walls Athens. The walls that joined the city to its harbor at Piraeus.
  • ostracism Athens. A vote that sent one citizen away from the city for ten years.
  • Parthenon Athens. The temple on the Acropolis built for the goddess Athena.
  • port of Piraeus Athens. The harbor town where the ships of the city docked.
  • sea power Athens. Its strength was its fleet of warships.
Show all 24 words (12 more)

Sparta 12

  • agoge Sparta. The training that boys began at the age of seven.
  • barracks Sparta. Boys in training lived in them.
  • Battle of Thermopylae Sparta. In 480 BC a Spartan king led the Greek force that held this pass against a Persian army.
  • Council of Elders Sparta. Twenty-eight men over the age of 60, chosen for life, and the two kings.
  • ephors Sparta. Five officials who each served for one year.
  • Eurotas River Sparta. The city lay in the valley of this river.
  • helots Sparta. Unfree people who farmed the land for Spartan citizens.
  • Laconia Sparta. The region in the southeast of the Peloponnese where the city stood.
  • land power Sparta. Its strength was its army.
  • Peloponnese Sparta. The peninsula of southern Greece where the city stood.
  • Peloponnesian League Sparta. The league of Greek city-states that Sparta led.
  • two kings Sparta. Two kings from two families ruled at the same time.

How this list was compiled: Word list chosen for this site on 2026-10-09. Every word stands under one city only, and each was checked that day against the English Wikipedia article on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Sparta, Spartan constitution, Helots, Ephor, Gerousia, Agoge, Laconia, Peloponnesian League, Evrotas (river), Peloponnese, Classical Athens, Athens, Athenian democracy, Acropolis of Athens, Parthenon, Piraeus, Attica, Boule (ancient Greece), Ostracism, Delian League, Long Walls and Peloponnesian War. Each was checked a second time against an entry of World History Encyclopedia (https://www.worldhistory.org/): Sparta, Athens, Athenian Democracy, Greek Government, Agoge, Helots, Acropolis, Parthenon, Piraeus, Ostracism, Delian League and Peloponnesian League. A word that fits both cities (assembly, navy, agora, hoplite) was left out or made exact, and so was a word the two sources do not agree on (oligarchy, the naming of Athens). Licence: own work

How it works

These Athens and Sparta worksheets print a box of twelve words above two headings. Pupils write each word under the city-state it belongs to: democracy and Parthenon under Athens, barracks and two kings under Sparta. The answer key prints as the last page.

Read the full guide

Twelve words for each city

A sheet draws six words for Athens and six for Sparta from the 24 under the tool, where each word has the fact that puts it under its city. Answer by turns the same sheet into a cut and paste, with the words as tiles along the bottom.

Words that are not here

Both cities had an assembly of citizens and both fought as hoplites, so neither word is on the sheet. Navy and army are sharpened to sea power and land power, because Sparta built a fleet of its own late in the Peloponnesian War.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between Athens and Sparta?

Athens was a democracy: its citizens voted on the laws in an assembly, and its strength was its fleet. Sparta had two kings, five ephors and a council of elders, put its boys into military training at seven, and was strongest on land.

How were Athens and Sparta alike?

Both were Greek city-states where citizens met in an assembly. They fought on the same side against the Persian invasion of 480 BC, then against each other in the Peloponnesian War, from 431 to 404 BC.

Who were the helots?

The helots were the unfree people of Laconia and Messenia, the lands Sparta ruled. They farmed the land for Spartan citizens and were the larger part of the population there.

Who won the war between Athens and Sparta?

Sparta. The Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC with the defeat of Athens, after Sparta, by then allied with Persia, had built a navy.

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