Expert: Maria - 8/9/2010

Question
How did the population of one city-sate view that of others.  e.g. what did the Corinthians think of the Spartans?  I'm thinking of generalizations, such as nowadays people will say scottish people are mean with money etc.

Answer
Hello,

As everywhere in the world, in Greece too there were many prejudices and generalizations.

For example, the Athenians thought the Spartans  were illiterate and rough as they were devoted only to the art of war; also, to the Athenians the Boeotians seemed dull and thick-witted.

As for the Spartans, they  thought that all the others inhabitants of the Peloponnesus, i.e. the peninsula they dominated in  the southern part of Greece, had to be their slaves as they were devoid of common sense and  pride.

Moreover all the Greeks believed  that the Macedonians had to be excluded from the Hellenic community, for they were considered to be inferior, i.e. barbarians, as they could not speak  Greek.

In short, the population of one city-state (πόλις  in ancient Greek, transliterated as “polis”) had many prejudices about the other  Greek city-states.

Best regards,
Maria