The Great Greek Debate of 450 BCE (48 Points)
After the Persians were defeated in 480 BCE, it became pretty clear that Athens and Sparta were on a collision course. You are going to stage a debate between two excellent spokesmen for their respective city states. Pericles will represent Athens, and Leonidas will represent Sparta. Granted, Leonidas had died by 450 BCE, but he is a great icon for Sparta so we will bring him briefly back to life. In this debate, you will respond as you think they would.
The debate will cover three basic topics:
1.
Politics
2.
Military
3.
Society
Each man will take turns explaining why his city is superior. As the moderator, you will create a fundamental question then both gentlemen will respond.
We will accomplish two things:
Complete a planning template
Create a basic question and have both sides respond. The responses should follow the paragraph format below:
Your main goal in writing a solid paragraph is to do the following:




Begin with a discussible point (the topic sentence—what is the paragraph about)
Stick to the point (provide evidence or support for the topic sentence)
Prove the point; don’t merely repeat it (now, explain the evidence or support)
Link your sentences to make your ideas easy to follow (link by using transitional words and phrases, by repeating key words or pronouns, or by using similar sentence patterns).
The paragraph should be structured as follows:
1 st sentence—topic sentence (what the paragraph is about)
2 nd sentence—1 st piece of evidence or support for the topic sentence.

3 rd sentence—back up the 2 nd sentence with more explanation as to how or why this supports the topic sentence.
4 th sentence—2 nd piece of evidence or support for the topic sentence
5 th sentence—back up the 4 th sentence with more explanation as to how or why this supports the topic sentence.
6 th sentence—concluding sentence—sum up the paragraph with a conclusion.
Each paragraph needs to be six sentences long. There will be six total paragraphs. Three topics plus two responses equals six paragraphs.
Some information about the historic figures:
Leonidas
Plutarch has recorded the following: "When someone said to him: 'Except for being king you are not at all superior to us,' Leonidas son of Anaxandridas and brother of Cleomenes replied: 'But were I not better than you, I should not be king.'" [8] As the product of the agoge, Leonidas is unlikely to have been referring to his royal blood alone but rather suggesting that he had, like his brother Dorieus, proven superior capability in the competitive environment of Spartan training and society, and that he believed this made him qualified to rule.
Leonidas was elected to lead the combined Greek forces determined to resist the Persian invasion in 481 BC. This was not simply a tribute to Sparta's military prowess: The probability that the coalition wanted Leonidas personally for his capability as a military leader is underlined by the fact that just two years after his death, the coalition preferred Athenian leadership to the leadership of either Leotychidas or Leonidas' successor (as regent for his still under-aged son)
Pausanias. The rejection of Leotychidas and Pausanias was not a reflection on Spartan arms.
Sparta's military reputation had never stood in higher regard. Nor was Sparta less powerful in
478 BC than it had been in 481 BC.
This election of Leonidas to lead the defense of Greece against Xerxes' invasion led to Leonidas' death in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.

Pericles
( Greek : Περικλ ῆ ς, Periklēs
, "surrounded by glory"; c. 495 – 429 BC) was a prominent and influential statesman , orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age —specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family.
Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides , his contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War.
The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the
" Age of Pericles ", though the period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars , or as late as the next century.
Pericles promoted the arts and literature; this was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon ).
This project beautified the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to the people.
[1]
Furthermore,
Pericles fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist .
[2][3]
You can get all the information you need for this project by consulting the “Evil Empire” packet, the biographical descriptions above, and the text pages 115-119. And this site: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Athens_vs_Sparta
Rubric:
Job 1: Completed Planning Template (21 points)
Job 2: Three Basic Questions (3 points)
Job 3: Six Topic Sentences (6 points)
Job 4: Two Pieces of Evidence in Each Paragraph (12 points)
Job 5: Six Conclusion Sentences (6 points)
Planning Template
Politics
Question:

Pericles Response:
Topic Sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Leonidas Response:
Topic Sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Question:
Leonidas Response:
Topic Sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Pericles Response:
Topic Sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Question:
Pericles Response:
Topic Sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Leonidas Response:
Topic Sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Military
Society