The Spartan and Athenian societies were vastly different in many of their cultural and political aspects despite their generally close geographic location, and the small section of land that separated them. The main myriad of similarities came in the form of their government. Both the Athenians, and the Spartans had a democratic assembly, meaning that the members of the assemblies were elected by the people, but their comparative similarities were also the start of their differences, where Sparta was ruled by two elected kings, that would normally rule until death, or until they were forced out of office, meaning that they followed a variation of a democratic rule, such as an Oligarchy, the Athenians were ruled by archons, who were elected
