City states, like those in Ancient Greece were thriving centers of commerce and trade. Athens the most famous of the states was led by a fellow named Pericles he was a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts, and politician. Philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates flourished in Athens where a new idea known as Democracy was being tested. Sparta the polar opposite was warlike state under the rule of Leonidas who died in the battle of thermopylae.
