This training provided to be effective on the battlefield as the Spartans were virtually unbeatable. Their only major defeat, the Battle of Thermopylae, occurred not because they were an inferior fighting force but rather because they were hopelessly outnumbered and betrayed by a fellow Greek who told Xerxes of the way around the pass.
At the age of 20, Spartan men would become warriors of the state. This military life would go on until they turned While much of the lives of Spartan men would be ruled by discipline and military, there were also other options over time available to them.
For instance as a member of the state at age twenty, Spartan men were allowed to marry, but they would not share a marital home until they were thirty or older. For now their lives were dedicated to the military. When they clocked thirty, Spartan men became full citizens of the state, and as such they were granted various privileges. The newly granted status meant Spartan men could live at their homes, most of the Spartans were farmers but the helots would work the land for them. If Spartan men would get to the age of sixty they would be considered retired.
After sixty the men would not have to perform any military duties, this included all war-time activities. Spartan men were also said to wear their hair long, often braided into locks. Spartan men were generally well groomed.
Citizenship in Sparta was taught to acquire, as one had to prove their blood relation to an original Spartan, and this made it difficult to replace soldiers on a one to one basis. Over time, particularly after the Peloponnesian War during the period of the Spartan Empire, these put considerable strain on the Spartan army. They were forced to rely more and more on helots and other hoplites, who not as well-trained and therefore beatable.
This finally became apparent during the Battle of Leuctra, which we now see as the beginning of the end for Sparta. While Sparta was technically a monarchy governed by two kings, one each from the Agiad and Eurypontid families, these kings were relegated over time to positions that most closely resembled generals.
This is because the city was really governed by the ephors and gerousia. The gerousia was a council of 28 men over the age of Once elected, they held their post for life. Typically, members of the gerousia were related to one of the two royal familes, which helped to keep power consolidated in the hands of the few.
The gerousia was responsible for electing the ephors , which is the name given to a group of five officials who were responsible for carrying out the orders of the gerousia. They would impose taxes, deal with subordinate helot populations, and accompany kings on military campaigns to ensure the wishes of the gerousia were met.
To be a member of these already exclusive leading parties, one had to be a Spartan citizen, and only Spartan citizens could vote for the gerousia. Because of this, there is no doubt that Sparta operated under an oligarchy, a government ruled by the few. Many believe this arrangement was made because of the nature of the founding of Sparta; the combining of four, and then five, towns meant that leaders of each needed to be accommodated, and this form of government made this possible.
Next to the ephors, the gerousia , and kings, were the clergy. Spartan citizens were also considered to be at the top of the Spartan social order, and below them were helots and other non-citizens. Because of this, Sparta would have been a highly unequal society where wealth and power were accumulated into the hands of the few and those without citizen status were denied basic rights.
One unique thing about Sparta was that it had always had two kings ruling simultaneously. The leading theory about why this was the case deals with the founding of Sparta. It is thought that the original villages made this arrangement to ensure that each powerful family got a say but also so that neither village could gain too much of an advantage over the other.
Plus, the gerousia was established to further weaken the power of the Spartan kings and limit their ability to rule autonomously.
In fact, by the time of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartan kings had little or no say over the affairs of the Spartan polis. Instead, by this point, there were relegated to nothing more than generals, but they were even limited in how they could act in this capacity, meaning most of the power in Sparta was in the hands of the gerousia.
Both royal families, the Agiads and the Eurypontids, claimed ancestry with the gods. Specifically, they traced their ancestry to Eurysthenes and Procles, the twin children a Heracles, one of the sons of Zeus. Some of these kings include, from the Agiad dynasty:. While many parts of Spartan society were considerably unequal, and freedoms were limited for all but the most elite, Spartan women were granted a much more significant role in Spartan life than they were in other Greek cultures at the time.
Of course, they were far from equals, but they were afforded freedoms unheard of in the ancient world. They were also fed the same foods as Spartan men, something that did not happen in many parts of ancient Greece, and they were restricted from bearing children until they were in their late teens or twenties.
This policy was meant to improve the chances of Spartan women having healthy children while also preventing women from experiencing the complications that come from early pregnancies. They were also allowed to sleep with other men besides their husbands, something that was completely unheard of in the ancient world. Furthermore, Spartan women were not allowed to participate in politics, but they did have the right to own property.
Spartan women were seen as the vehicle by which the city of Sparta constantly advanced. Of course, as compared to the world we live in today, these freedoms hardly seem significant.
But considering the context, one in which women were typically seen as second-class citizens, this relatively equal treatment of Spartan women set this city apart from the rest of the Greek world.
The story of Sparta is certainly an exciting one. Over the years, Spartan culture has become quite famous, with many pointing to the austere mannerisms of its two kings along with its commitment to loyalty and discipline, as evidenced by the Spartan army.
Bradford, Alfred S. Powell, Anton. Routledge, Accessed November 14, 2. Table of Contents. C, one of the most famous artifacts of Mycenaean Greece. A map showing the distribution of ancient Greek dialects. He is considered to be the first Basileus king of Sparta. Obligations of Nobility. Franco C. November 8, Christian Heresy. November 1, Countryside Festivals. October 25, The Eurotas river bed at the city of Sparti in the Laconia region of Greece. A region in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula.
Aristomenes fighting his way out of Ira. A painting of the Acropolis in Athens. The Persian ceremony of ceremony of Presenting Earth and Water The phrase earth and water is used to represent the demand of the Persians from the cities or people who surrendered to them. A scene of the Battle of Plataea. Fragment of an Athenian decree concerning the collection of the tribute from the members of the Delian League, probably passed in the 4th century B. A painting by artist Michiel Sweerts c.
Destruction of the Athenian Army in Sicily. Lysander outside the walls of Athens, ordering their destruction. One of the most imposing structures of Ancient Athens, the Erechtheion, had barely finished construction when Sparta took over Athens in the late 4th Century B.
Athenian funerary stele of the Corinthian War. An Athenian cavalryman and a standing soldier are seen fighting an enemy hoplite fallen to the ground circa BC. Map of Ancient Boeotia. The restored surviving victory monument the Thebans left at Leuctra. Medieval depiction of Sparta from the Nuremberg Chronicle Funerary stele from Attica showing a young Ethiopian groom slave trying to calm a horse down c.
Slavery was rampant in Spartan society and some like the the Spartan helots often revolted against their masters. A model of the Great Spartan Rhetra Constitution. Publius97 at en. Spartan women enforced the state ideology of militarism and bravery. January 4, Gaius Gracchus.
May 31, July 3, Severus II. The two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, went to war with each other from to B. The Peloponnesian War marked a significant power shift in ancient Greece, favoring Sparta, and also ushered in a period of regional decline that signaled the The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles B.
Pericles transformed his The Battle of Marathon in B. The battle was fought on the Marathon plain of northeastern Attica and marked the first blows of the Greco-Persian War. With the Persians closing in on the Greek capitol, Athenian general The Code of Hammurabi was one of the earliest and most complete written legal codes and was proclaimed by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who reigned from to B.
Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern The Athenian philosopher Plato c. In his written dialogues he conveyed and expanded on the ideas and techniques of his teacher Socrates.
The Academy he Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. The Spartan Military Unlike such Greek city-states as Athens, a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, Sparta was centered on a warrior culture. Recommended for you. How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland.
Peloponnesian War. Located beside the coast, Thermopylae contained a narrow passage, which the Greeks blocked and used to halt Xerxes' advance. Ancient sources indicate that Leonidas started the battle with a few thousand troops including Spartans at its core. He faced a Persian force many times its size. After spying on the Spartan-led force, and waiting to see if they would surrender, Xerxes ordered an attack.
The "Medes rushed forward and charged the Greeks, but fell in vast numbers: others, however, took the places of the slain, and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible losses.
In this way it became clear to all, and especially to the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had but very few warriors. The struggle, however, continued during the whole day," wrote Herodotus. Translation by George Rawlinson. After this beaten force withdrew, Xerxes sent an elite unit called the "Immortals" after the Spartan-led force but they too failed.
Herodotus noted the battle tactics the Spartans employed. Eventually, a Greek man showed Xerxes a pass that allowed part of the Persian force to outmaneuver the Greeks and attack them on both flanks. Leonidas was doomed.
Many of the troops who were with Leonidas withdrew possibly because the Spartan king ordered them to. According to Herodotus, the Thespians decided to stay with the Spartans by their own free will. Leonidas then made his fateful stand and "fell fighting bravely, together with many other famous Spartans," Herodotus writes. Ultimately, the Persians killed almost all of the Spartan troops. The helots the Spartans brought with them were also killed.
The Persian army proceeded south, sacking Athens and threatening to break into the Peloponnese. A Greek naval victory at the Battle of Salamis halted this approach, the Persian king Xerxes going home and leaving an army behind that would later be destroyed. The Greeks led by the now dead Leonidas had prevailed. When the threat from the Persians receded, the Greeks resumed their inter-city rivalries.
Two of the most powerful city states were Athens and Sparta, and tensions between the two escalated in the decades after their victory over Persia. The situation was serious enough that Sparta called on allied cities for aid in putting it down. When the Athenians arrived, however, the Spartans refused their help.
This was taken as an insult in Athens and bolstered anti-Spartan views. The Battle of Tanagra, fought in B. At times, Athens appeared to have the advantage, such as the battle of Sphacteria in B. It was the opinion that no force or famine could make the Lacedaemonians give up their arms, but that they would fight on as they could, and die with them in their hands," wrote Thucydides B. Translation by J. Dent via Perseus Digital Library.
There were also periods when Athens was in trouble, such as in B. There has been speculation that the plague was actually an ancient form of the Ebola virus. Ultimately, the conflict between Sparta and Athens resolved itself on the sea.
While the Athenians had the naval advantage throughout much of the war, the situation changed when a man named Lysander was named commander of Sparta's navy. He sought out Persian financial support to help the Spartans build up their fleet. He convinced a Persian prince named Cyrus to provide him with money. The prince "had brought with him, he said, five hundred talents; if this amount should prove insufficient, he would use his own money, which his father had given him; and if this too should prove inadequate, he would go so far as to break up the throne whereon he sat, which was of silver and gold," wrote Xenophon B.
With Persian financial support, Lysander built up his navy and trained his sailors. In B. He managed to catch them by surprise, winning a decisive victory and cutting off Athens' supply of grain from the Crimea. National Geographic Society. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher.
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