Sparta: Model Military State

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Sparta Model Military State
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Sparta Athenss opposite

• Athenians were creative, artistic, eloquent
• Athenians valued the individual
• Spartans were militaristic, strict, and sparing
  of words
• Spartans valued the state

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A Nation of Soldiers

• Spartans were Dorians who conquered southern
  Greece
• Didnt bother sending out colonists or
  negotiating partnerships, just enslaved local
  people

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Slaves

• Helots were slaves
• Greatly outnumbered Spartans, constantly
  threatened rebellions
• Needed strong military to hold helots down

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Spartan Government

• Oligarchy
• Two kings, a council of elders, an assembly made
  of all citizens (male, native-born Spartans over
  30)
• Assembly elected 5 ephors, officials who ran day
  to day business

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Life in Sparta

• Indoctrination to Spartan way of life began at
  birth
• Babies were inspected by elders. If they had any
  defects, they were exposed (left outside to die)

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Plutarch, Greek Biographer

• The women did not bathe the babies with water,
  but with wine, making it a sort of test of their
  strength. For they say that the epileptic and
  sickly ones lose control and go into convulsions,
  but the healthy ones are rather toughened like
  steel and strengthened in their physique. The
  nurses displayed care and skill they did not use
  swaddling-bands, making the babies free in their
  limbs and bodies. They also made them sensible
  and not fussy about their food, not afraid of the
  dark or frightened of being left alone, not
  inclined to unpleasant awkwardness or whining. So
  even some foreigners acquired Spartan nurses for
  their children.

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Happy Birthday, Welcome to Basic Training!

• At the age of 7, boys began training for a
  lifetime in the military
• AgogeSpartan name for the system of physical,
  social, intellectual, and moral education of the
  citizen

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Life in the Barracks

• Men married at the age of 20
• Had to live in barracks for ten years
• If they wanted to see their wives, they had to
  escape

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Plutarch

• "They learned reading and writing for basic
  needs, but all the rest of their education was to
  make them well-disciplined and steadfast in
  hardship and victorious in battle. For this
  reason, as boys grew older, the Spartans
  intensified their training, cutting their hair
  short and making them used to walking barefoot
  and for the most part playing naked. When the
  boys reached the age of twelve, they no longer
  had tunics to wear, but got one cloak a year.
  Their bodies were tough and unused to baths and
  lotions. They enjoyed such luxury only a few
  special days a year. They slept, in packs, on
  beds which they got together on their own, made
  from the tops of the rushes to be found by the
  river Eurotas. These they broke off with their
  bare hands, not using knives."

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• At the age of 30, men could finally move home and
  were full citizens
• Still ate every meal in the military dining hall
• Food was sparse and plain

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Women Integral Part of Warrior Society

• Exercised to strengthen their bodiesonly Greek
  women to do so
• Were expected to produce healthy sons
• Men were busy with war, women had expanded roles

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Tough love

• Spartan mother to her son as he goes off to war
• Return with your shield or on it.

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• Despite differences with Athens, Sparta helped
  them defeat the Persians