Personal Narrative: My Life In Sparta

“The City of Sparta lies in the valley of the River Eurotas. Along with having a river close by; the Spartans were also enclosed by the mountains of Taygetos to the West and Parnon to the East.” Their society was a slave based culture, which allowed the Spartans to become the only full time fighting force in Ancient Greece. Their society was manned by two kings; one of which took the reins of the army in times of conflict or war, while the other king remained in Sparta and maintained society. However, the kings did not have complete power in ancient Sparta. They took two of the 30 seats of the gerousia, or the council of elders; this council of elders prepared possible legislation such as declaring war for a citizen assembly to reject or accept.

After an embarrassing defeat at the battle of Hysiai Sparta went through great military change, these changes dramatically changed all other areas of Spartan life, turning Sparta into a military focused state. This militaristic influence impacted greatly on Spartan education, essentially aiming to mass produce the perfect solider. The education and training of Spartan boys aged as young as 7 in the agoge became the crucial

The government in Sparta followed a very different coarse than that of the Athenians. It was controlled by an oligarchy in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. Working below the ephors was the Council of Elders and an Assembly. Male citizens over age sixty could serve on the Council while anyone, male or female, over the age of twenty could be a member of the Assembly. Though the citizens had little say in the decisions made by the government, the system worked effectively. Over the years, the Spartan's brutal reputation in war grew so great that other nations and city-states were too frightened to attack Sparta even though the Spartan army was no larger then eight thousand men. The Spartan Constitution called for all men to begin their military education at the age of seven, where they were trained to be tough and self-sufficient. Every man in the army fought with a great deal of passion for his country. Life in Sparta may have been rough, but the rest of the Greeks envied the Spartans for their simplicity, straight forwardness, and fanatical dedication. The beliefs of Sparta were oriented around the state. The individual lived and died for the state. The combination of this philosophy, the education of Spartan males, and the discipline of their army gave the Spartans the stability needed to survive in Ancient Greece.

Sparta was ruled by a king or at some point two kings. These two kings were from two separate families of royalty and neither of them had absolute power. The king or kings had to be consulted by the Ephors. The Ephors had a lot of power and authority in the Spartan government. They were a group of five elders, men over the age of 30 who would serve in this position for a year. They had the power to bring up charges against anyone in Sparta, including the king. Unlike Athens who was set on trying to establish a peaceful democratic atmosphere; Sparta was a lot more militaristic and strict. One of the Spartan government’s main priorities was the strength of the Spartan army. They believed that strength, endurance and numbers were a key part in a successful and powerful army. Therefore every Spartan boy at the age of seven would be taken away from their mothers and put into training for the next 13 years.

Think about being forced to join the military and suffer intense training, only because you were a boy born in Sparta: no one would like that idea. However, this was true in the 5th century BCE, in Sparta. Sparta was famous for its army standing up against opposing armies of more than a hundred times greater. They were especially known for the phalanx, a battle formation consisting of a group of soldiers tightly packed, each holding a shield which interlaced with others’. You may have seen this kind of battle formations in many movies, such as The Lord of the Rings and Black Panther.

Sparta, an oligarchy, a military state, was located in the rich and productive plains of Laconia, it was the city with the largest military and constantly focused on war: boys were bred to be soldiers; girls were brought up to birth boys who grew up to be soldiers, a polis where slaves and helots were forced to work. Life in Sparta revolved around obedience and war. (Brand, n.d.)

This included having the boys wear minimal to no clothing to endure various weather conditions and making them go barefoot to strengthen their feet. The boys were also encouraged to steal food as a way of developing independence. This can be seen as a very cold and dehumanizing way of raising soldiers, but this training helped boys become talented fighters who were very well rounded and could adapt to any situation. During a boy's teenage years, they would begin military training and at the age of twenty, they were allowed to marry, but required to live with the military until the age of thirty. The final stage of the agoge was for boys to be admitted into the syssition and to contribute a certain amount of food. Being a soldier was usually the only thing men could do in Sparta as hoplites were required to be fit for military service until they were sixty years

At the age of 7 boys were taken from their families and entered agoge. This program sculpts the boys into warriors. They are beaten and battered by each other, taught not to show pain. This toughness and fearlessness is seen throughout Bernard Knox excerpt. In the document Xerxes sends a man to spy on the Spartans. When he arrives to the camp he is astonished, not by the number of Spartan soldiers but by the lack of uneasiness in the men. Many men were combing there hair as if the culmination of war right around the corner was nothing more than another training exercise. After they had completed agoge around the age of 20 they were given the opportunity to fully become a Spartan solider. They had to be voted in unanimously by their peers. If they were not voted in by age 30 they would not be granted Spartan citizenship. This meant that they could not marry, hold office, or father children. However, the Spartans

Sparta valued physical strength, military strength and emotional strength. It was very important for them to have a strong military. It was so important, that they would kill new born babies if they had any disabilities that would prevent them from being part of the military or helping it in any way. They would take the boy from a young age of 7 to start training. These boys were faced with many difficult tasks such as having to walk barefoot and deprivation to make them strong. They would even mention a story of a boy who followed the Spartan Code when he hide a fox under his shirt and did not show any sign of pain when the fox was eating his stomach. They strongly believed that you shouldn’t show any sign of feeling specially not pain or weakness. They also believed that you shouldn’t be in love with the person who you marry. You are just married to help Sparta produce more boys to serve the military or girls to train and bring more healthy baby boys to Sparta. If you were in love you had to hide it, since

From the time that young Spartan boys are able to walk on their own, they are “plunged into a world of violence.” As I was watching the 300 film, I was able to recognize from one of the first few scenes that a 7-year-old boy was training and preparing to be a Spartan warrior. The young Spartan boys are tossed into the wild, but not for any insignificant cost. They are fighting for Sparta, they are doing their duty and showing honor not only to the people of Sparta, but for Sparta itself. Spartan boys are trained to become the best warriors, that will fight, defend and honor all of Sparta. These boys will show no pain or mercy, and they will do whatever they can to defend Sparta. This is the first image that I thought of when I chose to write about honor and duty in

Classical Sparta Page 1 Samantha Elliott Ancient Sparta was an interesting time, one that’s like no other. There were many key components of Sparta and the Spartans that stood out to make it unique. The first unique trait of Sparta was; “Sparta was one of the most efficient and strongest of the Leading Greek city states in its time”(“Spartan Warriors.” Ancient Warriors.) regarding its military.

If some Spartan men pass the test they will become full citizens and Spartan soldiers also being fully committed to be a soldier for a long time. The Spartan soldiers continued to live and train in barracks with other Spartan soldiers. However, being a Spartan soldier is a very important to the Spartan culture because those soldiers are what keeps Sparta safe especially the soldiers wives and children that could be future Spartan

Known as the strongest smallest military in ancient Greece with a government ruled by imperial rulers and having a hard working society. Sparta was better than Athens because it was stronger militarily and was more orderly in society and government. I would rather be a Spartan because its repsents a force of strength and power. Stronger powerful better trained army that, include a society with citizens that were more ready for war than Athenian. Government structure that was imperial and had all the resources a civilization would need to have a society.

The next stage in turning a Spartan male into a Spartiate soldier was for them to become enrolled as an eiren, or a prefect. Their job was to oversee the younger boys, as had been done for them. They were encouraged to use violence against the younger boys to toughen them up. The older boys were now expected to attempt to get into a syssition, however if they failed to get into the syssition they applied for they would lose their citizenship and become an outcast. The Spartans at this point were able to go to war and get married, however they were not allowed to leave the barracks.

This was only my third OCR of 2016 and first OCR on back to back days. It also was my first Spartan race of the year. I have been dealing with a boatload of injuries in 2016 that have prevented me from training at the level I have become accustom to over the previous two years and am just not in that great a shape yet, while I am also still dealing with a lower back injury and two painful shoulders. To make things even worse I have recently been struggling with a form a vertigo that comes on when I am crawling, climbing, or make sudden movements, so this was going to a challenging and interesting race for me. This was my first ever OCR two years ago so it was important to me to do it again this year.