Exploration, Encounter & Exchange; Review of Literature for Sparta
Spartans and Athenians did not necessarily get along, therefore they fought a lot. Athens and Sparta were both greek city-states. Their power rivaled each other therefore causing some friction. Athen’s rise to power was through democracy and philosophy and the Spartan’s despised every bit of it. Only because they rose to power through war and fear. The Athenians believed that they were the descendants of Athena. The Spartan’s were believed to be descendants of the Dorians. The leadership in both places were majorly different for instance, the Spartan’s had ‘two kings” but they were actually the high ranking generals that were considered loyalty. The Athenians had the
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So every summer the Spartans march north and spend a month killing all the Athenian crops, while the farmers hid in fear in the city. The Athenian navy then has to bring in even more cash crops than is normally required. The second summer of this kind, that of 430, is made more painful for the Athenians because plague strikes the city and kills a third of the denizens. Thucydides catches it, but survives to write his great history of the war (Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War). Pericles, architect of the Athenian war strategy and defeats , is less lucky; he falls victim in the most crucial summer of the plague, 429. Yet Athens survives even this series of disasters, and by 425 Sparta seems the one cut out to lose- suffering a series of defeats close to where they stay in the Peloponnese, at the mercy of soldiers landing from Athenian war boats. It appears as though no one side can ever win this conflict.The war was won by Sparta in the end because of the militant power they had over the Athenians. As shown in the source The Peloponnesian War: A Military Study. In the book it states that the Spartans would create a battle formation known as the Phalanx which was “Impenetrable as a brick wall” ( Lazenby 41). Therefore because of this organization and discipline they were able to win in the long run against the theoretically unprepared Athenians.
The Spartans fought in a formation called the Hoplite Phalanx. The Hoplite Phalanx is a highly organized fighting formation where Spartans are lined up side by side with overlapping shields. The goal of the Hoplite Phalanx is to protect the person to your left and right. When one person in the front line of the Phalanx is injured or killed someone behind them takes their place. The Hoplite Phalanx was very effective and it helped Spartans win battles where they were heavily outnumbered. The fighting formation that the Spartans used in the film included a variation of unorganized infantry lines, chaotic hand-to-hand combat, and a technique that they used which consisted of them laying down on the ground to let Persian horses jump over them as they approached. The hand-to-hand combat showed Spartans fighting by themselves with no teamwork from their fellow soldiers to help them battle the Persians. This fighting style would have never happened. The reason that Spartans were so successful in battle was because they fought as a team and kept to the Hoplite Phalanx. In “Herodotus, The Histories” Demaratus says, “so it is with the Spartans; fighting singly, they
The Peloponnesian started when the Athenians got too greedy and tried to take over Greece. So the Spartans tried to stop it. If there was anyone to stop them it would be the Spartans, but the Spartans still did not look like they could beat the Athenians. The Athenians had money, power, and the only city that had a good navy. The Spartans did not have a navy, money, or power.
The battle between Sparta's well-built army and Athens's exemplary navy was like a battle between a bear and a shark. If the bear goes into the water, the shark wins. However, if the shark enters land, the bear will kill it. The Athenian general and military genius Pericles knew this. Therefore, he devised a strategy that was based on the strength of his navy and the Spartan inability to battle him on sea; he devised a strategy of attrition where they would sit at home, and outlast the enemy (Kagan 52). In his mind, if Athens disregarded the Spartan land attacks, and instead survived off sea trade from their allies, the enemy would be unable to cause much damage. He wanted to drain them out psychologically, to get them to surrender from attacking the Athenian Empire (Kagan 52). One of the most important steps in doing this was to connect Athens to its navy city and their port. They did this by building walls that connected them, later known as the Long Walls (Kagan 9). Back then, walls were almost impregnable to attacks, and were one of the best defenses in the ancient world. Therefore, the addition of the Long Walls made both Athens and the port extremely hard to crack; they were ready for any Spartan land attack that would come their way. When the war finally started and the Spartans did come, they found that their attacks were not going to work. Their strategy of totally crushing the Athenian Empire and fighting a battle of annihilation was countered by the
The soldiers would enter the battle in chariots, launching javelins into the enemy formations, then dismount for hand-to-hand combat with more javelin throwing, rock throwing, and hand to hand sword and shield fighting. In the Iliad Homer also mentions the use of the phalanx formation being used by the Greeks. The phalanx is a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, or similar weapons . Scholars suggest that the Greeks would have used this tactic because the alignment of shields minimises the chances of projectiles hitting the men, and the men can move as one, strong unit.
During the era before Classical Greece Sparta and Athena had different paths because Sparta had two kings and an oligarchic government, while Athens had instituted democracy. Sparta treated men to be warriors and women could have their own properties, while in Athena men were trained to be public speakers and women had only several rights. Despite the differences they joined to a war against Persia, and after that there was a Peloponnesian war between the two poleis, where Athena lost, at the end, Sparta, Athena and Thebes each took turn on the dominant Greek power. One interesting fact is also that the buildings that they built had a political purpose also to celebrate civil power and pride.
And lastly, the teamwork and survival skills of the Spartans was a major key factor to how they were so effective in battle. They were not something to mess with as they tend to have a powerful standpoint on how it should be for themselves of surviving. According to document B, it is stated that they were told to steal food for themselves as they live off of having hungry stomachs but if they get caught then they would be disciplined by being whipped, enforcing that they need to work fast and efficient, because getting caught in the real world is not an option, which is why it makes them hardened warriors that almost never fail at what they do as they keep the consequences under check. However, in document A, they were trained from ages 8-21 which makes their bond for each other be at its peak. as they take this brotherly bond into battle then they would have more effectiveness of getting things done as a group, making them a force to be reckoned with. The thing as it may be is that they train their Spartans to the max in order to have the utmost effective soldiers fighting for their own beliefs, which is why their powerful
As we look back upon the two significant differences in the governmental systems of Sparta and Athens, there are also many other characteristics that distinguish the differences and similarities of these two city states. The difference in land as well as population perceives a relative historical comparison. Sparta lacked land area and was forced to seek other land in the fertile plain of Messenia. Although, if we look at the Athens, we see that they had no issues with plentiful land, as they possessed large and populous territory.
Sparta invaded Attica in 431 B.C, and easily gained control of the area surrounding Athens. Athens was most known for having a superior navy, while Sparta was known for having a superior army. This caused the war to drag on, because neither side could easily gain total domination of the land and sea. Sparta tended to use a strategy that involved annually invading Athenian territory, and destroying anything that helped the Athenians survive. Farms and other resources were targeted by the Spartans, but the effectiveness of this strategy is questionable. Athens was protected by its "Long Walls" that it had constructed earlier, so it was near impossible for the Spartan army to break through and ravage Athens. Not to mention, these walls ran all the way to the port supplying Athens. There was no way that Sparta could match the Athenian navy, so Athens could receive supplies from outside from their port. It soon became clear that the war would be won not from battle alone, but from time itself.
Countries can usually count on there being peace between the neighboring cities, the people of a country think they can be safe no matter what city they are in as long as it 's in their country. However, in many countries, civil wars can occur, having adverse effects on a country and its people. Cities can be major rivals, These rivalries can turn into worse problems, and these problems can turn into a civil war. In the fifth century, This was the issue in Greece, between the cities of Athens and Sparta. Athens was the capital of Ancient Greece, and Sparta was a military-based city. The war between Athens and Sparta was a tale of betrayal,
Athens and Sparta, two rivals of ancient Greece that made the most noise and gave us the most traditions. Though they were close together on a map, they were far apart in what they valued and also how they lived their lives. Spartan and Athenian society were very different in many parts. The differences are what set these two apart, and the things they shared in common are what unified them as Greek city-states. Sparta and Athens shared similarities and differences in their systems of government, military, judgment and views of their women. In addition to this, the social gatherings of Athenians and Spartans that were also similar and different.
The Phalanx is one of the most safe war strategies in the ancient world. It could move in all directions and also obtained a big circular shield to protect the soldiers. The Greek phalanx was made up of 256 men, which was a square that was 16x16. This strategy was used to take down the Persians. The Greeks used about 10 foot spears in the phalanx, and the men also carried a sword in case a spear broke or a soldier got killed, they would be replaced(The Career of Alexander the Great).In order to have a Greek phalanx, they had to have thousands of trained men in the
Athens and Sparta are two rivals of ancient Greece. Athenians and Spartans lived their lives different, and they valued different things. Athenians and Spartans had an Assembly, whose members were elected by the people. Sparta were ruled by two kings, those two kings either ruled until they were died or forced out of office. Athens were ruled by archons, they were elected annually. Athens in the birthplace of democracy. Spartans focused on war and obedience. Young boys were trained to be warriors. Young women were trained to be mothers and warriors. Athenians could get good education and could pursue several kinds of arts or sciences. For many years Spartan armies provided much defense of the Greek lands. The Spartans bravery and courage at the “Battle of Thermopylae” during the Persians Wars, inspired all of Greece to fight back with all their might against the invading Persians. Athenians and Spartans fought side by side in the “Battle of Platea”, which ended the Persians invasions of Greece. Spartans provided assistance for Greece when necessary. Athenians wanted to control land around them. That led to war between all the Greeks, this was the “Peloponnesian War”. After many years of fighting the Spartans won. In Greek spirit Sparta refused to burn the city of Athens. The culture and spirit of Athens was allowed to live on, as long as Athenians no longer desired to rule Greek. Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Sparta is known as Sparti in Greek. Sparta is
The plague caught Athens off guard, for the navy was well armed and prepared, the citizens were all safely barracked up inside the city walls, however, one thing that even Pericles himself was not prepared for, that was a brutal attack to their health. In my view the plague was a silent killer, almost 1/3 of the Athenian population died in the summer of 430 BCE according to Thucydides accounts ("Thucydides on the Plague," n.d., p. 1). Pericles died only two years into the war which continued on for another
Although the Spartans were a smaller force, they were brutal and highly praised, earning a title as the best warriors. The Spartan army of 300 was determined to make a stand against about 100,000 Persians. Being aware that their army was so small the Spartans used original clever strategy in order to overwhelm
Sparta and Athens societies and values were different as well. As stated in Document E Lycurgus, lawgiver of Sparta, did not allow Spartans to leave the city. This was done because he did not want them to adapt to foreign influences. All of these values/beliefs were based on one thing, to keep the Spartan soldiers strong and disciplined. In Athens Pericles boasts about how Athens is open to all which results in cultural diffusion (Document F). When Athens had festivals everyone except for slaves