Sparta Strengths

Sparta is considered by many people as the greatest and most powerful city in Greece for its great strength and power among the other city-states on the Peloponnese peninsula. When you look at Sparta compared to its rival city-states, is it really as great as we think it is? After all, it only lasted 300 years. Sparta’s weaknesses definitely outweighed its strengths. There are many factors to support how Sparta dug its own grave, but the main reasons are because of their lack of education, abusive ways, and their overpopulation of helots (Slaves).

Any society that abuses children should crumble .Sparta was an ancient Greek city-state. They valued military strength above anything else. They did not teach academics, farming, or anything else besides military tactics. The weakness outweighed strengths because they lacked education , they abused their children and their society did not last more than 300 years.

The progressing city-state of Sparta was infamous for many things. Sparta was known for its powerful army, strict guidelines, and eccentric values. Due to these unique characteristics, residents of Sparta had to keep up to continue its legacy. Being a resident of Sparta meant taking numerous risks yet for reasonable causes. These risks were taken for the progression of the city state. Risks included krypteia mindlessly killing Helots to prevent them from rebelling. Despite this lack of respect for human life, Sparta had atoned for this by providing relevant teachings for women and lessons on survival. Sparta, being a city state with a small population , was primarily focused on winning battles. Thus they perpetrated many feats that were meant to benefit this major cause. Although there was a lack of respect for human life in Sparta, the strengths of a Spartan education are clearly greater than its weaknesses because of the education provided for women and teachings on survival.

In several lands and cultures have many pros and cons but the Spartans were known for being a perfectionist society, but as you may not know, as the Spartans had multiple amounts of strengths as they also did with weaknesses. During the time of 5th century in Sparta emerged a tiny powerhouse in the eastern Mediterranean, rivaled against Athens. As so for the educational system performed a major factor between both civilizations taking over each other. And both had their very own benefits and unbeneficial side, but for Sparta, did the strengths outweigh their own weaknesses? Yes, strength did outweigh their weakness because them being well structured to having the utmost of military power and also including their own emphasis on teamwork/

Sparta was one of the most well known city states in ancient Greece. Sparta focused on producing good soldiers. Every male citizen was apart of the Spartan army. Unhealthy babies were not accepted in Sparta if you were unhealthy they would be left to die at the Apothetae, a chasm by Mount Taygetus. If you were male at 7 years old you were to join the agoge, the states educational program. Spartan mothers would say “Son either with this or on this. They were referring to there shield as they would rather have there son die than come home defeated. They would live in the barracks with the other Spartan boys until they become 30. From 7 to 11 you get taught reading, writing, music and dancing, but there teachers are most concerned about physical improvement. Life was hard for them; there daily physical training included being barefoot and having only one piece of clothing. They would do this no matter what the weather was. Also there was never enough food but teachers encouraged students to steal food, if you got caught you would get in trouble not for stealing

Sparta was a very unique society which could be defined as Utopian Militaristic State. Spartan boys all were devoted their entire lives from an early age to the Spartan army. This heavily militarist society was also unique in terms of women's position in society. They had much more rights and freedoms than other Greek women, but in terms of family life they were not so lucky. Women were living separately from spouse during their whole lives. Their husbands were only coming to home at night, they were secretly removed after a short time. And also they were separated from their sons for military training. Women had to be strong in family and social life. Spartan lawgivers wanted girls to receive a good education in order to prepare them to their womanhood duties.

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.

Many of the arguments against Sparta reason that government officials did not grant enough power to the people of the city-state, and therefore favor Athens. This is not the case. The kings, elders, and rulers of the Spartan government knew what was best for the citizens of Sparta, and, as a consequence, created strictly regimented rules that shaped Spartan lives for the better. Although Sparta did not have a significant amount of participation in law by common people, it was able to create and sustain an advanced city-state through discipline and a form of government that placed stress on health and military supremacy.

To begin with,any society that abuses their children deserves to crumble.Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece that focused on military training.They focused too much on military training rather than education.The weakness of Sparta outweigh the strengths of Sparta because they lacked education,boys were taken away from families,and they were abusive.

They were forced to sneak into helot territory with a dagger and a lot of food and secretly capture and kill some helots (Doc C). This was bad because their soldiers became murders. Then because they were forced to do that after the horrible earthquake the helots rebelled and threatened Sparta with considerable danger ( Doc C). That is a bad education system that could possibly end

Ancient Greece is commonly acknowledged as one of the greatest societies to ever exist. Two of the most known civilizations in ancient Greece were Athens and Sparta. However, both of these civilizations were known for completely different reasons. Sparta was recognized for its military above anything else. The Spartan military was an unparalleled fighting force of its time, with its high-end weaponry, organization, and impressive methods of fighting. This is primarily because the Spartan military was the only full-time fighting force in ancient Greece which compelled it to sustain an elite status.

Athens and Sparta, the two largest and most powerful cities in ancient Greece (between 800 and 323 BCE) were two different models of polis, their social, political and cultural values and ways of life were dramatically different. (Brand, n.d.)

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.

Spartan's were a dominating army that were more strong then all of the of the other armies from different city-states. now we need to know what they did at home while the men were at war. It's like when the U.S. Army goes out for war, what do the rest of the military soldiers go when the rest are at war. This is something that we need to discover from the Spartans and we also need to know if the strengths outweighed the weaknesses or did not.