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Spartan Society Essay

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To fully understand the structure of Sparta's society one must realise each and every role of its social groups that made Sparta once the most powerful civilisation on earth. Even before its rise to power Sparta's geographical location in southeastern Peloponnese was advantageous in sustaining the austere and strict lifestyle of the citizens. Laconia's rich agricultural lands produced various raw materials such as marble and limestone, their renowned honey and red-purple dye extracted from Murex mollusc harvested in great numbers along the Laconian Gulf. According to the ancient geographer Strabo, the mountains were quarried for marble and limestone. It was these impassable mountains that provided Sparta a natural defensive barrier against …show more content…

Having no citizenship they integrated into the Spartan system as traders, fishermen, sailors, manufacturers and craftsmen. There is little known about the perioeci except that they were of Dorian origin and lived in communities spread throughout Laconia and Messenia and on all major routes. They were a self-governing people free to make their own laws but they did not have full rights within Spartan society and could not make alliances with others in the Peloponnese. Although their loyalty is only to Sparta, this alliance proves to be resistant as they gained their prosperity and protection form the Spartans where some even become quite wealthy. Plutarch agrees on this notion that through this ‘free-status’ the ‘commercial and economic role of the perioeci must have become a very important one’. Yet, although being formally free subjects the Perioeci were still at the ‘disposal for military’ P. Cartledge and was quite imperative that they serve as they ‘formed half of the Spartan army’ either as a separate unit or as part of the main phalanx. More importantly, the perioeci, who lived outside the surrounding area of Sparta, served as a buffer against escaping helots and also keeping the other helots in rural areas ‘in

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