Spartan Society to the Battle of Leuctra

In this research paper I am going to talk about how the Spartan Military influenced our society. You are sure to expect to learn about how it affected how we live on an everyday basis. Also, on how it affected the way the U.S military runs/works. Sparta's military has caused many influences on our modern-day society. This includes on how our military works and fights to how we live every day. In the next paragraph I am going to give a little back ground on how Sparta's military training went.

The entire Spartan society revolved around the army, essentially making it the key aspect of Spartan life and culture. The army influenced areas such as education and social structure as well as being the most important defence of Sparta in both combat and reputation.

In ancient Greece there were two major polises which allowed the Greek culture to achieve greatness during the 400-500 B.C.E. era. These two polises were Athens and Sparta; both city states differed in many ways before the start of the Persian War. There were low rugged mountains that separated these two city states so communication and travel were difficult. The government of these two city states can be seen as a primary difference between the two. Draco, Solon, Pisistratus, and Cleithenes were four leaders that greatly influenced the political development of Athens. Athens and Sparta differed primarily in their political, social, and economical aspects. But there were other difference that Athens and Sparta share which I will examine in this essay.

Historically the city state of Sparta had a social hierarchy that was different from many of its neighbours, it was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training for the male citizens. Its citizen inhabitants were classified as Spartiates (citizens, who enjoyed full rights), Mothakes (non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans), Perioikoi or Perioeci (freedmen), and Helots (state-owned serfs, enslaved non-Spartan local population). Spartan society was ruled by two kings originating from the two ruling families, whose powers were checked by a council of elected Ephors or elders. These Ephors/elders were chosen from the ‘Spartiates’. Below this class was a middle class which was called the Perioeci. The lowest class, which was also the largest, was a group known as the Helots. The Helots were the subjugated population group that formed the main population of Laconia and Messenia, basically Sparta. They were tied to the land and primarily worked in agriculture to support the Spartan society and its citizens. According to a number of sources the Helots outnumbered the Spartiates quite considerably. Figueira in his article in ‘Helots, Chapter 8’, gathers all the potential ratios of

The helots were an absolute economic necessity to maintain the Spartan state. Moreover, the Spartan system was a strict caste system that split the Spartan population into somewhat hostile social groups. At the top were the Hoimoioi, and the other group was split into the Perioikoi. These two groups were distinct, and there was only one mode of social mobility in the Spartan caste system. A Hoimoioi could be kicked out of the barracks, due to poverty, cowardice and a variety of other reasons, and become a Perioikoi. However, a Perioikoi could not rejoin the barracks after being kicked out. Moreover, this downward mobility crippled an already small population of Hoimoioi that already has been greatly reduced during the Peloponnesian

Sparta in my opinion resembled a archaic form of a military camp that extended to every one and every spartan citizens. There was a clear goal in mind to be the strongest army possible and secondary goals like keeping the helots controlled. It is hard for me to say that a non aristocratic Spartan had a life. Spartans were obliged to live by strict rules. A day in a life of a Spartan seemed to be to wake up early, train all day, go back to the barracks to sleep, rinse and repeat. I very much disliked their way of living, but if I was one of them it would probably take me a lot of long years to realize that there was so much more to the world.

The three social classes of Sparta are the Spartiates, the citizens, the Perioikoi, the free non-citizen workers, and the Helots, the semi-free slaves. All of the

The council was recruited from the highest social class known as the aristocratic Spartiates. The Spartiates are a class of military professionals who spend most of their lives in communal barracks. The middle class, known as the Perioeci, was consisted of farmers and artisans who pay taxes and can serve in the army but have no real political rights. And at the bottom are the Helots who are a slave class descended from the people who resisted the Spartans. I must go; the men are getting ready to go to

Sparta is an old Greek city, and it was known mostly for its remarkable military. The reason it was known mostly for its military is that at the age of seven boys would start their education, which was not reading and writing but instead it was training and getting physically fit for the military. Even though the military was composed of boys the girls still had to be physically fit. The family life in Sparta was not traditional: they encouraged marriage, but the men were rarely home because they were training.Every newborn baby was inspected in Sparta. If the baby was weak, it was taken away to die. The women in Sparta could be educated unlike a lot of the women in other Greek cities. The fine arts in Sparta were very limited and that is because

senior magistrates. By being a dual-rulership, Sparta strategically had “one of the kings le[a]d his

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

Evidence of these ideals can be sourced from Xenophon’s historical account of Lycurgus ‘The father of Sparta, otherwise known as the lawgiver’ on the military training of Spartan youth.

Sparta was, above all, a military state, and emphasis on military fitness began at birth, imprinted through society and the political system. The education of the Spartan male children prove that the military and war was constantly a huge part of Spartan society, and the laws and systems that Sparta was governed by, only enforced the militaristic attitude into the society of Sparta. That the Spartans needed to be ready for war is proved by the discord between the Spartiate and the helots, who outnumbered and under ranked the Spartans.

It is well known that both Sparta and Athens committed awful behaviours concerning the Peloponnesian conflicts, and as a member of an educated Spartan society and now a member of the high court, I argue that external groups, not only Athenian allies

Sparta had a very strict social structure that support military rule and was against tyranny of one leader. Sparta was governed by a ruling class or family. Spartan citizens were rigorously trained for battle and educated to be leaders at a young age. Spartan women had the most rights and freedoms of any other women during ancient times. Sparta was located in the Peloponnese and was founded by Dorian invaders.