The Battle Of The Spartan Army

Spartans military was a hard core and well rounded out military in its time. Part of the reason why they were so successful is because of their rigorous training each boy had to go through. Why I said boy is because the Spartan military training would start at age 7 for a chosen boy. The boy gets chosen to live in spartan society at birth. If the Spartans did not believe that the boy would be rounded out for their society they would leave the boy to die. During the boys training hazing and fighting was encouraged to help improve strength among the boys. During spartan training each boy was mainly taught mathematics, music, and how to fight. Also during their training, they would learn how to steal but without getting caught. If they were caught they would not be punished for stealing but only for getting caught. This type of training continues until the boys would become men. Which is at the age of 20 for the Spartan's. At age 20 Spartan men would have to pass a series of demanding

In no other city-state did women enjoy the same freedom and status as Spartan women. As a military-driven society, the Spartans realized that “regardless of gender all Spartiates had an obligation to serve the militaristic end of Sparta.” With this focus in mind, women were allowed more freedom, rights, and independence. Spartan women were

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.

The ‘Ephor’s’ were a part of the Ancient Spartan constitution. The Ephor’s were an order of five high magistrates elected by the people to represent the will of the people; they were replaced on an annual basis by vote to prevent one person becoming to power hungry or powerful.

In May of 2015, I ran a Spartan race. A Spartan race is an obstacle course where you try your hardest to finish and push yourself to your limit. My friend, Jess, decided to do one with her brother and wanted to take me. My sister also wanted to join since she already ran two of these races. Since I had my sister by my side, I decided to try it. It was one of the most treacherous and exhilarating times in my life and it all started with climbing over a six foot wall with a giant hill behind it.

In the military state of Lacedaemon, generally referred to as Sparta, the social struggle between the helots and Spartiates caused a system of slavery unlike that of any other city in ancient Greece . Rather than individually owned, the Spartan helots were conquered Greeks who were owned collectively by the Spartan government; since no one Spartan owned a helot, helots could not be sold and were able to live in their own separate communities this causing the helots to be in an in between status of “free and un-free” . According to Critias of Athens the “distinction between slave and free was greatest in Sparta” , this due to that the helots preformed all the mundane agricultural and economic labor, which was considered uneducated work , thus allowing the Spartiate elite class to fully dedicate their efforts to military training. While this use of forced labor provided the foundation which would permit the Spartans to become the greatest warriors in ancient Greece, the helots were given frequent reminders that they were at the bottom of the social structure. Aspects such as labor, rights and treatment, and roles in war were all elements of the helot’s enslavement which caused not only hatred between the two classes but a necessary arrangement.

Thebes continued her assault, and “Spartan women, who had never seen an enemy soldier, were forced to witness the sack and plunder” of their own homes. Additionally, most of the Helots were liberated, and without their forced labor “Sparta could not maintain its military traditions and quickly became just another second-tier polis, capable of winning occasional border skirmishes with its neighbors, but never again a player on the larger Greek scene”

The warriors were trained to be resourceful and learn to adapt to hunger and suffering and getting supplies. The soldiers wore no shoes so they could be more nimble in rougher areas, they also wore one garment of clothing all year so they can adapt to all types of weather (Doc B). the solders were able to move more in rougher areas tightly packed together from this training. There was encouragement to steal food, but reading and writing was only for practical reasons (Doc A). The soilders were able to survive with little food from this training and were able to understand military instruction if in writing. The men in the Spartan society were taught how to be more resourceful and that is what their education was meant for.

Sparta was one of the most powerful city-states in Greece and in order to increase a food supply, the Spartans turned to their bordering country Messenia. In the eighth century B.C. the Spartans conquered the Messenians and set up a new type of social system. The Messenians would work the soil to supply the Spartans with the food supply, which would leave the dominating class available for a life of military training. The Messenians outnumbered the Spartans and without a strong hold the lower-class citizens would eventually overtake them by physical force.

This can be said about the Spartans they went a tremendous amount of pain and hardship during their first years of training. They were put thought situations that were made to push their abilities to their very limit and made to break the weak. Their hard training was complemented by very high-level education, subjects such as mathematics, science, physics, reading, writing, and military tactics were just of a few the lessons learned during training.

He woke up staring at the ceiling of the cold dark barracks. Bob was his name, he was a Spartan soldier, and had a wife named Rosa. Bob was very lean and muscular, but he was also very sore from the days and weeks of training camp. His wife Rosa had brown hair and a couple children.

Training is a vital ordeal in everything you do from sports to a new job that everyone can do different. This is the case for the Spartans and Romans. Before Spartans are even born their skill sets are already delegated. The Spartans believed in competition and the winners were held in high praise. Thus having the strong men marring the strong women and the fast men marring the fast women in hope of having a son share their physical attribute. After birth the babies are inspected by the Spartan Elders, if imperfect the babies would be thrown off a cliff said to be not fit for battle. When the child then reaches the age of seven he is sent to a military boarding school where he is taught to fight. The Romans did nothing as formidable as the Spartans. The

King Leonidas, from Zack Snyder’s film, 300, once said, “This is Sparta.” 300 explains the historical story of Leonidas, King of Sparta, who leads a small force of three hundred men—his personal bodyguards—to a place known as the Hot Gates, to defend against a numberless horde of hostile Persians in combat to defend Greece. The King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans all died honorably while the Persians were able to get past the Spartans. The Spartans were citizens of ancient Sparta during ancient Greece. The movie shows the difficulty of a Spartan’s training by showing children fighting wolves and other children. Although this is a Hollywood movie, there are some parts of the movie’s portrayal of Spartan training that are historically accurate. Spartan training was ruthless and demanding for the men of Sparta. Training began at the age of seven and the children were taken away from their families. This is completely different from how the United States modern militaries train new recruits. The modern military training should not be combined with Spartan training because the Spartan’s were ruthless in the training of children, they used slaves as training dummies, and took individualism from their soldiers.

The battle was fought around August 7th or September 8th, in the year of 490 B.C. It was fought by the alliance of the Greek city-states under the power of King Leonidas of the Spartans and the Persian Empire Xerxes.