If you could live in a society where everyone was socially

and economically equal, would you want to?

Where does this history begin?
Lycurgus

Dates : Archaic Greece c. 700-500 BCE

The Way of Life
Basileus

Colonization vs. Agriculture

 Xenophobia

Opposite of Athens
Where was Sparta?
See p. 92 of Ancient Greece for
map
In the south, on the Laconian plain
A Cruel and Gloomy Reign
Burn, rape and pillage

Helots 10:1

Avoid uprisings
Who ruled Sparta?
Two hereditary kings, 1st among equals
Ran the military
Societal Organization
Top- Kings

Upper Middle – Citizens

Lower Middle - Perioikoi

Bottom - Helots

Plato: “The organization of your state is that of an

army camp, not a town.”
Spartan Government
Kings

Gerousia

Assembly

Ephors
Lifestyles of the Spartan Citizen
Laconic

No jewelry

No precious metals

Only necessary
possesions
Values of the Spartan Citizen
Unquestioning
Obedience

Courage

Indifference to pain,
cold or heat

Contempt for other

civilizations
How did they live? As invincible
warriors.
From cradle to deathbed

Military caste

Never risked a battle they thought they could not win

Only distinction is military honor in battle

What is Spartan Culture?
Imagine a world where everything is subordinate to
war . . .
What is Spartan art?
Poetry incites warriors to fight

Music was for war and religion

Even art depicts the gods in chains

Spartan vs. Non Spartan Poetry
Is anything worth dying for? If so, what?
“Shove your shield in the face of the enemy, hating
life and embracing death’s dark spirits like the sun’s
rays . . .” Tyrtaeus
“Some Thracian is flaunting the shield I left
thoughtlessly by the brush, an flawless piece. So
what? I saved myself.” Archilochus
Spartan “Childhood”
“To bring these things
they steal, some going
Only necessary into gardens and
schooling others insinuating
Provoked to fight themselves
Taken from home at dangerously and
cautiously into the
seven
men’s messes. If
Put in herds
anyone is caught, he is
Only necessary food and given many lashes with
clothes the whip”
Helots – Sparta’s Problem
Constantly feared uprising

Spartan boys spied on them

Attacked them regularly

Had to keep standing army to maintain them

The Krypteia
Secret warfare tactics
“this is another form
of training for war:
they sent each one
out naked and
ordered him to
wander outside in the
mountains for a year,
maintaining himself
by theft and avoiding
detection
Spartan Lore
Philip of Macedon: “If I enter Laconia, I will level
Sparta to the ground.”
Spartan reply: “If.”