The life of both cities was strongly influenced by governmental organization. For instance, because Sparta was military polis and this has strong influence on how they treat infants, children, gender roles, education, merit questions, craftsmanship and military affairs itself. While for Athens 'freedom ' which came with birth of democracy had influence on social life. For instance, rule of wealth dictated the way society organized and how each piece of social life was organized.
Ancient Sparta has rough organization of social life. According to Brand, due to the fear, because of conquered Helots rebellions they were forced to reorganize their government rule in vector of militarism, which led to inevitable change of social life (n.d., p.3). Spartans were obsessed with military supremacy, this even lead to infanticide when "weak or punny” babes were killed. What was interesting about their medical examination
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While girls were training mainly in order to become efficient "baby factories”(Brand, n.d., p.7). Boys began tough training known as "agoge”. The aim of it was to train boys to withstand harsh weather condition, lack of food and train sneak skills of the one. Every year only one coat was given to wear during it nevertheless of season. Practically minimum of food was given to them, so they were constantly living in the state of malnutrition. Accordingly to Brand, in order to survive they were encouraged to steal a food but if they have been caught severe punishment was applied, not for the fact of stealing, but because of being found (n.d., p.6). Such acts has given the birth of stories which were told for children. One of those stories was about the spartan boy who captured a live fox. In order to not be exposed to passing soldier he hid it under his coat allowing fox to bite his stomach and showed no sign of pain in his body or face ("The Spartan Family”,
...litary end even the women in Sparta would have been affected by the military ways of life almost as much as the young men. From childhood they were being primed to raise a family, they were taught in the ways of mid wifery, learning the correct manner in teaching the future young men of Sparta and keeping themselves fit to produce fit children.
“reach them to endure pain and conquer in battle.” (Document 11). Sparta was especially known for their strong army force. From age seven, all boys were trained not to express their pain and become great soldiers on the battlefield. Unlike Sparta, Athens’ main focus was not on the military. “For we are lovers of beauty, yet with no extravagance and lovers of wisdom, yet without weakness.” (Document 9). Athens was essentially based upon the arts and intelligence. Instead of boys going through years and years of military training, Athenians learned subjects like literature, art, and arithmetic.
Hellenic culture in the Spartan community was that of a humble elite. True Spartan culture is well captured in Xenophon’s work, Spartan Society, as he wrote of how this elitist society viewed not only themselves, but the other countries around them. This work shines light into the three-part worldview of the ancient, Hellenic Spartans of: humanism, idealism, and rationalism. As Xenophon begins to write over the whole of the Spartan society it can be seen how the Spartans lived out the worldview of this Hellenistic society. This living out of the worldview recorded in Xenophon’s, Spartan Society, illustrates their worldview through the noting of Lycurgus’ accomplishments and the contrast of the “other.”
When discussing the Spartan economy, it is essential that the structure of Spartan society is explained. This structure directly effects Spartan economic production and its primary agrarian focus. The social structure of ancient Sparta was made up of three classes of individuals, the Spartiates, the Perioikoi, and the Helots. The Spartiates were native Spartans, those who had ancestry back to the first inhabitants of the settlement. The Homoioi—peers and equals—were at the top of the social pyramid, they were citizens with full rights, Spartiates.
The main summary of the book is “Plutarch's vivid and engaging portraits of the Spartans and their customs are a major source of our knowledge about the rise and fall of this remarkable Greek city-state between the sixth and third centuries BC.” “Through his Lives of Sparta's leaders and his recording of memorable Spartan Sayings he depicts a people who lived frugally and mastered their emotions in all aspects of life, who also disposed of unhealthy babies in a deep chasm, introduced a gruelling regime of military training for boys, and treated their serfs brutally. Rich in anecdote and detail, Plutarch's writing brings to life the personalities and achievements of Sparta with unparalleled flair and humanity.” This is only a small summary of
Like most Greek states of the Archaic and Classical Era, the Spartan city-state was a militaristic one. Sparta, however, took the idea to its extreme. In order to become the best soldiers, Spartan citizens had to dedicate their entire lives to the occupation. In fact to be a soldier – a hoplite – was the full infrastructure of Spartan society. While most Greek city-states looked down on labor, physical work, and even working for profit, they still had to work for a living, produce something. “The Spartans a...
Sparta was a war-like Greek city-state that had 2 main ranks of society. There were the Spartans, who were citizens that would receive an education that emphasized self-control, courage, obedience, and discipline. They both have the upper class, which are the citizens of the city-state. They were usually wealthy, and they didn’t spend much time at home or around their families.
In order to save Sparta from destruction and corruption, Lykurgos passed reforms to evict humanness out of every single Spartan and to pass down values of obedience to their posterities. Corruption, in his beliefs, led to destruction of the government and it was an inevitable part of the humanness. However, through Lykurgos’ reforms, he successfully made the Spartans corruption-free. “Spartan education... turns out men more obedient, more respectful and more strictly temperate,” ( Xenophon, Lac. , 2.12). His education eliminated human sluggishness as well as their pompous virtues; it also evicted their humanness and greed of appetites towards superfluous luxuries. Requiring the children to wear no sandals and starve, he engraved the ideas of obedience and sacrifice into the children. They were taught since young to sacrifice on the behalf of the state, and their only reason of appearance t...
The lifestyle and in some occasions their occupations were chosen from the time they were born. For example, when a Spartan women gave birth to a boy, soldiers went to the place where the baby was born and examined it to determine the strength of the child. Uniquely then the baby is placed into a bath, but not a bathed in water, but wine to see its reaction (“Spartans”). If the baby squirmed and cried a lot then it would be taken away from the parents to become a helot, or a slave. If the child took the bath well, then it would one day become a soldier in the Spartan army (“Spartans”). The Spartans were particularly picky about their children, so much that infanticide was a major problem (“Spartans”). Children had a hard role to fill in Spartans society, because not only was the fate of the child determined by the family but also by the city-state in which the child lived. So if you were not as strong or as intelligent as others you were looked down upon (“Spartans”). The boys that were strong and intelligent though, were taking from their family at age 7 and h...
Sparta was a city-state based on strict military ruling, at the age of seven a young Spartan would start out training and be trained into killing machines. When a Spartan baby is born, high elite Spartan soldiers would observe the baby to see if it was healthy and strong, if not the baby was ill and weak so it would be taken up a mountain and left there to die. This is just one example that shows how Sparta only wants a strong army and doesn't care about anything else. Strict rules of the government made it so that every Sp...
Sparta was a strict military city-state. The people were Dorians who conquered Laconia. This region lies in the Peloponnesus, which lied in southern Greece. The invaders turned the conquered people into state owned slaves, called helots. Since the helots greatly outnumbered their rulers, Spartans established a strict and brutal system of control. The Spartan government had two kings and a council of elders who advised the monarchs. An assembly made up of all citizens approved all major decisions. From child-hood, a Spartan prepared to be part of the military. All newborn were examined and the healthy lived and the sickly were left to die. Spartans wanted future soldiers or mothers of soldiers to be healthy. At the age of seven, boys trained for a lifetime in the Spartan military. They moved to the barracks and endured brutal and extensive training.
One of the greatest responsibilities a woman had in Classical Sparta was giving birth to the Spartan males. Through physical training when a young teen with the Spartan boys, the women needed to be healthy and strong to produce healthy children capable of going through the agoge training. “…By athleticism they made sure that their children would be up to the standard of physical fitness demanded by the Spartan system.” (H.Michell, Sparta). The Spartan mother would prepare the young Spartans prior to the agoge; she would have minimal interaction and supply minimal clothing and
Athens and Sparta were both city-states in Classical Greece. While Athens embraced democracy, Sparta was a dictatorial fierce warrior state. Sparta was a militaristic community, Athens was a freethinking, and commerce minded city-state. Modern societies have modeled their government organizational structure and military discipline practices from lessons learned of these ancient city-states. There is much is to be praised regarding Classical Greece for their courage, their progressive thinking and the birth of democracy. However, I think it is important to remember that in both cases, Athens and Sparta were able to sustain their lifestyle on the backs of countless slaves, non-citizens and women and that there is a darker and less romantic side to the past.
Each had their own version of political councils that were give specific power and tasks that they were to oversee and uphold. Equally, both city-states defined citizens as being only males who were born from descendants of either Athenian or Spartan born parents. Although very similar in structure, Athens and Sparta had their political differences. The main difference being Sparta’s focus being on war and employing a two king system to oversee the army as well as policy at the same time. Today this could be similar to the president and vice-president dynamic. Athens’ structure was much more complex than that of Sparta which gave more freedom to the people; this was partly due to breaking down regions into 10 separate states that formed the larger entire state of Athens. Below are some of the similarities in there government
Daily life in Athens and Sparta must have been so different from each other, like living in two different worlds. The lives of Athenians are pretty well known from the surviving artifacts, including pottery, architecture, and writing depicting daily activities of the citizens. Of the Spartan life very little is known: Sparta’s focus was on military strength; they did not give much value to writing and the arts. What we do know of them comes from the impressions of outsiders. Four sources: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch are credited with what information remains of Sparta today (Canadian Museum of History, n.d.). The lives of citizens in each city would depend on their economic status. I have