Characteristics Of Sparta

Within the ancient world; surviving took strength, perception and intellect. Luckily for Sparta, they excelled in all three traits. Greece consisted of many city states, two of which were Athens and Greece. While today we remember Athens as the birthplace of Western civilization and culture, it is Sparta that many Golden Age Greeks commend most. The Greek city state, Sparta prided themselves on a sense of belonging, freedom from foreign intervention and triumph on the battle field. During the Sparta Era, ancient Greece was a body of more than one thousand self governed city states. For all practical purposes, a city state functioned just as a state or nation would. Sparta and other city states had their own army, culture, navy, government and

The capital was known for its artistry, culture, music and religion. Sparta was also famous for its bronze work. However, there are no fine artifacts of the time dating after the 7th century BC. The decision to end fine artistry coincided with the Messenian Wars, which was a turning point in Spartan history. Due to a major population increase, Sparta was in a crisis to find land and sources of food. Their problem was solved by annexing a country which was larger in population and size than Sparta itself. The land that was taken over by Sparta was a western city called Meccenia. Meccenia was known for its thriving agriculture, rich farmland and an abundance in iron production, which was Greece’s commodity for military grade weapons and defense. The Meccenian war was long and hard fought, the Meccenian people refused to go quietly and put up much resistance against the Spartans. The Meccienian people were in a process of evolving and progressing into their own city state culture and wanted to remain independent, however, the Spartans defeated them and annexed their land. This victory for Sparta sparked a passion for war and triumph in the hearts of the

The social structure of ancient Sparta was based on a pyramid of power. At the top of the pyramid stood the approximate 10,000 men of the Spartan elite, in Greek this select group of Spartans were called the “homoioi”. The homoioi theoretically balanced these 10,000 men by keeping them all to a set range of property, wealth and prosperity. No man of the homoioi class was significantly wealthier or less affluent than the next. It is said that this sense of “homogeneity” or similarity within the Spartan elite was the key to their battlefield success because their was sensation of unity between the men. Next on the hierarchy of social status stood the body of 50,000-60,000 freed people of Sparta called the “perioikoi”, the name derives from ancient Greek terms and directly translates to “dwellers around”. In todays American society, the perioikoi can be compared to our middle class Americans. However, middle class in ancient Sparta meant little to no rights, compensation or political