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Political and military of Athens and Sparta
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Plutarch and Xenophon on The Lycurgan Reforms The one thing we know for certain about Spartan society is that we don’t know much about it. Very few documents and artifacts about the Spartans have been discovered, but the ones that have tell us everything we know. Two of these works are Plutarch’s On Sparta and Xenophon’s Spartan Society. One of the main things these two accounts focused on was the Lycurgan reforms. Through their stories and writings Plutarch and Xenophon had both some similarities and differences when talking about the political, economic, militaristic, and social reforms. One of the main differences when comparing these two writings is how Plutarch gives a historical account of Spartan society and tries to keep objectivity …show more content…
When talking about the differences between these two writing styles one important thing to keep in mind is that Xenophon lived during the fourth century BC and Plutarch lived in the first century AD. This means that these two writers had different contexts and intentions when creating their account. One thing that they both talked about was how the political aspect of Spartan society was changed by the Lycurgan reforms. The biggest of these reforms was changing the role of a king. The two kings were no longer excused from normal citizen activities. Plutarch gives an example of this with the story of King Agis. “King Agis returned from the campaign and wanted to eat at home with his wife instead of at the communal mess and called …show more content…
One of these reforms was the establishment of communal messes. When talking about this Plutarch brings in one of his own sources. “Theophrastus says, it was an even greater one to have made wealth undesirable and to have produced ‘non-wealth’ by meals taken in common and by the frugality of the diet” (Lycurgus, 10). It is evident that Plutarch is trying to stay objective but you can still sense a little bit of his appreciation for Spartan society. In Spartan Society, Xenophon portrays communal messes as means of “reducing to a minimum disobedience of orders” (Spartan Society, 5). He also mentions how, “it would be educational for the younger men to benefit from the experience of their elders” (Spartan Society, 5). It is evident that Xenophon is complimenting communal messes and goes further by explaining its affect on the Spartan
Prior, Plutarch accounts for the unequal social framework within Sparta, where tribal leaders owned vast domains of land, in great contrast to the average Spartiate. Furthermore, Hodgkinson suggests the success of social reform in Sparta stems from the redistribution of Messenian land and the Agoge; reinforcing the belief that dissent from this social order would threaten the established hierarchical status of the Spartiates.
“To face the blood and the slaughter” Spartan Society and Values according to Tyrtaeus and Xenophon
The socioeconomic structure of ancient Sparta was unbalanced and disproportioned, and because of the social unrest between the citizens of Sparta economic reforms were desperately needed. Plutarch highlights this issue when he says:
Spartan women were allowed to own and control land. “Yet it does seem to be the case that Spartan daughters received as dowries one-half the amount of their parents’ property that their brothers received as inheritance.” (Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. "Becoming a Spartan Woman." Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. 143. Print) Whereas Athenian women only received one-sixth the amount that their brothers inherited. Spartan women inherited three times as more than their Athenian sisters. Spartan women were also allowed and even encouraged to be educated, whereas the education of Athenian girls was almost nonexistent. In Athens the majority of girls “… received merely a basic training in how to run the household, generally from their mothers. Girls may even have been discouraged from becoming literate in order to keep them “unspoiled.”( Garland, Robert. "The People." Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. 103. Print.) Whereas in Sparta the girls were educated at the state’s expense. “Specific lines of development were prescribed for Spartan girls as much as they were for boys. The educational system for girls was also organized according to age classes. (Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. "Becoming a Spartan Woman." Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. 141. Print) Spartan women were also allowed more freedoms in the way that they dressed than their Athenian counterparts. “In earlier times Athenian women wore the peplos, a long heavy woolen garment which revealed little of the figure beneath. In the middle of the sixth century B.C., the peplos was replaced by a lighter and finer garment made of linen called
Xenophon illustrated this very principle in Spartan Society in nearly every example of the greatness of the society is brought up. First, in describing the very ruler, Lycurgus, as wise and, “not copying the other states, but by deciding on an opposite course to the majority that he made his country outstandingly fortunate” (Spartan Society, 166). This statement is in the opening remarks of the writing and lays the foundation of how Xenophon views the Spartans and more clearly their wise leader, Lycurgus. Throughout the rest of the writing Lycurgus is always placed against and superior to the “others” or the nations referred to as “elsewhere.” This does not have specifics of other countries or people groups, but gives a general idea and concept of the ideal society being Sparta. Xenophon says two times in the middle of the work that the views and practices of Lycurgus are opposite of the majority and even the rest of Greece, but then goes to explain their superiority in the following paragraphs (Spartan Society, 173,174). This work goes to show that humanism, idealism, and rationalism all play a heavy part in the development of Xenophon’s Spartan Society, and also in the development of the people of
Reform Judaism started as a response to the Enlightenment that occurred in the late 17th and the early 18th century. The Jewish people needed to determine how to best combine new ideologies with their religious practices. The Jewish people suddenly had a new, non-Jewish world that they could be apart of. Some started to lose interest in religion. The Reform Judaism movement was created to adapt to these changes in society. The movement’s fundamental belief was that religious change is good (Kaplan 183). Platforms were created to define the boundaries for Reform Judaism and show how the Reform Movement is different than the traditional form of Judaism (Meyer & Plaut 195). The Reform movement has undergone many significant changes of their ideologies including Israel and the Halacha. These changes display their core idea of adapting Judaism to the social environments but simultaneously always keeping the Jewish community bound together. These changes are made from 1885 to 1999 with the Pittsburgh Platform, Columbus Principles, and Statement of Principles.
Spartan culture is a great example of how a society’s infrastructure will directly affect both, its social structure and superstructure. It also serves as a warning that any society that becomes too rigid in its structure and too static in its values will not last long when confronted with more agile and adaptable cultures. This paper will explore why Sparta became the Hellenic army par excellence, how this worked to create a very specific social structure founded on martial values, and, finally, how that social structure would ultimately be the undoing of the culture.
Xenophon used the third person narrative for introducing his character in the book. He then praises Cyrus, “of all the successors of Cyrus the Elder, no Persian was a more natural ruler and none more deserved to rule”. The Greeks do not desert him after the revelation of his plot against the Persian king because they would likely to get respect from him. Xenophon defines his own position that he came to Asia to become Cyrus’s friend, but not for the money and his own fame. He defends himself for not being ambitious with any military position, “he had come along not as a general, nor as a company commander, nor as a solider”. Throughout the rest of the books, Xenophon has made many remarkable speeches. He encourages the Greeks by regaining their dis...
In an attempt to promote justice and equality, Lycurgus and Solon fostered political, social, and economic reformations in their cities. Lycurgus instituted elders, redistributed land, made currency worthless, and established common messes. Lycurgus created a strictly equal city. However, it limited Sparta as a whole to advance. On the other hand, Solon works to resolve this problem in Athens by creating fairness for people with different upbringing. Solon allotted political privilege according to wealth instead of lineage, abolished slavery, and wiped the poor’s slate of debt clean. To alleviate social injustice, Lycurgus promoted strict equality while Solon understands socioeconomic inequalities are inevitable and still attempts to even out the playing field so that each person has the agency to advance.
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...
Athens and Sparta are both infamous Greek city states. Both could not be more different, yet similar in the way they governed their own city state. Another, main difference was the women’s rights and roles in the system. Athenian and Spartan women both were considered to be second to their male counterparts. Spartan women had more rights than Athenian women. Through, research realizing that the Spartan women were slightly greater role than Athenian women.
In his Politics, Aristotle offers three defects in the Spartan System, the constant threat of a helot uprising, the nature of the estates and the status of women. Like other Greek women, the main responsibility of Spartan wives was Fertility and childbirth. The average age of a Spartan bride was between 1...
While Athens prepared for the encounter of a young man that would change their city, Plutarch exp...
...edicted it would, and without a leader like him willing to direct them away from this mindset rather than pander to it to get votes, the political constitution of the city was doomed to dissolve. Speaking of the revolution in Corcyra, which occurred after the Athenian decision to spare Mytilene but before its destruction of Melos, Thucydides wrote, “In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants and so proves a rough master that brings most men’s characters to a level with their fortunes” (III.82.2). This was precisely the change Athens underwent, and the cause of its eventual demise.
Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave and kept under a close eye to prevent insurgence (History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece). Additionally, Sparta had strict and trained soldiers that underwent intense physical exercising and instruction.