During ancient Greek times, the establishment of militaries throughout Greece became very important. The military of each Greek city state is one reason why some of them were very powerful. Around 1600 B.C., Greek city states sought the need to expand its civilizations. The reason being is because early city states were powerful monarchies. The king or queen of the monarchy turned to the rise of military forces to successfully expand their territory. As well as expanding their land, they needed a way to protect their people and themselves. Monarchy wasn’t the only type of government of Greece. Oligarchy also played an important role in the ancient Greek military. The difference of government in the city states lead to some of the most powerful …show more content…
Around this time, the Spartans way of life was organized and tightly controlled. The Spartan agoge is where every male had to spend their childhood learning military statistics and discipline. They learned the way of the military until the age of 20. At 20, the males had to enroll in regular military service. Life for the warriors were tragic. Unlike other city states, Spartans personal lives were occupied as well. They were allowed to marry, but they had to stay in the barracks until the age of 30. If they were to marry and have kids they would spend roughly ten years away from their family. At the age of 30, they were allowed to vote and live at home. However, they had to stay in serve in the military until the age of 60. In Addition, the women of Sparta played an important role in Sparta’s military. With the women producing sons, their army wouldn’t be as big and strong as they were in ancient times. It was said that the women tell their son to come back carrying his shield or on it. Government, out of all things, had the most important and active role. Sparta was an oligarchy headed by two kings that led the Spartan army on its campaign. They were responsible for making the army more secure. To handle the problem, they can up with two resolutions. First, they turned their backs on the outside world. Foreigners who had new ideas were discourage from visiting. The other reason is Spartans was not allowed …show more content…
It became a unified polis in Attica in 700 B.C. The warfare in Athens started off as civil wars because of political turmoil cause by economic problems. Athenian farmers were going in to debt because they were unable to pay their aristocratic neighbors. To repay their debts, they were sold into slavery. Cries to cancel the debts and restore the poor people land was the start of the civil wars. There were to reformers to obtain full power to limit the amount of rage from the people. Solon was a reform-minded aristocrat who cancelled all the land debts and freed the people. However, the rage continued because he refused to take land from the rich and give it to the poor. That is when Cleisthenes, another reformer, gained upper hand in 508 B.C. He created the council of five hundred that gave some power to the Athenian people. Cleisthenes reforms created the foundations for Athens democracy. This is why Athens is said to have the first democracy. The major war conflicts of Athens started in the age of Pericles. Athenians became attached their direct democracy system. A direct democracy is when the males participated in the governing assembly and voted on all major issues. This caused the growth of the Athenian Empire which led to a disastrous civil war. The growth of the Athenian Empire divided the Greek world into two major camps: the empire itself and Sparta. Athens and Sparta had totally different societies. Neither state was
To look at this epistemologically, there is an understanding that almost every aspect involved in this culture was derived for the good of the polis. This seemed to be a very proud and arrogant people. A city with no walls, and in almost certainty, only natural born were allowed to earn citizenship. To even be called a Spartan meant years of fighting, service and status. Tyrtaeus states this argument best in the last line of his work. “Thus a man should endeavor to reach this high place of courage with all his heart, and, so trying, never be backward in war.” These writings are great resources for Spartan’s war enhanced values and societal customs, but lack in evidence of governmental affairs and religion.
In ancient Greece, Sparta was known as a prominent city-state and a dominant military power, emerging victorious in numerous armed conflicts. Sparta’s success was believed to be attributed to its political and social system, which mainly focused on military training, and was created by the constitution drawn up by Lycurgus, a lawgiver. However, Sparta progressively declined and in 371 BC, they suffered a calamitous defeat at the Battle of Leuctra, ceasing to be a dominant military power. While various reasons could have led to Sparta’s decline, it was primarily population issues, which appeared to be due to Sparta’s overly strict citizenship requirements, which ultimately led to Sparta’s defeat at the Battle of Leuctra. This essay will examine how Sparta’s demanding citizenship requirements were linked to the strict military requirements, corruption and unequal land distribution, which reduced the number of male Spartans in the population, causing
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.
Firstly, the rejection of luxury and avarice invariably results in a focus on military pursuits. Secondly, the apparent equality belies a vast slave network (common in antiquity, but the unique brutality of the Spartan kind can only bring to mind the Gulag). Lastly, intellectual sterility sets in. Sparta, intellectually, seems to be only good at cracking jibes (Athenian: “I can imitate a sparrow” Spartan: “So what, I have heard the real thing” upon approaching the walls of a city, a Spartan said, "What kind of women live here?"). Their poetry is stale and militaristic; their women are absolutely free; children are encouraged to steal; sex is made to resemble rape; parents mourn when their children return safe from war, and celebrate when they die: this is the weirdest state ever. The book “On Sparta” is a well written book as well is most of Plutarch’s
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.
When you think of the Spartans, what is the first thing that you think about? Well most people think about how they centered their life's around warfare and conquest of other territories. The Spartans even had a so called military training and solicitation program known as the Agoge. Which was used to emphasize duty, disciple and perseverance to the young Spartan boys. Even though the women of Sparta could not participate in the military, doesn’t mean they wasn’t important. They were educated and were more privileged than most Greek women of that time (“Sparta”) This shows the importance and role of all men, women and children, and the kind of lifestyles they possessed.
Both Sparta and Athens were Greek city-states. Sparta was a strict military ruled city-state where the people established themselves as a military power early. However Athens was more of a political city-state that was more involved with their economical stature than their military forces. Still changes from the Persian wars would change the powers of the city-state and somewhat unite them.
In the years following the Persian Wars in 479 B.C., Athens had come out on top being the most dominantly powerful of any Greek city with a navy that had superior strength that increased day by day. The Athenians “ruled with heavy-handed, even brutal force as well as with reason” (Kagan 2). This was due largely to the fact that Athens had a stable and effective government, which only increased their advantage in proving themselv...
The life of a Spartan male was a life of discipline, self-denial, and simplicity as the Spartans viewed themselves as the true inheritors of the Greek tradition. This key to understanding the Spartans. The ideology of Sparta was oriented around the state as the individual lived (and died) for the state. Their lives were designed to serve the state from their beginning to the age of sixty. The combination of this ideology, the education of Spartan males, and the disciplined maintenance of a standing army gave the Spartans the stability that had been threatened so dramatically in the Messenean revolt.
In ancient Greece during the 7th and 8th centuries, different armies and cities were fighting for control of land and power. During this time period, it was very gruesome and many people died because different states wanted to expand their control over new territories so they could gain more power. With all the different armies and militaries fighting for control, there was one that stood out as the elite of all militaries, Sparta. Quickly Sparta became known throughout Greece as the most highly disciplined and coordinated militaries in the world.
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.
...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.
The population size of the polis were small, and each male citizen was cognizant of their role and value within the community, and developed a strong spirit of independence. This sense of independence is what led the citizens within the polis to choose their own leaders, and overthrowing leaders that had done wrong by the greater populist or that the populist felt had abused their power. Athens, furthered this sense of independence by creating a democratic Athens, where full citizens were expected to run the governme...
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...
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.