Updates? Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Spartan girls also engaged in a number of sports including boxing, wrestling, discus and javelin toss, horseback riding, and foot races. A second and lower social group was the helots, semi-enslaved agricultural labourers who lived on Spartan-owned estates. As Donald G. Kyle notes in his book Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World, Spartan youth had to present themselves for regular inspections in the nude, and boys who didnt look sufficiently fit were flogged. Whether Lycurgus was history of myth, the program he is credited with establishing became the foundation of Spartan society & military might. The agoge was at its height during the Classical Period (5th-4th centuries BCE) and was praised as the ideal form of education by the philosophers Plato (l. 428/427-348/347 BCE) and Aristotle (l. 384-322 BCE) as well as the writer Xenophon (l. 430 - c. 354 BCE). This hilltop not only housed the famous Parthenon, but it also included temples, theaters, and other public buildings that enhanced Athenian culture. The first period lasted 10 years and began with the Spartans, under Archidamus II, leading an army into Attica, the region around Athens. Sparta. After the age of twelve, every Spartan teenager was expected to receive a young adult warrior as his lover the technical Spartan term for the active senior partner was 'inspirer', while the junior partner was known as the 'hearer'. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Spartans would humiliate the Helots by doing such things as forcing them to get debilitatingly drunk on wine and then make fools of themselves in public. Plutarch writes: The training of the Spartans lasted into the years of full maturity. Spartan government What was characteristic of Spartan society? The uncertain peace was finally shattered when, in 415, the Athenians launched a massive assault against Sicily. The relationship between citizens and helots was an uneasy one and there were sometimes uprisings, notably in the 7th century BCE which contributed to Sparta's defeat to Argos at Hysiae in 669 BCE. This 1899 illustration depicts the racecourse at Sparta. Web. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. According to Plutarch, Spartans continued regular military training throughout their adult lives. Intermediary between the helots and the perioikoi were the liberated helots or neodamdeis. The paidonomos was appointed by the citys Ephors (overseers), who were elected officials sworn to uphold the laws of Sparta and were even given authority to challenge a sitting king if he did not do the same. However, in 480 B.C.E., Sparta allied with Athens, to prevent the Persian king Xerxes from invading Greece. Help us and translate this article into another language! He has taught history, writing, literature, and philosophy at the college level. The population of Sparta consisted of three main groups: the Spartans, or Spartiates, who were full citizens; the Helots, or serfs/slaves; and the Perioeci, who were neither slaves nor citizens. We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. 1. The rest all kept their eyes on him, obeying his orders and submitting to his punishments, so their boyish training was a practice of obedience., Plutarch portrayed Spartan boys as receiving little schooling. Initially, the term polis referred to a fortified area or citadel which offered protection during times of war. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Sparta as it would become known during the Classical Age had its beginnings in the 9th century BC. Democracy was overthrown by the oligarchical party, which was in turn replaced by the more moderate regime of the Five Thousand. Spartan men devoted their lives to military service, and lived communally well into adulthood. Spartan culture was centered on loyalty to the state and military service. Sparta was a warrior society in Ancient Greece that was set during 401 and 434 BC. The Spartans real secret wasnt physical fitness or indifference to pain and suffering, but rather superior organization. Though Sparta absorbed this population, it did not integrate the conquered people into society. The kings were also priests of Zeus and they sat on the council of elders known as the gerousia. PUBLISHED 7:07 AM ET Apr. These youths pursued rigorous athletic and military training which became even more demanding from the age of 20, when they joined common mess halls (syssition) where they often formed homoerotic relations with older, more experienced citizens. Ideology In The Two City-States Sparta believed that a person's benefit comes from loyalty to the state. Along with the surrounding area, it forms the perifereiak entita (regional unit) of Laconia (Modern Greek: Lakona) within the Peloponnese (Pelopnnisos) perifreia (region). The city of Sparta was also in constant rivalry with the other major Greek cities of Athens and Corinth and became involved in two protracted and hugely damaging conflicts, the Peloponnesian Wars of the mid- to late-5th century BCE and the Corinthian Wars of in the early 4th century BCE.
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