Sparta: A Social Experiment
If you could live in a society where
everyone was socially and
economically equal, would you want
to?
Where does this history begin?
 Lycurgus
 Dates : Archaic Greece c. 700-500 BCE
The Way of Life
 Basileus
 Colonization vs. Agriculture
 Xenophobia
 Opposite of Athens
Where was Sparta?
See p. 92 of Ancient Greece for
map
 In the south, on the Laconian plain
A Cruel and Gloomy Reign
 Burn, rape and pillage
 Helots 10:1
 Avoid uprisings
Who ruled Sparta?
 Two hereditary kings, 1st among equals
 Ran the military
Societal Organization
 Top- Kings
 Upper Middle – Citizens
 Lower Middle - Perioikoi
 Bottom - Helots
 Plato: “The organization of your state is that of an
army camp, not a town.”
Spartan Government
 Kings
 Gerousia
 Assembly
 Ephors
Lifestyles of the Spartan Citizen
 Laconic
 No jewelry
 No precious metals
 Only necessary
possesions
Values of the Spartan Citizen
 Unquestioning
Obedience
 Courage
 Indifference to pain,
cold or heat
 Contempt for other
civilizations
How did they live? As invincible
warriors.
 From cradle to deathbed
 Military caste
 Never risked a battle they thought they
could not win
 Only distinction is military honor in battle
What is Spartan Culture?
 Imagine a world where everything is
subordinate to war . . .
What is Spartan art?
 Poetry incites warriors to fight
 Music was for war and religion
 Even art depicts the gods in chains
Spartan vs. Non Spartan Poetry
 Is anything worth dying for? If so, what?
 “Shove your shield in the face of the enemy,
hating life and embracing death’s dark
spirits like the sun’s rays . . .” Tyrtaeus
 “Some Thracian is flaunting the shield I left
thoughtlessly by the brush, an flawless
piece. So what? I saved myself.”
Archilochus
Spartan “Childhood”
 “To bring these things
 Only necessary
schooling
 Provoked to fight
 Taken from home at
seven
 Put in herds
 Only necessary food
and clothes
they steal, some going
into gardens and
others insinuating
themselves
dangerously and
cautiously into the
men’s messes. If
anyone is caught, he is
given many lashes
with the whip”
Helots – Sparta’s Problem
 Constantly feared uprising
 Spartan boys spied on them
 Attacked them regularly
 Had to keep standing army to maintain them
The Krypteia
 Secret warfare tactics
 “this is another form
of training for war:
they sent each one out
naked and ordered him
to wander outside in
the mountains for a
year, maintaining
himself by theft and
avoiding detection
Spartan Lore
 Philip of Macedon: “If I enter Laconia, I
will level Sparta to the ground.”
 Spartan reply: “If.”