Don Allen
History 9
Values of Soldiers Throughout History
Serving in the military has meant very different things to different cultures throughout
history. From Spartan military practices that were extremely state controlled, to roman
examples where solders volunteered to pay for their training and armor, military societies
throughout history have been deeply influenced by the values and social ideals.
In Ancient Greece, arete was the ideal that early citizens lived up to. Arete has been
defined as meaning “excellence of any kind. In its earliest appearance in Greek, this
notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfilment of purpose
or function: the act of living up to one's ful potential Arete in ancient greek culture was
courage and strength in the face of adversity and it was to what all people aspired
(www.wikipaedia.com)
in ancient rome, the highest social ideal a mail soldier could posess was Gravitas
(Simon, 4). Gravitas has been defined as “Gravitas dignity, seriousness, and duty and is
one of the several virtues that ancient Roman society expected men to possess”
(www.wikipaedia.com) because duty to the state was seen as one of the most important
ideals in a society, there was no shortage a men who were proud and honored to fight in
the roman military (Smith page 86). These soldiers were loyal and well trained and the
Roman ideal of Gravitas is what alowed the reliable source of troops to continue for so
many years (William Harlen).
There have been a number of other examples in history of societies which have used
values to enforce discipline and loyalty in their military. Japanese Kamikaze fighters in
WWII were willing to fight to the death in order to destroy the enemy (Harlen, 32).
French soleirs were said to have ‘Elan’ or a special type of passion only they could
possess (Smith, p83).
As I have discussed in this essay, societies all have different sets of values and morality.
For military societies these values are often used to support and endorse fierce soldiers.
You should be thankful that we are not a military society!
Bibliography
www.wikopaedia.com
Smith, B. Military Histories of the World. 2008. Penguin Books, Toronto
(2004). William Harlen “Solders of the Past” Harper Collins, Tokyo.