Name______________________
Date__________ Period_______
Sparta: A Way of Life
Spartan soldiers were the best in Greece, and they were very brave. They did
not give up or run. They fought until they won—or died. Spartan fighters were
trained to be that way from the time they were born. They were taught to become good
soldiers and obey their leaders. They were not allowed to have any job or trade. That
was for slaves. Spartan men had to be soldiers, and nothing else.
Why did Sparta raise its boys to become professional soldiers? Like other
Greek city-states, Sparta did not have enough land to feed its people. Other citystates solved the problem by sending their “extra” people to overseas colonies. Sparta
solved the problem another way: It made war on its neighbor, Messenia. Sparta took
over the land of Messenia and made slaves of the people. There were about ten slaves
for every Spartan citizen.
About 650 B.C., the slaves rebelled against their Spartan masters. It took the
Spartans almost twenty years to put down the slaves. After that the Spartans lived
in fear of other slave rebellions. They decided that they should have a strong army
ready at all times, so the Spartans were trained to become tough soldiers and obey
orders. They spent almost all of their time building their bodies. Spartan girls also
had to have strong, healthy bodies. The Spartans cared very little about improving
their minds. Usually they looked down on learning any new ideas.
This is how Agis, a Sparta boy was trained:
Soon after Agis was born, a group of Spartan leaders looked him over. They
saw that he was a healthy baby and gave him back to his parents. Agis was lucky.
Sick or weak Spartan babies, as was customary in Greece, were thrown into a deep
hole, or left on the hillside to die.
Agis had nurses who did not spoil him. They taught him to be content with
very plain food. They taught him not to fear the dark and never to cry.
At the age of seven, Agis had to leave home and live in a camp with the other
young boys. He slept on a hard bed and wore very little clothing even in cold weather.
A trainer taught him:
To stand pain,
To speak only when spoken to,
To answer in a few words,
To respect his elders without question,
To obey every order completely,
To harden his body, and
To eat very little.
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When Agis became a teenager, he was sometimes sent to live alone in the
woods. He was given no food. He had to find food, or steal it. If he didn’t, he would
starve. If caught, he would be whipped. This was to train the future soldier to take care
of himself.
Agis and the other boys in his camp played rough games. In one game, two
teams of fifteen players each fought to keep a ball. There were no rules. Biting,
punching and kicking were allowed and encouraged. The winning team was the one
that had the ball when time was called. In another game, two teams fought each other
on an island in a river. The team that pushed the other into the river won.
Spartan sports were not always so rough. Agis was taught to drill and exercise
with music playing. Agis liked that. He and the other boys were taught to read and
write, but they had very little use for books.
At eighteen, Agis reached manhood. He trained with the army and was
allowed to let his hair grow long. Spartans believed that long hair was a sign of
manliness. They liked to curl and adorn it too. At twenty-four, Agis became a first
class soldier. At thirty, he became a full citizen. He was now allowed to live at home
with his wife and young children. It was the first time since he was a small boy that
he had lived in a real home.
Even so, Agis had to eat dinner every day with other soldiers rather than with
his family. When war came, he had to put on his armor and march off. He had to
serve in the army until he was sixty.
It was better for Agis not to give up or run away in battle. The Spartans were
rough on “cowards.” Soldiers who quit in a battle lost all rights. Other Spartans
would have nothing to do with them or their families Spartan women had the same
spirit. When a soldier went to war, his mother told him: “Come back with your shield,
or on it.”
Answer the following questions based upon the knowledge of Sparta that you
acquired from this reading as well as your textbook.
1. True or False- All Spartan men had to be soldiers.
2. Why did Spartans feel that they needed to have a strong army ready at all times?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What happened to babies that were not healthy?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
4. A boy left his home to begin training to become a soldier at the age of __________.
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5. Name some of the things that a Spartan boy was expected to do.
1.______________________________________________________________________
2.______________________________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________________________
4.______________________________________________________________________
5.______________________________________________________________________
6. What kind of training did a Spartan boy receive as a
teenager?________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________
7. A Spartan boy was able to wear long hair only after he reached age 18 because it
symbolized _________________________________________________________.
8. A Spartan became a first class citizen at the age of ______________________.
9. Spartans served in the military until the age of _______________________.
10. What happened to cowards?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
11.Thought Question- In what ways is military training different in the United
States from that of Ancient
Sparta?_________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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Using the diagram on social structure above, answer the following in complete
sentences that reflect the questions.
1. Why do you suppose that only men of Spartan birth were regarded as
citizens and outsiders were not truly accepted?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What types of jobs do you think that the perioikoi performed?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
1. What does the word “politics” mean and who was
able to take part in it?
3. In Ancient Sparta a helot would be
__________________________________
similar to a _____________________.
__________________________________
Answer the following questions from
the pictures at the left and from
things you have already learned:
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
2. Why do you think it was so important for Greeks to
study rhetoric (the art of public speaking)?
_______________________________________________
Name___________________
_______________________________________________
Date_________ Period_____
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
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___________________
Athens and Democracy
Rule by the people-A new way of government
“The World is full of wonders, but nothing is more wonderful than man.”
A Greek writer said this in the fifth century B.C. In one sentence, he
summed up the most important beliefs of almost all Greeks:
Humans were something special;
They were worthy of honor and respect;
They were worthy of being free.
What made humans more wonderful than anything else the gods had
made? A Greek would say: Only humans can build cities, create works of
art, and develop sciences. They alone have the intelligence to guide their
own lives and to know right from wrong.
Ideas such as these were very unusual in the world outside of Greece.
In the Middle East and Egypt, people still bowed down to god-kings. The
people never asked questions of their rulers.
The Greeks thought that such people were not much better than
slaves. They believed that people could think and act for themselves. They
could rule themselves better than any king could do. From these ideas came
the idea of democracy, a Greek word meaning “rule by the people.” The
Greeks too had once had kings, but by the 5th century B.C., most of the
Greeks lived in small city-states in which free men ruled themselves. These
city-states had the world’s first democratic governments.
After reading the introduction, answer the following questions. This
must be done in complete sentences in order to get credit.
1. Why did the Greeks consider people special?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
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2. How did Greeks feel about being ruled by kings?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
3. What new idea did the Greeks (especially the city-states of Athens) have
about government?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Athens Sparta Study Guide
Athens, Sparta, or both: On this quest you will read statements about
Athens and Sparta. You will respond with Athens, Sparta, or both. You will
need to be able to tell if the statement applies to Athens, Sparta, or both.
You will be able to find examples on page 12 of your packet.
Milestones of a Spartan Soldier: On this quest you will need to know the
milestones of a Spartan soldier. From the beginning of a Spartan soldiers
life to his end. You can find the milestones of a Spartan soldier on page 5
and 6 of your packet.
Important People and Places: Acropolis / Cleisthenes / Helots/ Perioikoi /
Solon / Athena / Parthenon
Vocabulary: Polis / reforms / democracy / pure democracy / limited
democracy / monarchy / aristocracy / Patriarchal
Map Identification: Athens / Sparta / Ionian Sea / Aegean Sea /
Peloponnesus / Adriatic Sea (You can find your map of Ancient Greece on
page one of your Early Greeks packet)
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Athens and Sparta
Directions: Fill in the blank with the city-state of Athens or Sparta or both.
___________________ 1. City-state where boys studied music and poetry.
___________________ 2. People of this city-state went to plays and festivals.
___________________ 3. A newborn baby of this city-state could be left
outside to die if it was not a strong child.
___________________ 4. People of this city-state built many statues and
beautiful buildings.
___________________ 5. People of this city-state were known for being
the bravest people in all of Greece.
___________________ 6. The most important job in this city-state was
serving the city-state.
___________________ 7. Boys in this city-state had slaves who took
them to school and helped them with their schoolwork.
___________________ 8. The people of this city-state did not care much
about studying or learning new ideas.
___________________ 9. Boys of this city-state left home to live with
other boys after the age of seven.
___________________ 10. Great thinkers, called philosophers, lived in
this city-state.
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