Module 6: Sparta Flashcards
Who was Herodotus
484-425BC, Greek Historian, author of The Histories, accounting the wars between Greece and Persia from early 5th century BC. Travelled for info orally.
Aristotle
384-322 BC, Greek philosopher and scientist; pupil of Plato. Writings form base of Western philosophy. He analyses the Spartan form of government and its strengths and weaknesses.
Plutarch
AD 46-120, Greek biographer. Travelled widely, visited Sparta. His Parallel Lives is a moral essay comparing the lives and noble deeds of famous Greeks and Romans.
Mount ranges of Sparta
East Parnon, Taygetos - act as fortification.
Materials of buildings
Early buildings were timber, stone was used for religious.
What plants were grown and cattle grazed
Wheat, barley, olives and grapes
Sheep and goats.
Info on the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia
East of Acropolis between village of Limnai and Eurotus. Religious centre to teach young men in Sparta - discipline to survive.
What’s the problem with Lycrugus to modern scholars
Can’t tell if he was a man or a set of initiatives that revolutionised Sparta.
Quote: Fitzhardinge - The Spartans, Thames and Hudson 1980
“He was probably a primitive local hod with a shrine by Eurostars who was adopted by the Spartan hoplites”.
What’s the Rhetra?
Declaration reflecting on oral tradition and law by Spartans based on oracles.
Significance of the Great Rhetra
It founded the spartan constitution appointing 2 instead of 1 king, limiting their power and establishing the Gerousia.
Kings role in religion
The descendants of Heracles and head priests.
Kings judicial roles
Lawmakers with Gerousia, maintained condition of roads and buildings.
Kings military role
Commander-in-chief of army, 100 guards plus 2 ephors, first to enter, last to leave - gets % of spoils
Kings privileges
First served [double] portions at banquet. First seated for religious festivals, can own personal cattle. 10 day no business and mourning if king dies.
Gerousia Council
28 elders over 30 plus 2 kings. Consult one another and propose laws.
Ekklesia
Assembly of spartiate citizens over 30, vote on laws - can resurrect or remove at any time.
Five ephors
Elected annually by assembly, monitor constitution of kings and Ekklesias power
Helots
Born slaves and descendants from first inhabitants of area, work the land to support spartiates, can own property.
Perioikoi
No spartan parents / untrained adult. Wore special clothes and had legal protection, can’t own land/property nor vote. Farmers, merchants and artisans.
Hypomeiones/inferiors
Those who ‘dropped their shield in battle’, no rights and assigned to spartiate master, worked the land for spartiates.
Spartiates/Homoioi
Born/adopted by spartan family. Can vote, hold office in assembly, own land pay community fees, full time soldiers.
Agoge - 0-10days
Make children are inspected be elders to see if physically able to enrol.
Agoge - 0-7yrs
At home, discipline taught by mum and nurse.
Agoge - 7-12yrs
Boys are divided by age that increases course intensity, lived in barracks and slowly introduced to physical skills.
Agoge 12-18yrs
Rigours training to become cadet solider - opportunity for the army (non-combatant service).
Agoge 18-23yrs
At 19, Spartans enter the class of eirens - now combatants (not frontline). 18-20 drilled for army, could marry at 20.
Agoge - 23-30yrs
24 were frontline, could be picked for corps hoplites be prestigious knights
Agoge - 30
Citizens that can vote, obtain office and live with wife/family. Growing out hair shows vigour and ‘ugly from beautiful’.
Who were boys supervised by?
A Paidonomos (guardian)
How did the boys train?
Naked exercise, ran barefoot and did own house keeping and made bed of reeds. Stealing food was acceptable if not caught, it shows craftyness.
Divisions of the army
Enomotia: 4 files of 8 men
Pentekostys: 4 Enomotia
Lochos: 2 pentekostyes
Mora: 4 lochoi
Syssitia/messes
Spartiate dining groups where they eat with army comrades. Unanimous to add people, exclusion is social exclusion - expression of status, especially in elite groups. Daily attendance, except for religious or hunting duty.
Krypteia
Secret police of Sparta, beat helots to remind of spartan dominance. Plutarch states krypteia choose sensible men to go at night and kill helots roaming the road.
The military - Hippeis
Knights of the spartan army, 300 strong that protect the king in battle, chosen annually based on class.
The military - Hoplites warfare
Heavily armed infantrymen with Hoplob shields. Wore cloth tunic with bronze armour, helmet decorated with horse hair and equipped with an iron sword.
Military Tactic - The Phalanx
Tightly grouped hoplites in 8x8 with interlocked shields, used to overwhelm and break oppositions defence, vulnerable at the back but supported by skirmishers or cavalry.
Role of women
To give birth to boys capable of joining the Agoge.
Women’s rights
Can’t hold office, vote but can hold property’s, better freedoms compared to the rest of Greece
Women’s training. Why?
Women are trained at a young age with running, wrestling, discus and javelin. Done to be strong, ease child birth and produce a fit child.
Why could women ‘cheat’?
To produce young capable of joining the Agoge. Seen as a friends honour of their friend gives their wife to produce children. Sign of great friendship.
Role of Greek women
Acquired to produce heirs and for sexual pleasure.
What were women deemed as in Greece - said by Euripides
“A curse to mankind”.
Rights of Greek women
Can’t vote, go in army, hold office or property - property is inherited by next male kinsman.
Primary role of Greek women in households.
Wife and mother, their father chooses their husband, honoured most for producing a son.
