SpartanSociety2 Flashcards
Great Rhetra Modern
‘Arguably, nothing was more important to the evolution of Sparta into a city-state with a highly unusual and unique constitution than the Spartan conquest of Messenia’ - Helena Schrader
Kings
Offer all the public sacrifices on behalf of the state, in virtue of his divine descent
Xenophon
Gerousia
prevented neglect of high principles even in old age
Xenophon
Ephorate
[during war] present two of the ephors, who interfere with nothing, but keep an eye of proceedings
Xenophon
Helots
Assess exhausted under great loads: under painful necessity to bring their master half full their ploughed land produced
Tyrateus
Agoge
Required them to harden their feet by going without shoes - [to] enable them to climb hills more easily & descend steep inclines with less danger
Xenophon
Helot Control Military
from taking office the ephors declare war on the helots so that they can be killed without pollution
Plutarch
Syssitia
the flattened bread had the power of.. a negative vote, and if one negative vote was counted he is not admitted entry to the group
Plutarch
Krypteia - training
Part of the training of spartan soldiers, prepare them for harsh conditions & secret missions
Plato
krypteia - modern
An elite force of lightly armed soldiers sent to fight the helots using unconventional methods, most likely in small teams, it matches the model of guerrilla warfare perfectly
Ross
Women birth
…most important job of free women was to bear children… women should take as much trouble over physical fitness as men Plutarch
Women land ownership
nearly two-fifths of the whole area of the country is owned by women
Aristotle
Women acheological
Athlete mirror – athlete cap, flowers on ear, chest strap with amulets, sickle for victors
Land ownership
there was dreadful inequality… wealth was wholly concentrated in the hands of a few…and divide it up anew, and to live with one another on a basis of entire uniformity and equality in the means of subsistence
Plutarch
Land ownership - modern
The decline of Spartiate citizen numbers in the fifth and fourth centuries was surely grounded in increasing inequalities of wealth
Hodkinson
Bronze
Bronze statue of Athena Chalkioikos of the Bronze House by Gitiadas
Pottery
Market scene plate, Kylix, 565-560 BC
Trade
Giglio Shipwreck – 600-575 BC
Iron Bars
caused the end of trade & craft – end of greed, envy & legal disputes
Plutarch
The great rhetra ancient
The best constitution is a combination of all existing forms… Because it is made up of oligarchy, monarchy & democracy
Aristotle
Threat of Helots
The Spartans lived in constant fear of internal revolution, helots were the single largest threat to the spartan way of life
Thycidutes
