Life In Ancient Sparta Summary

Spartans military was a hard core and well rounded out military in its time. Part of the reason why they were so successful is because of their rigorous training each boy had to go through. Why I said boy is because the Spartan military training would start at age 7 for a chosen boy. The boy gets chosen to live in spartan society at birth. If the Spartans did not believe that the boy would be rounded out for their society they would leave the boy to die. During the boys training hazing and fighting was encouraged to help improve strength among the boys. During spartan training each boy was mainly taught mathematics, music, and how to fight. Also during their training, they would learn how to steal but without getting caught. If they were caught they would not be punished for stealing but only for getting caught. This type of training continues until the boys would become men. Which is at the age of 20 for the Spartan's. At age 20 Spartan men would have to pass a series of demanding

As they never swathed the infants, their limbs had a freer turn, and their countenances a more liberal air; besides, they used them to any sort of meat, to have no terrors in the dark, nor to be afraid of being alone, and to leave all ill humor and unmanly crying (Plutarch: training regime of Spartan boys). Spartan warriors were very manly. At the young age of 7, they were expected to never cry or feel scared. This self-discipline helped them to toughen out in war, defeat opposing soldiers with ease, and have lots of confidence. These many reasons are why self-discipline was so important for this amazing

The girls were trained in sports like running, wrestling, and javelin throwing. The boys did the same thing. The men of Spartan are warriors. That was their life and their path they take.

In military training both boys and girls were allowed to attend the training. They learned to wrestling, boxing, and footracing. As stated in History Alive, “the boys did military training in barracks a building where Spartan soldiers would live and train”.  In addition, the training was important to the Spartan’s because they needed to teach the boys to be prepared for upcoming wars and to win those wars. The boys were taught how to read and write but, the Spartan’s didn’t find that important. To be a brave soldier was very important to the Spartan’s. Therefore, being a brave soldier was important because the soldiers had to fight in wars to protect Sparta from invaders who want to destroy Sparta.

Sparta made its every male into a soldier, they trained starting at a young age into late ages. This system limited Spartans contact with the outside world. As it says in the Spartan Society and Values, no man is proved to be a good man in war unless faces the blood if slaughter. This shows the ruthless ways of the Greeks with the men. They had to train for the military regardless of what they desired for the honor of their family.

The Spartans were completely militaristic. Strength was the only goal for Spartan males. After a child was born in Sparta they were examined and if they had any illnesses or deformities they were thrown in a chasm. At the age of 6 or 7 young boys were taken from their mothers and trained to be warriors. They trained barefooted, barehanded, and in really light clothing.

The government in Sparta followed a very different coarse than that of the Athenians. It was controlled by an oligarchy in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. Working below the ephors was the Council of Elders and an Assembly. Male citizens over age sixty could serve on the Council while anyone, male or female, over the age of twenty could be a member of the Assembly. Though the citizens had little say in the decisions made by the government, the system worked effectively. Over the years, the Spartan's brutal reputation in war grew so great that other nations and city-states were too frightened to attack Sparta even though the Spartan army was no larger then eight thousand men. The Spartan Constitution called for all men to begin their military education at the age of seven, where they were trained to be tough and self-sufficient. Every man in the army fought with a great deal of passion for his country. Life in Sparta may have been rough, but the rest of the Greeks envied the Spartans for their simplicity, straight forwardness, and fanatical dedication. The beliefs of Sparta were oriented around the state. The individual lived and died for the state. The combination of this philosophy, the education of Spartan males, and the discipline of their army gave the Spartans the stability needed to survive in Ancient Greece.

Education of Spartan girls did not differ much from the boy’s education. The ability was equally distributed between the genders, and all sessions were available to men and women. This idea can be seen in all the major philosophical writings of that time. Girls are taught to run, jump, fight, throw discs and darts. The complexity of exercises for girls was not inferior to boy’s exercises. According to Lycurgus, young girls had to be physically fit in order to give birth to healthy and strong babies. This was the main purpose of Spartan women – produce worthy generation. (Plut. Lyc. 14.2) Since the young age girls were conditioned and trained to do just that. Lycurgus freed Spartan girls form strict home supervision and instead, as it usually happens in other Greek cities, to sit at the loom in anticipation of marriage, ordered them to strengthen their bodies on a par with boys. In addition, the Spartan girls could fight with weapons in their hands because when Spartan men went to war, their wives and daughters had to repel the attacks of the Helot

In ancient times, there were many civilizations who raised their children in ways that would benefit them. Sparta was one out of the many, to conquer territory and protect themselves, they would have to fight many difficult wars that would last up to 25 years long. This was not a simple task, but they achieved this not only by training their soldiers at a very you age but rigorously too. Sparta was a city-state that did not like change, to prevent any corruption or a rebellion against them they had to treat everyone with a cold shoulder and a hard hand.

Sparta was, above all, a military state, and emphasis on military fitness began at birth, imprinted through society and the political system. The education of the Spartan male children prove that the military and war was constantly a huge part of Spartan society, and the laws and systems that Sparta was governed by, only enforced the militaristic attitude into the society of Sparta. That the Spartans needed to be ready for war is proved by the discord between the Spartiate and the helots, who outnumbered and under ranked the Spartans.

At the age of seven years old boys would begin their training and socialization programs by being removed from their homes. Sparta had a system that focused on endurance, discipline and their responsibilities known as Agoge. The Agoge helped shape the men of Sparta to be warriors. At the age of

Sparta was ruled by a king or at some point two kings. These two kings were from two separate families of royalty and neither of them had absolute power. The king or kings had to be consulted by the Ephors. The Ephors had a lot of power and authority in the Spartan government. They were a group of five elders, men over the age of 30 who would serve in this position for a year. They had the power to bring up charges against anyone in Sparta, including the king. Unlike Athens who was set on trying to establish a peaceful democratic atmosphere; Sparta was a lot more militaristic and strict. One of the Spartan government’s main priorities was the strength of the Spartan army. They believed that strength, endurance and numbers were a key part in a successful and powerful army. Therefore every Spartan boy at the age of seven would be taken away from their mothers and put into training for the next 13 years.

Sparta valued physical strength, military strength and emotional strength. It was very important for them to have a strong military. It was so important, that they would kill new born babies if they had any disabilities that would prevent them from being part of the military or helping it in any way. They would take the boy from a young age of 7 to start training. These boys were faced with many difficult tasks such as having to walk barefoot and deprivation to make them strong. They would even mention a story of a boy who followed the Spartan Code when he hide a fox under his shirt and did not show any sign of pain when the fox was eating his stomach. They strongly believed that you shouldn’t show any sign of feeling specially not pain or weakness. They also believed that you shouldn’t be in love with the person who you marry. You are just married to help Sparta produce more boys to serve the military or girls to train and bring more healthy baby boys to Sparta. If you were in love you had to hide it, since

The ancient Greeks made city states that functioned as their society. These were small, usually consisting of a population of around eight to ten thousand people. Some of the famous city states are Sparta and Athens. Sparta imposed many tensions on the individual. Sparta was a highly militarized state and would pull the boys away from the family usually around age seven and put them into a state sponsored training regimen that would make them highly skilled warriors. If the boy was unable to complete the training for any reason they were seen as unable to be a Spartan and were usually seen as an outcast and removed from society. The Spartans, just like most other societies in ancient times, valued boys over girls. “Spartan parents often exposed female babies to the elements and leave them to die they also made decisions on male infants testing them and seeing if they would develop into a mature warrior and if not they would face the same fate as females.”1 This

First, besides their strong military, Sparta was known for providing women with a decent amount of rights. In these rights, education was provided. According to Plutarch(Document E), women had to be educated and trained in order to produce healthy offspring. Women were trained in many things such as “wrestling running, and throwing the quoit*, and casting the dart”(Document E). These activities were meant to strengthen women in order to produce “healthy and vigorous offspring”(Document E). By producing healthy and vigorous offspring, Sparta had a better chance at winning battles. Therefore, women being provided with an education had highly contributed to the strengths of a Spartan education.