Chapter 10 Section 2 Sparta Page 164 Objectives: Students will be able to describe what life was like in Sparta.

I.Section 2 Sparta 1. Sparta was located in the south of an area known as Peloponnesus. By 500 B.C. it had become the greatest military power in Greece. 2. At first Sparta was ruled by a King, but aristocrats, or nobles took over he government. 3. Only aristocrats could be citizens, and when they turned 20 they had to be members of the assembly.

II. Aristocrats Helots, and Perioeci 1. The Spartans had little interest in farming. The land was worked by helots, or enslaved people that were owned by the city-state. They turned over one half of their crop to the Aristocrats who owned the land but lived in the city. 2. The merchants and artisans were called perioeci (par e e si) They were not slaves or citizens.

3. The Aristocrats trained for the army and war. Soon there were more Helots and Perioeci than Aristocrats. They didn’t want any change to their way of life. So they kept the workers in their place by force.

III.The Spartan Way of Life. 1. Spartans were expected to be very strong, if a baby was born unhealthy they would leave it on a hill to die, if it was healthy it could live. 2. Spartan boys at age 7 were sent to live in military camps. They learned to read, write and handle weapons under teenage leaders. They received a small amount of food, went barefooted and had one cloak to wear. They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground, slept outside and checked to see if they were getting fat.

3. The Spartan men would marry at age 20 but had to live in the military barracks. They retired at age Spartan women had more freedom than the women of other city-states. A. Other women spent their time at home with household duties. They didn’t go anywhere without a chaperone, they never spoke to other men.

B. Spartan women mixed freely with other men and enjoyed sports like wrestling. They would tell their men as they went to battle to come home with their shield in their hand or on the shield as dead.

4.The Spartans believed new ideas would weaken their way of life, so they tried to prevent change. A. When others started using coins to trade with Spartans still used rods. B. When other city-states developed art and literature, business, and trade to improve life, the Spartans stayed the same farming village with one goal: to be militarily strong.