1. Sparta: A Social Experiment
If you could live in a society where everyone was socially and economically equal, would you want to?

2. Where does this history begin?
Lycurgus
Dates : Archaic Greece c BCE

3. The Way of Life Basileus Colonization vs. Agriculture Xenophobia
Opposite of Athens

4. Where was Sparta? See p. 92 of Ancient Greece for map
In the south, on the Laconian plain

5. A Cruel and Gloomy Reign
Burn, rape and pillage
Helots 10:1
Avoid uprisings

6. Who ruled Sparta? Two hereditary kings, 1st among equals
Ran the military

7. Societal Organization
Top- Kings
Upper Middle – Citizens
Lower Middle - Perioikoi
Bottom - Helots
Plato: “The organization of your state is that of an army camp, not a town.”

8. Spartan Government
Kings
Gerousia
Assembly
Ephors

9. Lifestyles of the Spartan Citizen
Laconic
No jewelry
No precious metals
Only necessary possesions

10. Values of the Spartan Citizen
Unquestioning Obedience
Courage
Indifference to pain, cold or heat
Contempt for other civilizations

11. How did they live? As invincible warriors.
From cradle to deathbed
Military caste
Never risked a battle they thought they could not win
Only distinction is military honor in battle

12. What is Spartan Culture?
Imagine a world where everything is subordinate to war . . .

13. What is Spartan art? Poetry incites warriors to fight
Music was for war and religion
Even art depicts the gods in chains

14. Spartan vs. Non Spartan Poetry
Is anything worth dying for? If so, what?
“Shove your shield in the face of the enemy, hating life and embracing death’s dark spirits like the sun’s rays . . .” Tyrtaeus
“Some Thracian is flaunting the shield I left thoughtlessly by the brush, an flawless piece. So what? I saved myself.” Archilochus

15. Spartan “Childhood”
Only necessary schooling
Provoked to fight
Taken from home at seven
Put in herds
Only necessary food and clothes
“To bring these things they steal, some going into gardens and others insinuating themselves dangerously and cautiously into the men’s messes. If anyone is caught, he is given many lashes with the whip”

16. Helots – Sparta’s Problem
Constantly feared uprising
Spartan boys spied on them
Attacked them regularly
Had to keep standing army to maintain them

17. The Krypteia Secret warfare tactics
“this is another form of training for war: they sent each one out naked and ordered him to wander outside in the mountains for a year, maintaining himself by theft and avoiding detection

18. Spartan Lore
Philip of Macedon: “If I enter Laconia, I will level Sparta to the ground.”
Spartan reply: “If.”