The Spartan King ruled supremacy over his one hundred Spartan bodyguards. In fact, being part of the Kings squad held great honor and meant that they were as what they would call a true Spartan. During a war, only one of the kings went into battle while the other stayed in Sparta. This is evidently told by Herodotus as he states that this ‘conflict between Kings Cleomenes and Demaratus is what finalized this decision in a time around 507 BC. Following on, the King would generalize and plan out military campaigns.
Michael James G. Lao History 2/13/14 Compare and Contrast: Athens and Spartans Ancient Greece was comprised of small city-states, of which Sparta and Athens were two. Athens was renowned as a center of wisdom and learning. The people of Athens were interested in arts, music, and intellectual pursuits. Sparta, on the other hand, was recognized for its military strength. A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because they lived and died to serve the state.
All of the citizens could belong to the Assembly, and they voted by lottery because they thought election favored the rich, and they wanted it to be equal. They also had a system called the ostracism, in which the citizens would write the name of an undesirable politician and if they person's name appeared more than 6,000 times, he could be removed. The conflicts Athens and Sparta caused many important events in World History. Their lack of unity as a region hurt, but also at the same time helped both city-states and the region. Even though the city-states had many differences eventually they united as and are still united
Spartans on the other hand were completely different from the Athenians. Spartan government evaluated the newborn babies to tell if they were strong enough to be in the Spartan society. If found not fit the babies were put on a hill and left to die from exposure. Though this practice was not only done in Spartan civilization the Spartans are known for finding the littlest flaw in a baby to put them on the hill. When the young boys grew to be about age six or seven they were sent to a military school where they were taught the different strategies of war.
Sparta wasn’t always the great nation of military denomination. ‘Sparta lost the Battle of Hysiai to Argos in 669BC and long remembered the humiliation (Brian Brennan, Spartan Society). This defeat led to the reforms made by Lycurgus, to transform Sparta into the militaristic state that is idealized today. ‘Lycurgus changed all the laws……. established military organisation, the division, companies of thirty and the messes also known as the syssitia (Herodotus, The histories, Book 1,65).
The Spartan Army to the Battle of Leuctra 371 BC | 2013 HSC Ancient History Assessment Task 1 | The composition, training, tactics, armour, strengths and weaknesses of the Spartan army and one significant Spartan battle | | Duncan Burgess Duncan Burgess The Spartan state was unique throughout the ancient world. Under the instruction of the mythical lawgiver, Lycurgus, who claimed to have brought the laws from a visit to the Delphic Oracle; the Spartan state became a powerful machine geared largely toward war. All boys born to parents of the citizen class were destined to undergo a tough training system from early childhood to become elite professional warriors. When exactly this dramatic overhaul took place and why is lost in history. Historians have suggested it as a response to growing concerns about the outnumbering helot population revolting.
Pericles was the most prominent politician in Athens from 461 until 429 BC. He encouraged his fellow Athenians to use the tribute money the League collected to underwrite the development of Greek culture. During this time Athens was also known as the “school of Hellas.” Pericles at the time was more of a tyranny than a limited democracy. Sadly, Pericles was a victim of the plague that swept Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. During the second Persian war,
The aristocrats at the top held large estates and made up the cavalry. The middle class consisted of mostly farmers, and the lower class usually consisted of craftsmen or rowers. Only twenty percent of the total population of Athens actually had voting rights. Athenian military status was predetermined by the soldier’s social class. Women were forced to stay at home at all times and were controlled by their fathers while growing up then by their husbands after marriage.
These slaves where known as Helot, and were owned by the Sparta state. They were basically doing all the things Spartan where suppose to do because male Sparta were always at war. The Helot were usually farming their own farmland and giving the proceeds to their Spartan master of which the Helot weren’t happy with, because of this, Spartan males where always on alert in case of Helot uprising. The never move to far from home for fear of the Helot fighting back. ATHENS Just like Sparta, Athens is a state in Greece with a system of government somewhat different from that of Sparta.
It is apparent on how the Ancient Athenians executed Socrates after the series of attempts of his followers to destroy Democracy. It is also a Democracy of the Sword because of the Ancient Athenians view war as a necessity to protect Democracy, which they claim to be the model government for other Greek City-States to follow but eventually these wars destroyed Democracy. The Democracy of the United States of America during the 20th century, as I see it, is a Democracy of principles in a sense that Ideologies are dominant in the United States. There are four dominant Ideologies namely: liberal, conservative, libertarian and populist. I tend to think that the United States view the world as a political area and it is just a mere battle of principles of state governance.