They say that the Spartans had the best army in Greece; their bravery was legendary but actually just how good was the Spartan army? For the young Spartan boy it was a requirement to join the army and fight to defend their city. As a young boy the Spartans were trained up to become part of the great army. Those who did not have the wealth to afford a horse were expected to serve as foot soldiers. If they were wealthy enough they would have to pay for their own arms and armour and then they formed the heavily-armed infantry which drilled and prepared for battle as a unit.
In theory it was because of Sparta’s ‘inability to incorporate’ that lead to their standing army. Sparta’s military achievements are, no doubt, the most impressive of all their possible accomplishments. By the middle of the sixth century Sparta was already considered the strongest military force in Greece. Despite the brute strength the of the Spartan army, the Spartan were still worried that a revolt from their underclass (the Helots)would
Spartan weaponry and tactics are well known because of their effectiveness and power. The Greeks made up this next fighting formation but the Spartans, with their high military fitness, took it to another level. The word phalanx was created the poet Homer. Soldiers in heavy armor carried Hoplon shield. Hoplites were named after the shield that they carried.
The same honor waits for the coward and the brave. They both go down to Death” (Iliad 9.385-387). He chooses a longer lifer over s short one, because he believes now that the honor is the same no matter how hard one fights. This war has taught him that and in his realization, Achilles the greatest of heroes breaks the heroic
The helots were serfs that consisted of people that were overtaken by Spartans military victories. These people had to give half their profits to the Spartan citizens that owned the lands they lived in. (History.com Spartans) The male and female roles of Sparta were vastly different compared to Athens. Male Spartans lived their lives trying to be the strongest warrior. Being a warrior was an honor and every Spartan man wanted to fight for Sparta.
They were by all accounts ruthless savages who murdered Greek slaves known as "Helots" just for sport, cultivated a culture of thievery and rape, and practiced infanticide, as the movie '300' rightly points out in its opening scenes. Sparta was not even democratic. It was an oligarchy at best. Despite knowing all this, the West continues to hail the Spartans as the saviors of Western democracy. Yes, the Spartans died fighting a foreign invader.
Rachel Wyatt Mrs.Marin Ancient History 12 December 2014 Spartan Education was Necessary Spare the rod and spoil the child. In ancient Sparta this idea was taken to a new level- spare the rod and lose the country. Sparta was a small city-state located on the Peloponnese in Greece. In the 5th century BCE it had a double problem- invasion from outsiders like the Persians or the Athenians, or rebellion from the inside by a semi-slave population called the helots. To deal with this twin problem, Sparta developed a strict educational training system.
Through a slight bias, he was still able to give an accurate telling of the war and earned himself the label of one of the best historians of all time. Unfortunately, having the best historian on their side did not assist the Athenians in a win. A chief reason for the Athenians downfall was the development of the bubonic plague in Athens (Kellogg 188). Because the warriors of Athens decided to fight from home and defend their turf, it was inevitable that the residents ended up confined in an undersized space. With everyone so close, the plague spread very quickly even killing Pericles, the Athenians head political ruler.
Background information: The Spartans' tyranny paved the way to Leuctra. Ever since the Spartans triumphed over Athens in the Peloponnesian War, and even more so after the Corinthian War, Sparta had become more and more tyrannical. The most hated action of the Spartans was when they placed a government of their own in city, ruled by a harmost, an administrator, who was backed up by a garrison of 1,500. When the King’s Peace, the peace treaty that ended the Corinthian War, came into effect it broke all the leagues and made every city in Greece independent of each other. Sparta was to make sure it stayed this way.
He spent the year 335 subduing restive people to the north and west of Macedonia, and crushing an Athenian-endorsed uprising at Thebes. Now mistrusting the Athenians, Alexander the Great declined to employ their fleet against Persia. He crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor with his substantial army of thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks overwhelming the Persian army and gaining enough spoils to restore the meager Macedonian treasury. The key to Alexander’s success there was timing, and one of his great abilities was knowing when and where to strike defensively. Then, he would pursue the retreating enemy, who more often than not, could not regroup after Alexander’s strikes.