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If you could live in a society where everyone was sociallyand economically equal, would you want to?

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Where does this history begin?y Lycurgus

y Dates : Archaic Greece c. 700-500 BCE

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The Way of Lifey Basileus

y Colonization vs. Agriculture

y Xenophobia

y Opposite of Athens

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Where was Sparta?

See p. 92 of Ancient Greece for

map

y In the south, on the Laconian plain

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A Cruel and Gloomy Reigny Burn, rape and pillage

y Helots 10:1

yAvoid uprisings

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Who ruled Sparta?y Two hereditary kings, 1st among equals

y Ran the military

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Societal Organizationy Top- Kings

y

Upper Middle Citizens

y Lower Middle - Perioikoi

y

Bottom - Helots

y Plato: The organization of your state is that of anarmy camp, not a town.

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Spartan Governmenty Kings

y Gerousia

yAssembly

y Ephors

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Lifestyles of the Spartan Citizeny Laconic

y No jewelry

y No precious metals

y Only necessarypossesions

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V

alues of the Spartan Citizeny UnquestioningObedience

y

Courage

y Indifference to pain,cold or heat

y Contempt for othercivilizations

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How did they live? As invincible

warriors.y From cradle to deathbed

y

Military caste

y Never risked a battle they thought they could not win

y Only distinction is military honor in battle

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What is Spartan Culture?y Imagine a world where everything is subordinate towar . . .

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What is Spartan art?y Poetry incites warriors to fight

y Musicwas forwar and religion

y Even art depicts the gods in chains

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Spartan vs. Non Spartan Poetryy Is anything worth dying for? If so, what?

y Shove your shield in the face of the enemy, hating life

and embracing deaths dark spirits like the suns rays . .. Tyrtaeus

y Some Thracian is flaunting the shield I leftthoughtlessly by the brush, an flawless piece. So what?

I saved myself. Archilochus

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Spartan Childhood

y Only necessary

schoolingy Provoked to fight

y Taken from home atseven

y Put in herdsy Only necessary food and

clothes

y To bring these thingsthey steal, some goinginto gardens and others

insinuating themselvesdangerously andcautiously into themens messes. If

anyone is caught, he isgiven many lashes withthewhip

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Helots Spartas Problemy Constantly feared uprising

y Spartan boys spied on them

yAttacked them regularly

y Had to keep standing army to maintain them

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T

he Krypteiay Secret warfare tacticsy this is another form

of training for war:

they sent each oneout naked andordered him towander outside in themountains for a year,maintaining himselfby theft and avoidingdetection

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Spartan Lorey Philip of Macedon: If I enter Laconia, I will level

Sparta to the ground.

ySpartan reply: If.