SPARTA
Please bring Study Resources,
and Dillon & Garland, Ancient Greece to the tutorial
Tutorial paper:
To what extent was the Spartan social and military system suited to ensuring state survival in the Greek world of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.?
Questions to consider for the tutorial discussion:
1. What were the main features of Spartan social organisation?
2. What were the main features of Sparta's constitution? Would you agree that Sparta was basically a democracy?
3. To what extent were Sparta's social institutions in the sixth century determined by its recent history and political situation?
Bibliography
Students should prepare for the tutorial by reading a few of some of the following; students writing the tutorial paper on this question should attempt to read most if not all of the below items:
Study Resources - documents on Sparta in the 6th century
Dillon, M. & Garland, L. Ancient Greece, chapter 6
Andrewes, A. The Greek Tyrants, chap. VI
Bury, J.B. and Meiggs, R. A History of Greece, chap. III and index
Ehrenberg, V. From Solon to Socrates, chap. II
Forrest, W.G. A History of Sparta 950-192 B.C.
Hammond, N.G.L. A History of Greece, 101-106 and index
Hodkinson, S. 'Social Order and the Conflict of Values in Classical Sparta', Chiron, 13 (1983) 239-81
Hooker, J.T. 'The Life and Times of Lycurgus the Lawgiver', Klio 70 (1988) 340-45
Huxley, G.L. Early Sparta
Jones, A.H.M. Sparta
Powell, A. Athens and Sparta(London 1988) 221-52
ADDITIONAL READING (for students preparing papers):
Herodotos, I. 66-68
Plutarch, Lycurgus
Ancient evidence to consider about
SPARTA
Tyrtaeus' war poetry
Tyrtaeus 10: To die after falling in the vanguard is a good thing
For a brave man doing battle on behalf of his native land.
Tyrtaeus 11: Let each man plant himself stoutly and stay with both feet
Firmly stood upon the ground, biting his lip with his teeth,
His thighs and calves below and breast and shoulders
Covered with the belly of his broad shield;
In his right hand let him shake his mighty spear,
And let him wave the dreadful crest above his head;
In the doing of mighty deeds let him learn to do battle,
And not stand beyond the missiles holding his shield,
But let each man go close hand-to-hand and with his long spear
Or his sword let him wound and take his foe.
Spartan Training (the Agoge): Xenophon Constitution of the Spartans 2.1-8
2.1 Other Greeks who claim to be educating their sons in the best possible way, as soon as the boys understand what is said to them straightway set over them servants as their escorts (paidagogoi), and send them to masters to learn letters and music and the exercises of the wrestling-school.
In addition they soften their sons' feet with sandals, and coddle their bodies with changes of clothes; and they allow them as much food as their stomachs can take.
2.2 But Lykourgos, ... gave the responsibility of the boys' charge to one of those from whom the most important offices are appointed, who is called the supervisor of education (paidonomos).
He gave him the authority to muster the boys and oversee them, correcting them severely if any of them were lazy.
He also gave him some of the older youths as scourge-bearers, so that they could punish them, when need be, and the result is that great self-respect and obedience are present in Sparta hand-in-hand.
2.3 And instead of softening their feet with sandals he ordered them to strengthen them by going barefoot, thinking that if they practised this they would go much more easily uphill, and descend more safely downhill, and that someone barefoot, if he were practised, would jump and spring and run more quickly than one in sandals.
2.4 And instead of being coddled with clothing, he thought that they should become accustomed to one cloak a year, considering that in this way they would be better prepared to face cold and heat.
2.5 He ordered the prefect (eiren) to provide just so much food that they would neither be weighed down from repletion nor lack experience of going hungry, thinking that those trained in this way would be better able, if they should have to, to toil without food, and last a longer time on the same food, if it were commanded, and need less cooked food, and be more tolerant of every kind of food and stay more healthy.
He also considered that a regimen which made their bodies slim would do more to increase their height than one which dilated them with food.
2.6 On the other hand, so that they were not too distressed by hunger, though he did not allow them to take what they desired without trouble, he permitted them to relieve their hunger by occasionally stealing.
2.7 It was not because he was at a loss what to give them that he permitted them to contrive to provide their own food - no one, I think, could fail to see that.
It is clear that anyone who is going to steal must both stay awake at night, and be deceitful and wait in ambush during the day, and have spies prepared if he is going to steal something.
So all this shows that he trained the boys like this because he wanted them to be more devious at procuring supplies and more warlike.
2.8 Someone might say, 'Why, then, if he thought stealing a good thing, did he impose many strokes on one who was caught?' 'Because,' I reply, 'whatever men teach, they punish whoever does not do it well.
So, the Spartans punish those who are caught for stealing badly.'
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