So far we have delved into life in Ancient Egpyt and explored the seven glorious wonders of the Ancient World but there is lots of content still to explore in the Ancient World such as more of Egypt, Greece, Rome and such Ancient civilisations as the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans. Join me now and let's take a trip thousands of years into History (though not quite as far as the Egyptians) to mainland Greece and meet the Spartans. Notoriously known as the brutal military state Spartans were absolute and true soliders in every sense of the word. When a Spartan boy was born he was tested for strength as a young child, forced to fend for himself at a young age in the wild and learn to hunt and be strong. Though it seems barbaric to us now this was Spartan custom and fathers would fight with their sons to toughen them and teach them to have no fear. This conditioning from a young age meant that Sparta produced some of the mentally and pyhsically strongest men the Ancient World had known and they made a formiddable fighting force. Most famous is the 'Battle of the 300' in which King Leonidas and 300 Spartan warriors held off a gargantuan (huge) army of Persians said to be hundreds of thousands strong for several days before being overwhelmed and surrounded, defeating some ten thousand men before the Spartans fell. This legend is not entirely true, in reality there were 300 full Spartiates (citizens of Sparta trained since birth to be a solider), roughly 700 Thespians and 400 Thebians but there is no doubt that the Greeks were still hugely outnumbered and that the Spartans were the superior fighters at the battle. Whereas Thespians and Thebians and Athenians and just about everyone else in Greece had a profession (a job) and then fought as a solider when their home needed defending, the Spartan citizens were all soliders, they had no choice to be diplomats or potters or farmers they were all trained as a soldier their whole life. This meant that they were established as a formiddable force and they did win several triumphant victories against their neighbouring Greek states including the war against Athens (The Peloponnesian War). However, dedicating their entire male populace to military would naturally cause problems for Sparta, how did they have food and clothes with no farmers or tailors?
The answer is unfortunately slavery. The Ancient Spartan state was built on slavery; all the jobs that needed to be done were done so by slaves and women and all the men were soliders (except for a few that made up a type of senate). This is of course an unsustainable way of living and when slaves revolted there was no food and no way of life for the Spartan soliders. There was some middle ground, free men in Sparta who had not passed the gruelling test to become a true Spartan citizen were called Periokoi and were above slaves and could still fight in Sparta's wars. The slaves in Sparta that were forced by their Spartan masters to carry out everyday jobs with little reward were referred to as Helots and were treated well enough that they survived and could work (which was better than many slaves) but nevertheless it was a much flawed system of Governing. However there is no doubting that Sparta was perhaps the greatest single military state in world History and arguably the reason that they could not expand to such greatness as Alexander's Macedonian Empire or later the Romans was because they lacked an effective form of governing and civil life. They may have been excellent soldiers, but soldiers need supplies, and food and most importantly reinforcements. Due to the difficulty of the harsh tests the men must endure to become full Spartan citizens they did not have a particularly large army. The men they did have were elite fighters and won many wars but eventually in long wars they were exhausted and overused and when the Spartans lost a large number of their Spartiate warriors at the battle of Leuctra against Thebes in 371 BC they were never really able to recover fully. The Spartans developed the Phalanx formation style of warfare with interocking shields and long spears to reach through the gaps and halt the enemy. The Spartans used the Hoplite (Greek Soldiers named after their great Hoplon shield) to greatest effect but it was not enough and they valued them too much. Unfortunately for Sparta their military might was a great strength and very feared, but a great civilisation needs more than just soliders to survive. The First picture shows King Leonidas with his 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae and the second picture shows a young Spartan boy being taken away from his home to survive in the wild for some time to strengthen him.
IMAGE 1:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sparta&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=754&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HAUcVOPDDdHr8AWh3YGQCg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=sparta+300&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=XKBKEvp_FRr41M%253A%3B7nUZeP2D54DsDM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thalathalapathy.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F300-spartans.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thalathalapathy.com%252F2013%252F06%252F300-spartan-2007-tamil-dubbed-1080p-800mb-download-team-ttp%252F%3B926%3B695
IMAGE 2:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sparta&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=754&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HAUcVOPDDdHr8AWh3YGQCg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=spartan+boy&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=ARuwiMkyTP01XM%253A%3BvIajJQqPgj2WEM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.schwartzman.org.br%252Fsitesimon%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2014%252F07%252Fspartan-boy.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.schwartzman.org.br%252Fsitesimon%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2014%252F07%252F%3B360%3B243
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