Sparta was an ancient Greek polis that was
surrounded by enemies, so Spartan citizens
began preparing for war at birth.
Spartan rulers examined newborn babies to
determine if they were healthy and strong
enough to be of value to the polis.
The rulers killed sickly or malformed infants
deemed incapable of contributing to the security
of Sparta.
Spartans had to conform to strict rules.
Spartan boys would leave their homes at age
seven to begin training as warriors.
The boys would live in military housing called
barracks where they faced rigorous training
and discipline.
Spartan trainers underfed the boys.
If they caught a boy stealing food, the boy
was beaten--not for stealing but for being
caught.
Spartan men could marry when they were twenty
years old, but Sparta did not allow the men
to live with their families until they reached
thirty.
A Spartan soldier who had not found a wife
by age thirty would customarily capture an
unmarried woman of his choice.
Spartan men would continue to serve in the
military until they were sixty years old.
Both men and women in Sparta competed in athletic
contests to keep physically fit.
Spartan men were constantly in training for
war, so women completed many of the duties
of running the polis.
Woman were the sole owners of at least one
third of Spartan land.
Spartan girls were raised to be tough so the
women could bear strong children for the polis.
The people of other poli would tell the story
of a Spartan mother who killed her son for
running away from his duties.
Spartan women were known for being stoic.
A stoic person can endure pain or hardship
without showing their feelings or complaining.
When Spartan soldiers went to battle, their
mothers and wives would present the warriors
with their shield and say: "With this, or
upon this."
The soldier was expected to return to Sparta
either victorious with his shield in hand,
or be carried home dead upon his shield.
If a Spartan soldier returned home alive and
without his shield, the soldier faced banishment
from the polis or death.
The Spartans were Dorians who invaded the
land they occupied on the Peloponnesus, a
peninsula in southern Greece.
Spartan warriors expanded their territory
by capturing neighboring lands.
They called the people they captured helots.
The Spartans forced helots to farm the land
the helots once owned, but the helots had
to provide half of their harvest to Sparta.
A Spartan police force spied on the helots
and killed anyone suspected of being a threat.
Every year, Sparta would declare war on the
helots and Spartan warriors would kill helots
as part of their training.
Spartan laws discouraged anything that would
distract citizens from their disciplined military
life.
Sparta did not welcome visitors from other
cities, and did not allow their citizens to
travel.
The Spartans were not interested in other
ways of life and did not want to bring new
ideas to their polis.
Today, we use spartan as an adjective to describe
someone who leads a rigorously disciplined
life that includes few comforts or luxuries.
Sparta’s army eventually came into conflict
with Athens, a trading poli that developed
the strongest navy of ancient Greece.
In 431BCE, Sparta and Athens began a twenty-seven
year long conflict called the Peloponnesian
War.
The Romans conquered Sparta in 146BCE, ending
centuries of independence for the polis.
In 1834, Greece began construction of a new
city on the site of ancient Sparta.
Modern Sparti is a small city with fewer than
20,000 inhabitants that lives on among the
ruins of one of the most powerful cities in
history.
