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Literacy In Spartan Society Essay

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Literacy In Spartan Society Essay
Presence of Literacy in Spartan Society This journal article Literacy in the Spartan Oligarchy was published in 1978 by Paul Cartledge. In the article, the author talks about the presence of literacy in the social development of Sparta. The author argues that the social development in Spartan society was primarily based on the false assumption about the presence of Greek widespread literacy in the society. The author supports this opinion by taking into consideration various other expert author’s opinions and claims related to literacy in Sparta.
The Greek alphabet marked an enormous advance on the 'Linear B' syllabic script. The deduction made from this syllabic script was that the alphabet made it possible to write and read about anything the society was able to talk about. However, Harvey's study demonstrated that popular literacy attained the highest level in the Greek world, but there were still significant areas of illiteracy or semi-literacy in the Spartan society. Thus, the present of literacy among everyone
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For example, how the level of literacy in Sparta made a significant contribution to the Classical Spartan constitution. The study of the Spartan polity has been described as a form of intellectual gymnastics. As the political system were governed by nobles who had access to more deeper knowledge. Cartledge talks about A. W. Gomme described Sparta's political system as aristocratic type given the fact that only minority of the citizens knew how to read and write. To summarize, Andrewes' reference about Spartan literacy talks about how the constitution was examined. The majority of the citizens did not understand the importance of the constitution given the fact that they knew only the basics reading and writing. Thus, these deeper form of literacy did not made any sense to

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