Sparta Civilizations

Kyle Menke HIS 111 (N01) World Civilizations I
9/25/2015

The Greek City state of Sparta was one of the most important Greek states in the Archaic and Classical periods. Sparta was originally well known for its strong military. Sparta was known to have red cloaks, long hair, lambda-emblazoned shields. Spartan soldiers were the most feared and best fighters in Greece. The city of Sparta was located in the fertile Eurotas valley Laconia in the southeast Peloponnese. It is said that the settlement first developed in the Neolithic period and even continued to in the Bronze Age. However, archaeological evidence claims that the city of Sparta wasn’t actually developed until the 10th century BCE. In the late 8th century BCE, Sparta conquered
The battle was long, gruesome, and damaging to both sides. With help from allies Sparta was able to win the battle when Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami in 405 BCE. After this battle Sparta had earned the number one spot in the Greek City states; little did they know this wouldn’t last long. The Spartan political system was unusual in that it had two hereditary kings from two different families. The kings were priests of Zeus and sat on the council of elders known as the gerousia. In Sparta there was a strong emphasis on military training and frugal living in mess halls. Growing up beginning at the age of seven, men were raised to be ready to join the army. Men were separated into age groups and sent to live in barracks. Youths participated in strenuous and rigorous athletics and military training. As the men grew older around the age of 20 these activities were made much harder and more demanding. An odd feature of the Spartans and their military was the great importance they had settled around religion. According to Herodotus they considered things of the gods more important than the things of the men. Scarifies were common in the Spartan army most commonly before and after battles. However,
Spartans strongly believed in their religion and didn’t want to change their rules for anything. Personally, I believe a reason they may have not changed their rules even after they knew it was becoming the reason of their downfall was because they thought that an army that was small but strong would be better than an army that was big but weak. In the past their rituals and rules had done them well, but soon people became sick of the strict and unfair lifestyle. An example of a modern equivalent to the stubbornness of Sparta could be something as simple as parents and their rules. A parent may have strict rules and the child may not follow them. However, despite the child not following the rules and the parents realizing that their methods aren’t working, the parents stick to their rules. Another example of this situation could be people that see someone make mistakes that cause them to fail but make the same mistake as the person anyways. Lastly the best example is Social Security. Even though they know the system isn’t working and people are getting hacked they aren’t changing it. They don’t want to spend the money on working to improve it and by the time our generation retires social