Expert: Maria - 3/29/2008

Question
Hi Maria,
I saw that you wrote that Sparta was a military state.  Could you tell me how there culture was different from Athens (or any non-military state) and what about their culture made them such good warriors?

Thanks,
Nicholas


Answer
Hi Nicholas,

it is so: Sparta was a military city-state, very different from Athens where art, intellectual concepts and cultural achievements prevailed over a rigid system of rules in military training which was a distinctive feature of Sparta.

Moreover while the “polis” (Greek for “city-state” ) of Athens set up a limited democracy which however was the first in the world,   and encouraged the exploration of many areas of knowledge, Sparta's government was headed by two hereditary kings who were leaders in battle and in religion.

So at Sparta military training of the Spartiates, i.e. the elite class of the rigidly hierarchical Spartan society, began  at the age of seven, when the child was removed from his family, moved into barracks, at age 20 could marry, but lived in the barracks for another 10 years.

In short from his eighth to his twenty year the young Spartiates were educated by the state according to a rigorous discipline of a military type so that Spartan boys were excellent warriors as they were trained for battle and put through difficult challenges so that they became fearless warriors and had the reputation of being the best soldiers in Greece. Instruction consisted in fact for the most part in inculcating habits of obedience, bodily fitness, and courage to conquer in battle.

In confirmation of what I'm  saying about the Spartan militarism, I can tell you an  ancient Greek sentence we read in Plutarch’s  Apophthegmata Laconica (Sayings of the Ancient Spartans) which in English sounds like this: “Come back with your shield, or on it".
By these words  uttered by the Spartan mothers when they gave the shield to their sons going on military service, the  mothers wished their sons to return from war either with the  shield or on it (that is 'dead' on the shield), since if a soldier  returned home alive without his shield, it meant that he had lost it, while running for his life and then he had been a coward.

Anyway in spite of such a militarism, the city-state of  Sparta  was always a local power in Peloponnese, i.e. in  the southernmost part of mainland Greece, but not in the rest of Greece, where Athens was the  master of the sea, the leading commercial power, the centre of culture and civilization,  in short the dominant power.

Hope this can be helpful to you.

Best,
Maria