Sparta lay on the southeastern Peloponnese, in a region once called Laconica (luh-KAHN-i-kuh). To this day, the word laconic describes someone with a clipped, abrupt way of speaking. Likewise the word spartan, meaning “without luxury or comfort,” is part of the English language as well.
Established by the Dorians in the 800s b. c., Sparta was also called Lacedaemon (lah-seh-DEE-muhn) after its mystical founder. The city was ruled by two kings, descendants of an early monarch; the real power, however, lay in the hands of an oligarchy, a small ruling group. Sparta's oligarchy consisted of some thirty men, all over sixty years in age.
Below the oligarchy were the citizens, a term that does not have the same meaning in modern America. Whereas anyone born in the United States is an American citizen, with all the rights and privileges that come with citizenship, in ancient Greece only a select few enjoyed the benefits of citizenship. A better comparison would be America at the time of its founding, when only white men could become citizens. In Sparta, the rules were even more strict: a man had to be a direct descendant of the original Dorian founders of the city. Thus there were never more than 7,000 Spartan citizens at one time.
Besides the tiny group of citizens, there were their families, who enjoyed a relatively high status. Below them was a much larger group of foreigners and other noncitizens. At the bottom was by far the largest class in Spartan society, many times larger than all the others combined: slaves, or helots (HEH-luhtz).
Not even citizens of Sparta enjoyed an easy life. Noncitizens ran businesses and held other positions because Spartan citizens had one job only, the central focus of their lives from birth to the age of thirty: war. From 735 to 715 b. c., they fought a long conflict with the neighboring polis of Messenia (meh-SEE-nee-uh). Spartans took so many slaves they were afraid of being overthrown. Such fears on the part of the Indo-Europeans spawned the caste system in India; in Sparta such fears they led to the creation of a militaristic society.
Like the Assyrians, the Spartans were geniuses at the art of war. During the conflict with Messenia, they developed the concept of the hoplite (HAHP-light), a heavily armed foot solider, which became the standard for Greek warfare. Hoplites formed a phalanx (FAY-lankz), a column of soldiers usually 8 men deep and as many as 200 men wide. Armed with spears, they surged against an enemy. When the first rank fell, the next group moved in. Warfare in any age is awful, but prior to the twentieth century—when at least decent medical care was available to troops on the field—it was truly horrible. Yet the Spartans were fabled for their bravery, in part because they had spent their whole lives preparing for war.
If a boy were born with any physical problems, he was simply left to die. The ones who survived went to live in barracks at age seven. For the next five years they underwent rigorous physical training. Even the Spartans were Greeks, however, and as such a civilized people: thus from ages twelve to eighteen, boys studied poetry and music. But at eighteen, they submitted to a year of endurance and survival training, much as a member of a modern special operations team such as the Navy SEALS must do.
At the end of this training, the boy had become a hoplite and received a year off. During this time, he married and spent time with his wife, but at the age of twenty, he went off to serve in the army for ten years. Assuming he survived battle, he was free of all obligations at age thirty, when he received a plot of land that would be farmed by helots. At that point, he might become a citizen; then again, he might not, in which case he would not be allowed to participate in political life until he reached the age of sixty.
Few modern people would find the life of a Spartan male attractive. It should be noted, however, that contrary to what one might expect, the life of a woman in Sparta was in some ways better than that of her Athenian counterpart. Spartan girls received physical training along with boys, in order that they might produce stronger babies. Though this might seem like another hardship, it also implies a higher status than that of women in Athens, who lived their lives in shadow, far from the world of men. Also, during the years when their men were away, Spartan women ran the home and all business affairs, assuming a degree of control far beyond that of Athenian women.
World History
