Essay about History of Sparta

Sparta culture and military was introduced to ancient Greece as a system, a system in which imposed both together in the matter for the civilians to learned and grow from. Sparta was a warrior civilization introduced in ancient Greece. Containing a variety of different terms they lived by in which would change history for Greece to this day. Sparta’s history is splitted in four main events containing the creation, development, power/forces, and the impact it gave to Greece. Sparta was known for the explicit warriors they had.

Though the most importance came from the culture of the Spartans, including the representation of their actions.

The life of Spartans was almost always compared to that of the Athenian Society. They both provided a system of democracy for their people believing to have equal power. Doing so they would find greater success from those of other states in which chose few to control the populations of their cities. The system imposes by the Spartan government of educational warriors was a beneficial government move and later has it rewards in doing so.

Sparta is known by many for their history of such great power their armies held. The armies were not just born by chance, they were made, created by the government to perform for the people and for the government. Sparta had good fighters do to the fact at a such young age the Spartan children were trained to fight, physically, and mentally by their seven birthday. They were sent to training camps to live in barracks and would train in camps called ‘agoge'(Plutarch 217).

A big reason why Sparta trained in their childhood and with such importance was due to the threat of the Persian army, and other forces opposed to their formation. The Spartan government these actions “seems to have been naturally subservient to men of power and influence” (Plutarch 237). The minds of each father figure in the society had such importance to impose the fighting lifestyle training for their children and many times they could not impose how important the training would be for their lives. The army of the Spartans was not the most memorable of their abilities much came from their differences at the time compared to other warrior states around them.

Differences represented by the Spartans were what made them so noticeable compared to other warriors at the time. Many warriors would shave their heads for sorrow. The Spartans on the other hand would “let their hair grow long in exultation over their victory” (Plutarch 235). Spartans showed much morality through their image of their ruling towards their people. The seemingly democracy government they held providing power to most of their people, they believe equality was key, and the communication with their people would lead to success.

The Government of Sparta would “offered most of the Spartan commands in the field and governments of cities” (Plutarch 301). This providing equal power among the soldiers. For the ones who would fight for peace, power, and civilization of the people. After every day each Sparta would never lose their morality and impose their learnings among their everyday lives in order to keep a successful economy running.

The wisest of Spartans knew “to fear the power of money, which they said was corrupting influential” (Plutarch 279). Spartans were told to purify gold and silver from the city as it was seen as a curse to contain. A Spartan named Lysander knew not to receive gold or silver in the city, besides just containing little value and much weight. His friends would think otherwise and believed it would be an awful idea in doing so. Later discussions brought the idea the coins should be brought for public use only and if anyone was to have them in private then “he should be punished with death” (Plutarch 281). In doing so the coin would contain pride and honor.

The war between Sparta and Athens was one of the biggest and life changing war for Sparta. After defeating the Athens, their main power threat, they became the main power in Greece. The war known as the Peloponnesian War. The war of Thermopylae, a war where 300 spartan men fought to the death to attempt or hold the attack of such Persian Army. After the war, Spartans came victorious and they became known as the strongest army force. Despite the win, Spartans did not rest and ” feared such alliances and set out to break them.

The resulting wars continued for nearly five decades.” (Lewis 36). Spartans did not only succeed through their military advantages but as well through their education impose on them. They lived in a mix “in its system of “education,” its militaristic lifestyle, and its ethics of exclusively military excellence” (Lewis 40). Their system provided the generals of the armies to learn the importance of educating themselves to provide greater openings during attacks and providing knowledge of strategic attacks when dealing with larger armies.

Spartans having such knowledge lead to the development of their military weapons. The machinery used was far” heavy infantry was highly complicated, no conception could be more opposed to facts. For in the Spartan order the front-rank-men are all leaders, so that each file has everything necessary to play its part efficiently.” (Xenophen 73).

The Spartans were a well organized and had a working government to endorse the power it contained. In war the leaders/Generals were the wise man in battle in which would impose “The evolutional orders by which greater depth or shallowness is given to the battle line are given by word of mouth” (Xenophen 75). The leaders had to know very well how to state their wording, by causing a mistake in their wording, victory would fall short leaving the Spartans confused in battle. The mistakes caused in battle was not an occasional event but in some occasions would lead to embarrassment to the army of Sparta.

Spartans were an elite army in which imposed such fear for others to battle due to their reputation and the power of their army against much larger forces. The Spartans eliminating the Athenians while being outnumbered introduced a later battle in which demonstrated their mortality of the city. Despite doing so well in battle, the Spartans also face losses. An interesting loss was a battle between the Spartans and the farmers of “Cow-Land” (Lewis 36).

Leaving no odds for the farmers to win, the farmers fought back and with such motivation and power they send the Spartans back to Sparta. In doing so, they free many Greeks who were kept slaves from the Spartans. The biggest importance of the war was the farmers would, “permanently reduced the power of the Spartan military state.” (Lewis 36). The battles loss by the Spartans would not lead them to lose hope for themselves and they would remain with their usual morals and functions as practice before without rebellion of anger because of an embarrassment in war.

The spartans never lost respect for their people and for the respect they had for the soldiers and after the war of Thermopylae many things would change. Spartans were killed and how they managed the respect for the soldiers. The soldiers “were they were buried on the spot where they fell, and a memorial was set up there to them” (Carroll 3). In the battle of Thermopylae there was an unfortunate event for the spartans. To show respect towards the spartan there needed to be Spartans remaining, hence the Spartans being eliminated by the Athens there were no proper funery for the death of spartans.

Despite the event the Spartans provide an alternative for the elevation of the dead. The spartans took care of the death elsewhere “the best-preserved example being the monumental grave constructed in the Athenian Kerameikos for those Spartans killed in the fighting in Athens in 404/3 BC” (Rempel 3). There has even been said the Spartans found all the names of each and every soldier who died during the battle. Such morality lead Spartans with such memorable events lead others to see how advance the Spartans were at their time.

In conclusion, The spartan era was a difference maker for Greece. Representing one of the greatest army forces at the time. The importance they gave of morality to their world was exceptional for the future years of Greece. Providing the reasoning of many actions in which are seen in the current years. Spartans showing their reasoning for war and demonstrating to others what motivation they followed in order to be the dominating group at the time. The way the Spartans reprected their men even when they had passed away. The way they would bury their soldiers on the spot of their death or if not found, they would remember their name to be place for others the admire who fought for the people.

System opposed by the government using military and education was a huge success in the matter the spartan army would be elite warriors with the proper education in which at the time many other states the not obtain. Introduction of this democratic government of the Spartans lead to the formation of democracy to the world today, causing money countries to obtain such type of government. If the spartans did not introduce such ruling who knows where our government would be today.

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