Thanks to What Spartans Succeeded in War - Research Paper Example

To what degree was the social structure of Spartan society responsible for its success in war? Introduction To anyone who has studied the history of ancient Greece it doesn’t come as a surprise that Sparta, founded in the 9th century B.C.E. is regarded as one of the most unusual states of ancient Greece, a reputation that was established by the ancient Greeks themselves. Spartans claimed to have been descended from Lacedaemon, the son of Zeus and Taygete and the legendary founder of the Spartan race. Lacedaemon was married to Sparta, daughter of Eurotas. In about 1200 B.C.E. the kingdoms of Argos and Sparta were united. At that time archeology reveals they had a rich culture, and in the 8th century were home to many craftsmen, sculptors and metal workers, singers dancers but all this gradually disappeared from the 6th century onwards as the Spartans fought for supremacy in Greece, openly interfering in the affairs of other states and intimidating weaker opponents, never letting the strong ones acquire more power. So powerful did they consider themselves that it wasn’t until 206 B.C.E. that city fortifications were finally built. They proved to be a successful military foe, perfecting the powerful hoplite phalanx military formation with shields linked for greater effect, and defeating many enemies, including the Athenian army, their former ally against Persia, in 404 B.C.E.. Matthew Dillon (2002) describes (page33) how they would depose those they saw as tyrants throughout the country, replacing them with oligarchies that were aligned to their way of thinking. Sparta was a huge military power. It had an almost unquestionable authority among the near and distant neighbors and a striking internal stability combined with cultural backwardness or stagnancy. While Athens is regarded as a principal of Western culture and the birthplace of democracy, Sparta has a much darker reputation. Athenians prided themselves on being able to fight well as soldiers without giving up the pleasures of life, but Spartans knew that training was all important. The emphasis was very much on the citizen as soldier. The advantage that Sparta held over its rival Athens was its army. Sparta’s army was disciplined, loyal to the death and very fierce on the battlefield with phalanx that must have been fearsome to behold on the field of battle. It can be said that military supremacy was Sparta’s specialty in Ancient Greece. How did Sparta gain such supremacy? Was it the unique social structure of Sparta with its military training that everyone who was destined to become a Spartan had to go through? Was it the political system that gave Sparta its ability to enforce its wishes through the use of its army? Background Sparta thrived in the valley of the Eurotas river and was the chief and controlling city of Laconia which was in the southern Peloponnese. The Greek system of city states meant that each was politically independent, often having their own calendar, army, customs and even currency. The Spartans had arrived in the area and settled there during the Dorian invasions. Some invading people have managed to live as aristocratic neutrals alongside the general population. In Sparta however the newcomers asserted a rigid regime which bought the native citizens down to the level of being mere serfs and slaves. Herodotus says these made up some 80% of the population. Professor Ben Kierman has described them as the first racist state and tells how they were admired by Adolf Hitler because they were capable of choosing who should live and who should die. The style of government was a complicated system which managed to combine a military oligarchy with a dual monarchy and also with democracy of a sort, as well as timocracy. The unique dual monarchy actually had very little power, but the kings had mainly a religious function alongside their role as leaders in times of war. As well as the kings there was a council or Gerousia which was made up of the nobles over the age of 60 who were elected for life by the Apella, which consisted of all citizens above the age of 30. This however was not really a decision making body, but more of a sounding board to ideas put forward by those who were really in charge. Below these came the Spartiate, that is all other all adult Spartan men. Despite all these in practice a group of 5 men known as the Ephorate were the ones who actually made all the important civic decisions. In Richard Hooker ‘Sparta’ article of 1996 he describes the whole area as ‘an armed camp’. Even the patron god of the city was Aries-, God of war was a patron god as well as being the god of wars, soldiers battles. Aries was also believed to represent fearlessness in battle. Hooker claims he is quoting from several scholars who also describe the Spartans as being brutal as well as culturally and politically backward and in economic stagnation. Thucydides of Athens,( 1.70.1) addressing the Spartans said :- You Spartans have never considered what sort of men the Athenians are ….. they are without doubt innovators…….but you preserver simply what you have and come up with nothing new. However Hooker reminds his readers of the well known axiom that that such judgments always come from the side of the ultimate victors, i.e. Athenian Greece. On the other hand the Spartans themselves believed that their chosen lifestyle was the best possible choice. This idea of nothing changing was hugely influenced by king Lykurgos according to the History of Sparta web page written by Ellen Papakyriakou/Anagnostou. Lykurgos had two dogs. One he trained for hunting and the other he fed indoors. He then showed the people how much more useless was the trained dog. Lykurgos wrote many laws which he made the Spartan people agree to, stating that these laws should not be changed until he returned to the city. The laws were mostly concerned with discipline and the hardships to be endured by the citizens of this self isolating community. However he left, never to return and spot the laws remained in place without alteration for many generations until the city was forced to repeal them when it joined the Achaean league after suffering defeat. The resulting stability doesn’t mean that there weren’t problems, especially meeting the needs of a growing population. It was for this reason that in 725 B.C.E. tried to annex the lands of their Messenian neighbors who were occupying the kind of fertile, flat land that was ideal for agriculture. Despite the fact that such land was plentiful and could have supplied sufficient food for both Messenians and Spartans, as might be expected the Messenians fought back. They were overwhelmed and the Spartans found themselves in the difficult position of being in control of a population very much larger in number than their own. ‘Two Faces of Greece, Athens and Sparta,’ states that there were there were about 8,000 adult male citizens in control of a total population of 100,000. The magistrates and their families enjoyed a legally privileged position, even eating at public expense according to Cartledge and Spawforth ( page 160) and all these citizens were economically a privileged group and in order to defend such a privileged position it was decided that the only way forward was to turn the whole area into a military state. They rose to become the dominant military force in that part of the world and so when Greece went to war against Persia Sparta led the Greek armies. Such leadership went on until 362 B.C.E. Military Life The stress on the military life affected even the youngest members of society who were judged at birth as to whether or not they were considered fit enough to live. First a boy would be bathed in wine and then examined by city officials as to their fitness Those who received a negative verdict were either left exposed to die or they might become slaves. The healthy youngsters would be assigned to a brotherhood or a sisterhood as described by Janice Seigel in ‘Daily Life’. Spartan society contained a number of different ranks and classes. Firstly came the Spartiate, that is those who could trace their ancestry right back to the cities founding years. Spartiate men who served as soldiers, who in battle each had the Greek letter lamda or L for Laconian as a distinguishing mark on his on his shield. These elite were the only people in Sparta with full legal and political rights. The Perioeci were considered to be next in rank. These were made up of foreign people who served as buffers between the Spartiates and the slave class or helots, much perhaps as an overseer had done on a cotton plantation in more recent times. The Spartiate upper class was so concerned with military matters that it was the Perioeci who served as the majority of traders. The Spartans believed firmly in the idea that the way in which their society was arranged had very ancient origins and revered it so much that it proved most unlikely to change despite the accusations by other peoples around them that they were in danger of stagnating. Innovation was a word not in the Spartan dictionary. Another view might be that theirs was an extremely stable society. Life was divided into carefully controlled periods. From birth to age 7 children would be cared for by nurses who trained them to overcome their fears. At the age of seven children were removed from the care of their mothers. Schooling for the boys would take place up in the Tayegetus Mountains. The agoge or school system was extremely strict and tough according to the Ancient Greek web page ‘Zeus’ but the literacy skills of reading and writing, although thought of as being of secondary importance, were taught together with the more practical and military lessons and hunting . Somewhat surprisingly perhaps the arts of poetry and singing, together with philosophy were also on the curriculum. It was to the agoge that the boys were required to be loyal to, even over their family loyalties. Discipline though was rigid. The only clothing allowed was a cloak to cover their nakedness and footwear was not allowed. Food supplies were kept to a minimum so that the boys rapidly learnt how to survive independently. At the age of 13 they would be sent off alone having only his skills and instincts to ensure his survival. Each boy was allocated a mentor , the role of whom was to teach him Spartan customs, how to conduct himself and what Sparta expected of him. The future soldiers were taught how to cope with the most severe of pains. Skills necessary to survival were taught along with athletics. Lang and Amos, on the ‘Sparta History’ web page of Laconian Professionals, tell the story of a Spartan boy who stole a fox and then hid it beneath his cloak. The fox bit him repeatedly and eventually he died as a result of his wounds rather than letting his thievery be known.. It would have been considered at the time to have been more disgraceful fro the theft to have been found out than it was to be a thief. The story could have two interpretations- as an instance of great bravery or as being about the rightness of deception where needed- something prized in Sparta as a useful skill when surprise attacks against an enemy might gain the victory. So known were the Spartans for deception that in ‘Andromache’ ( 445-9) Euripides wrote of them:- Inhabitants of Sparta, most hateful of mortals to all mankind, treacherous schemers, plotters, masters of falsehoods, skilled contrivers of wrongs, thinking nothing sound but everything that is twisted, unjust is your prosperity in Greece. Unusually for ancient societies the girls also received a strict education in order to best fit them to become the mothers of the nation’s future soldiers. When they reached maturity at 18 they were judged for their fitness for this role. Failure relegated them to becoming periokios i.e. they weren’t slaves, but would have only limited rights.. The young men, having already having had 13 years of military training by the age of 20, would finally become a soldier and also join a dining mess or syssitia, each of which would have roughly fifteen members. So brave, capable and fearless were these soldiers that the historian Herodotus quotes Dienekes, a Spartan soldier who on hearing during the Greco-Persian wars that a massive volume of Persian arrows were actually covering the sun, was heard to say ‘So much the better. We shall fight in the shade.’ It was a requirement that the men married by the age of 30, but this did not mean a quiet family life. Instead the military barracks remained their home. There was an unusual arrangement whereby, after reaching the age of 30, he would finally be allowed to set up his own home, although he would even then normally be expected to continue in military service e until he reached the age of 60. Girls had a freer life than in most of the societies around them, they could for instance inherit property as daughters according to Cartledge and Spawforth ( page 33) but were allocated husbands, often from a close group, rather than having any choice in the matter because the Spartiates were absolutely determined that they were to remain as a select group and this idea would break down if there were any inter-marrying with people from other groups .Cartledge and Spawforth ( page 33) give the example of marriage between nephew and aunt and give the reason put forward by Hodkinson in 1986 that this method of inbreeding protected property. The wedding day seems to have been designed to make it appear as if the bride was being forced into things. The new husband, after eating as usual in his mess with his companions would enter the bridal chamber in darkness. There would then be other night time visits and these would continue for quite a while before the pair finally met by day. Hooker claims that the Athenians joked that the Spartans became fathers even before they had met their wives. Spartan soldiers were expected to make a lifetime commitment to the army for the good of the city and the state. It was necessary for these married men to own land in order that they could provide food for their families, but they were not farmers. That was the role of the helot slaves . So Spartans had no time or place in their lives for either leisure or luxuries. Instead theirs was a simple life dictated by their chosen ideals self discipline and sacrifice. It was this consistent single-mindedness that kept them in the ascendant fro so long as far as military matters were concerned, The surrounding peoples mocked them from time to time , but at the same time they were the object of admiration among their neighbours. Anton Powell in his book ‘Athens and Sparta: constructing Greek Political and Social History from 478 B.C.’ claims that the Spartans, not wanting everyone to know all the secrets of their society, would actually encourage the idea of them being simply soldiers, a military machine who obeyed orders unthinkingly. . The Spartan leaders, good at tricking their enemies, were not above practicing deceit on their own people when they considered that this would have a beneficial effect upon morale. Powell tells (page 219) how Xenophon describes Spartan generals, trying to maintain morale and so telling the people of a great victory, when in fact their army had lost the battle. On the next page (220) he lists several instances of trickery used by the Spartans in order to gain victory, so despite the image they portrayed these were not mere robots who obeyed orders blindly, but men with real military skills acquired during those long years of training. Persians at the battle of Thermopylae are described as having been astounded when they first saw the very heavily outnumbered Spartan soldiers. The men were obviously preparing seriously for the battle by were oiling themselves and exercising, rituals being carried out by soldiers who had the resolution to continue battle to the last , even though it was obvious that the Persians heavily outnumbered them and that most soldiers from the other Greeks city states had already left. This idea of not giving up was cultivated among the Spartans. Proud mothers, when their sons left for war, would call out to them that they should either come with their shield or being carried on it. To die in battle was considered an honor. Conclusion The Spartans left little physical evidence behind to be admired, no Parthenon or other magnificent buildings to be admired by 21st century tourists, only perhaps their ideas. Thucydides ( 1.10.2)describing what wasn’t really a city at all in the sense that Athens was , but rather a group of unwalled villages said :- If the city of the Spartans were to be deserted, and only the temples and the foundations of the buildings survived, I would imagine that there would be a strong disbelief after a long time that the power of the Spartans was as great as their fame. He has been proved wrong, as history records. There is little in the way of written laws or Spartan literature for modern scholars to consider. To the modern mind the Spartan ideas seem strange, yet to some they are and were attractive. Plato’s great work ‘The Republic’, was his an attempt to describe a perfect community, and it seems it was in the main inspired by his knowledge of Spartan society, values and ideals. That other great Greek thinker Aristotle was also interested in how their system of authority was managed. They were admired by Adolph Hitler, as described by Ben Kieran, who quotes Hitler as saying, ‘The subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible because of the racial superiority of the Spartans.’and tells how the Nazis saw themselves as Spartans and the Russians as helots. Yet as a race they have been described as ‘dropping out of sight.’(Cartledge and Spawforth , 2002 , ( page 213). The Spartans felt that their very survival as a race depended upon the stringent upbringing that is described above. This was in contrast to the ideas of their neighbors. The Athenians are quoted by Thucydides (2.39.1) :- If by living a relaxed life rather than by painful training, and not from rules but rather from our way of life we face danger courageously, the result is that we don’t suffer in advance for the sake of future pains and when we come to the test we prove ourselves no less daring than those who are always laboring. Powell tells us however that after 404 B.C.E., ( page 224) the Spartan city and nation began to decline. Cartledge and Spawforth ( page 28) describe how even Sparta could not in the end escape from the ideas and habits of the various states around it. This, Powell reasons, was because the ancient laws were no longer observed and a more luxurious lifestyle began to creep into society. During the reign of King Aureus 1 in the 4th century B.C.E. Sparta, according to Cartledge and Spawforth ( page 28), gave hints that the city was beginning to change her political ideas for ones that were more the norm Hellenistically. One problem was that men so geared to war from the earliest age found it particularly difficult to have a relatively peaceful existence in which they no longer had an important role. The Spartans are long gone, yet even in the 21st century today the word Spartan is associated with ideas of hardships endured, difficult conditions and discipline. It was this that led to their military success and once they feel from their earlier ideal they lost their prominence . Spartas power was finally broken by the Thebans in 371 B.C.E. at the battle of Leuctra. Sparta struggled on but finally lost its independence as a free state in 192 when it was defeated in battle and had to reluctantly join the Achaean League. Later it became merely a part of the Roman province of Achaea With the decline of Rome Alaric and the Visigoths from Germany arrived in 396 C.E. and left only ruins in their wake. The Spartan legend however lives on. Their example has not been forgotten. Today a very different and modern city, also called Sparta, occupies the site of its former namesake. Works Cited Euripides, Andromache, quoted by Matthew Dillon, The ancient Greeks in their own words, Page 3, Stroud, Sutton Publishing 2002 Thucydides, quoted by Matthew Dillon, The ancient Greeks in their own words, Pages 3, 4, 257, Stroud, Sutton Publishing 2002 Electronic Sources Amos,H.D. and Lang, A.G.P. These were the Greeks, Spartan History, Laconian Professionals Cartledge,P and Spawforth, A. , Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, London and New York, Routledge 2002, Questia Online Library, http://www.questia.com/read/108094012?title=Hellenistic%20and%20Roman%20Sparta%3a%20%20A%20Tale%20of%20Two%20Cities 24th November 2009 Herodotus, Book VII, translated by George Rawlinson, http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/History/Herodotus/History/History7.html 23rd November 2009 Hodkinson, S.J. Land tenure and inheritance in Classical Sparta,1986, CQ n.s. 36, 378-406., quoted by Cartledge,P and Spawforth, A. , Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, London and New York, Routledge 2002, Questia Online Library, Hooker, R. ,Sparta, Ancient Greece1996, 14th November 2009 http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/SPARTA.HTM Kierman, B , Hitler, Pol Pot, and Hutu Power: Distinguishing Themes of Genocidal Ideology, Rememberance and Beyond, The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, 24th November 2009, http://www.un.org/holocaustremembrance/docs/paper3.shtml Papakyriakou/Anagnostou.E., History of Sparta, 2000, http://www.sikyon.com/sparta/history_eg.html 24th November 2009 Plato’s Republic, C390 B.C.E.24th November 2009, http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/PlatoRepublic.html Powell, A., Athens and Sparta: Constructing Greek Political and Social life from 478 B.C.,Edition 2, 2001, Google Books, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jndUNEaNvm4C&dq=spartan+life+in+ancient+greece 23rd November 2009 Seigel, J., Daily Life, http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/ancient_greece/daily_life.htm 23rd November 2009 Sparta History, Laconian Professionals, Two Faces of Greece, Athens and Sparta,23rd November 2009, http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/educational/lesson1.html Zeus, The Ancient Greeks, 23rd November 2009, http://www.legion-fourteen.com/greeks.htm Read More