Article Summary - The Spartan Way

Roy Elal

Due: October 11, 2011

Ms. Moore

Humanities 8B

Article Summary #2

For over 200 years, Sparta was considered as the most powerful city-state in Ancient Greece, along with Athens. Its power came from the strong, tough, and professional army. Brutal training that the kids faced from the age of 7 made every man a warrior and the army one of the most-feared fighting forces ever.

 Athens was the birthplace of democracy and freedom. Great artists and thinkers built the foundations of Western culture. Sparta, on the other hand, was a secretive place run by an oligarchy (an oligarchy was a type of government in which the ruling power is in the hands of a couple of people). This city-state has been admired over the centuries for how they valued great discipline over everything else. Sparta also ruled ancient Greece between approximately 600 B.C. and 371 B.C. leaving an immense amount of history behind themselves.

The army consisted of all men above the age of 30, which is also the age when they become full Spartan citizens and are gifted the ability to vote. Sean Price claims, "About 10 percent of Spartan men were full citizens known as equals. Their job was to serve as soldiers in Sparta's army." (Price, 176) This is a very substantial fact, because it tell us that 90 percent of the population was not above the age of 30, that Spartan males die at a young age, and that most males are still in training as boys and young men. Also the women, they were not considered official citizens of Sparta. Boys that are above the age of 7 are forced to join the forces for training, so that when they grow up, they will also be a part of the sturdy Spartan army. When they are born, city elders come over for examination. If the baby was not healthy looking, or did not have a strong organism, they left it on a mountainside to die.

        Women in Sparta had much more freedom versus any other city-state in the whole entire Ancient Greece. They were allowed to move around, and didn't have to stay home all the time. They could own land, which was unacceptable in Athens. They could also do business. Such power was shocking to men from other city-states.

        When Sparta started to fall apart, and getting conquered by the Dorians, all the rituals also became forgotten, but they left a long history behind them, the history of the extroardinary Ancient Greece.

Price, Sean. "The Ancient Olympics." The Ancient World. 2010. Print.