Interesting facts about Spartans

Ancient Sparta was located in the region known as Lakonia in the southeast of Peloponnese. Even today, the magic of this city-state captures our imagination.
The simple way of life, their political stability, the strict education system and the "production" of the best Greek warriors are some of the reasons why Spartans admired other cities-states.

Gerard Butler

as King Leonidas in movie 300

Courage and directness

Apart from the reputation of the homeland of brave warriors, Sparta was also known for nurturing scanty, but meaningful rhetoric. Something before Filip Makedonski attacked Lakonia, they wrote to them a letter to read: "If I attack Lakonia, I'll drive you out of there." The Spartans responded with a letter in which there was only one word: "If". Philip finally entered Lakonia and sent another letter to the Spartans asking them if they would accept him as a friend or as an enemy. They replied: "None of them."

Plutarch wrote that the Spartans did not speak a lot, but that what they say was to capture the attention of those who listened to them and were very direct in addressing. Lost Greek comedy (only fragments known), had one reply that reads: "Less than a letter sent from Sparta". Even today, a brief and cumbersome method of expression is called "Laconic Speech".

Spartan statute in Termopile

Fight against corruption and greed

Material wealth and virtually all other jobs outside the army were not desirable under the Spartan law. Iron was the only metal from which money was made, and gold and silver were forbidden. According to Plutarch, since they only used iron money, it took a lot of money to reflect some material value, so larger amounts of money had to be transported by carriages and stored in huge vaults. Though it sounds impractical, it made bribes and theft almost impossible in Sparta. It was not easy to enjoy the wealth and it was almost impossible to hide it.

Education against laziness

Spartan warriors had to be strong, and this was especially true for young men who were in training. According to historian Elianus, the Spartan law demanded that the young man be occasionally naked in the public, so that everyone could evaluate the strength of their body. These routine controls were performed every ten days and were expected to look healthy and strong. All who were "throbbing", obese or both, were beaten and punished.

Cowardice

Xenophon offers a detailed list of terrible consequences that a Spartan soldier might be facing to covet. According to his writings, nobody wanted to eat with them, nor to wrestle in a gymnasium. He would never have chosen him to play games, others would have to get out of the way, give a place to the younger ones, no woman would want to marry him, and if she tried in any way to show others how to be hero, she would have Beat. During the famous defense against Persia at the Thermopylae Hill, Spartan soldier Aristodemus had some obvious disease and could not fight. After returning to Sparta, he became known as the "crocodile Aristodemus". One year later he fought and bravely died in Bica near Plateja and thus regained his honor. Plutarch wrote about one more punishment for cowards: they had to "go dirty, wear pebbles with patchwork of cloth, and one side of the beard had to shave."

Marriage

Although the law allowed anyone older than 20 to marry, men had to live up to 30 years in military buildings. Because of this, young couples had to keep marriage as some kind of secret. Many would get children too long before they start living under the same roof. During their first wedding night, they had to "abstain" as if they were doing something wrong. So the young woman had to dress in men's clothes and lie alone in the dark room, while her groom did not sneeze, taking care that no one noticed that she was there.

Helots

The Spartans had their slaves called helots and who were doing agricultural jobs, served them in houses, and did everything that the free Spartans would prevent from carrying out military duties. The helots were mostly Greeks, who were enslaved by the Spartans, and with each new campaign, their numbers were increasing.

Spartan kings

Sparta had two kings who belonged to various royal dynasties. Although their power was limited, one of them would have the task of commanding the army in the war. They were, according to the belief, the descendants of the god of Hercules. The existence of two crowns was in direct contradiction with the idea of a common ancestor, which forced the Spartans to make an imaginative explanation for their state order: during the fifth generation of Heracles, the king received the twins Agis and Euripon. It was the mythical origin of the ruling families of Agijada and Euripontida. Herodot offers a complete genealogy of the ancestors of Leonid and Leotihid, two spartan kings during the Persian Wars.

Spartan women

The role of women in Sparta was different than in the rest of Greece. In general, they had much more freedom. They were not excluded from society as in many other Greek cities and girls were expected to endure the same physical efforts as boys. They also trained naked in gymnasiums, practiced archery, running, wrestling, throwing spears ... All this needed to make the woman stronger, more flexible and better prepared for the child's childbearing pain. The Spartans used to be common women in the rest of Greece. If some of them could not have children, the authorities would order her to find another man to check if she could start with him. Usually, women would accept it to do so, as Sparta had a lot of young generations.

Spartan women giving shield to her son - Jean-Jacques-Francois Le Barbier

Spartan army

Sparte's citizens would become professional soldiers already in the seventh year. The boys were classified into age groups and lived in military communities. They were immediately involved in strenuous power trainings, and sometimes they were scouring them on Artemis's altar in order to get used to suffering pain. They even compete with one another in who can take more blows. Training would have become even more severe than the age of 20, but due to that, it could have defeated any other Greek army. No wonder they were not needed at all in the centuries-old history of fortifications.

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