Athens & Sparta

Your topics for this module are:

1. Education
2. Women
3. Everyday life in Athens
4. Spartan Army
5. Work

The Spartan Army:

The Greatest War Machine in Greece
&
The Worlds 1st Professional Army!

We will be looking at
How did Spartan education prepare men
for war?
Why did Sparta need such a good army?
What did Spartan warriors wear?
What weapons did they have and how
were they used?
How did Spartan warriors fight?

Topic 4: Spartan Army

1. On your post-it note, write 1 thing you
want to find out about the Spartan Army
2. Stick it on the inside back cover of your
exercise book.

This is Spartaa recap!

What does the
landscape around
Sparta tell you
about the city?

This is Spartaa recap!

Suppose, for example, that the city of Sparta
were to become deserted and that only the
foundation of the buildings remained. I think that
future generations would find it difficult to believe
that the place really had been as powerful as
people say. This is because the city is no more
than a collection of villages, in the ancient Greek
way.
Thucydides, 1.10
What did the polis of Sparta lack?

Whose idea was the Spartan

army?
Lycurgus decreed that all Spartan men
should be full-time professional soldiers.
Spartans were banned from doing any
other type of work.
The only profession allowed in Sparta was
WAR!

This is Spartaa recap!

The Spartan attitude towards war & death
A man is not good in war unless he has the
courage to look on blood and slaughter and
stand face to face with his foe and strike he
who falls in the front rank and loses his dear like
brings glory to his country, his people and his
father; wounded many times in front through
shield and breastplate, he is mourned by old and
young alike and the whole city grieves with bitter
longing.
Tyrtaeus

The Spartan attitude towards war

& death
Lycurgus decreed that Spartan dead should be buried
within the city.
A Spartan warrior was just buried in his red cloak.
Names were only inscribed on a gravestone if it was a
Spartan warrior who had dies in battle or a Spartan
woman who had died in childbirth.

After a great battle, you could see the female

relatives of those who had been killed going
about looking bright and cheerful Xenophon,
Hellenika

Come back with your shield or on it!

How did Spartan education

prepare men for war?

THE AGOGE!!!

Why did Sparta need such a good army?

The Enemy Within:
Spartas biggest worry = constant potential of HELOT
uprising.
The concentration of Spartan citizens on war was to
deter the helots from fighting back.
All the laws and systems throughout Spartan territory
were designed to keep the helots in slavery.
So a wall wouldnt have been much use anyway as the
enemy was within Spartan society

Spartan expansion
In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the regions of Laconia
and Messenia were conquered and controlled by the
Spartans.
The populations were reduced to the status of slaves,
leading to the creation of the helots.
Helots were state-owned slaves, who were forced to
work the land for the Spartan citizens.
The helot population in Sparta outnumbered the citizen
population by at least 10 to 1.
In 670BC, the enslaved helots revolted (the 2nd
Messenian war), which the Spartans managed to
suppress.
The war was marked by a new method of living, the
militaristic an inward-looking Spartan system, and a
new military tactic, the phalanx.

Messenia

Conquered by Sparta by 700 BC, population reduced to helots.

The Spartan Hoplite

What did the Spartan hoplites wear?

A red tunic
Bronze corselet (chest armour)
Red cloak
Greaves (leg armour)
Leather boots
Plumed helmet: good for protection,
bad for vision and hearing
Long hair

What did hoplites fight with?

Round shield (hoplon) with Greek L
(Lacedaemonia) or a Gorgon/monster
Long spear (3metres)
Short sword, hung on the right from a waist
belt
We find the swords long enough to reach
the hearts of our enemies.
The Spartans thought arrows = cowardly

How did the hoplites fight?

The Phalanx formation!

The Phalanx
This formation required the hoplites to stand
side by side. Each man layered his shield over
the one to his left so that there were no gaps.
It relied on all Spartans fighting together in
massed ranks.
It relied on the ideal of sacrificing ones life for
the common good.
It was usually 8 rows deep.

The Phalanx
Each hoplite used his long spear over-arm to
strike at the enemy face to face.
The idea was for each battle line to shove the
enemy line back until they broke and ran.
If a soldier in the front row was killed, the men in
the rows behind would step up one place to
maintain the wall.

The Phalanx
Each hoplite held his
shield in his left hand and
depended on his
neighbours shield to
protect his exposed right
side.
Other Greek armies
adopted the phalanx
formation, but the
Spartans were the BEST
at maintaining tight
discipline in the ranks,
changing tactics and
reacting quickly.

How was the army organised?

One of the 2 kings or a general led the army.
He was always accompanied by an ephor
(magistrate) to check he was doing his job
properly!
Each unit of the army had its own commander,
chosen from those Spartans who had shown skill
and courage in battle. Their helmet crests ran
sideways, rather than front to back.
However, each Spartan had been educated so
well in the art of war that if a commander were
killed, virtually any man could take his place.

32 men
= 1 enomotia

Supported by
hoplites/missile forces from
area around Sparta
(perioikoi) + Helot servants
16 enomotiai
= 1 pentekostis

4 pentecostyles
= 1 lochas
5 lochoi in the
Spartan Army

Glossary
PHALANX: The formation used by the
Spartan army and all other Greek
armies.
HOPLON: The Spartan shield.
HOPLITE: The proper name for a
soldier using the hoplon.

Homework
1. Do a topic page for the Spartan Army.
2. Complete the Spartans at War sheet.