Preview

How Did Sparta Outweigh The Weaknesses

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
439 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Sparta Outweigh The Weaknesses
Any society that abuses children should deserve to crumble. It was an ancient Greek city state known as Sparta. In Sparta, they would whip the boys as an athletic contest. Whoever could withstand the most pain won. Do the strengths of Sparta outweigh the weaknesses? No, the strengths do not outweigh the weaknesses because they were abusive, lacked education, and the boys were taken from their families at a young age.

To begin with, Sparta would abuse the children. In document B it says “[Lycurgus] encouraged them to steal to get their food.” To do this, the boys in the agoges would have to spend nights planning how they were going to steal the food and they had to have spies. If they were caught, they would be beaten and whipped for stealing poorly. This is a weakness because the Spartans did not value their
…show more content…
In document D it says “ The Spartans learned to read and write for purely practical reasons: all other forms of education the banned from the country, books and treatises being included in as much as [foreign teachers].” This is a weakness because there strategies were not strong because they didn’t have the knowledge, they only had the strength. So during battle, they can only fight with strength but, whoever they are battling will have knowledge and strategy. How are we supposed to last long in battle when we are hurt but have no strategy to keep fighting? Finally, Sparta military took 7 year old boys from their family. In document A it says “ At that age, he was removed from his family and, from his eighth to his twenty-first year, he was educated by the state according to military like discipline. This state controlled education, or agoge, occupied a central place in the Spartan system.” This is a weakness because they need to spend time with their family and learn skills they will need after the military. How are these young boys supposed to learn home task that they will need when they are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Spartiates was a very significant social structure group, to the same extent as the Perioikoi and the Helots, in Spartan society as they maintained the Spartan defence and security through the agoge. The agoge was an effective military system in the Spartan society, which was only available to those who were of Spartiate status, whose purpose was to create fearless and loyal Spartan warriors developing a victorious army that was highly significant in Spartan society implementing a powerful defence force. The agoge required that, as stated by Plutarch “... as boys reached the age of seven [they were to live with agelai in military barracks] ... their whole education was aimed at developing smart obedience, perseverance under stress, and victory in battle. So as they grew older they intensified their physical training, and got into the habit of…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Do the strengths outweigh the weaknesses? Sparta was the strongest military force in the ancient greek times, with the battle strategy the phalanx no one could take the vicious spartans down. They trained the soldiers at a young age so, they knew the battle strategies like the back of their hand. The strengths of Sparta outweighs the weaknesses.…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sparta Strengths

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages

    here is a reason Sparta is still taught in schools today.Sparta was a Greek city state that sits on the Peloponnese peninsula. It is a military based city state. The Spartan strengths outweigh the weaknesses because they had an advanced military, women were respected, and they trained their soldiers at a young age.To begin with, Sparta had an advanced military.In Document C, the text states “Spartan krypteia [crip-TEE-a], a kind of secret police or special-operation unit.”The krypteia was a group of the top Spartiates. They hid during the day, and at night they searched the roads with only a dagger and very little food. Their goal was to kill off the strongest and smartest helots to keep them from overpowering the Spartan society. This is…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Spartan citizens devoted their lives to training for the army, from even when the boys were born, they were either killed if they thought the boy wouldn’t be fit enough or make it through the first stage of their training for the army. At the age of seven, the boys would be taken from their mothers, a truly harsh thing for a mother to go through and then from there on…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sparta Research Paper

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The education of Spartan boys was a brutal experience for all the boys; they were all to be trained well enough to be able to serve Sparta. Training for the Spartan military began at the age of seven and continued until the age of sixty, for those who lived that long. Usually the boys would be hit to help them toughen up or just because they were out of line, they trained and fought naked, ate a modest amount of food, entered public competitions, wore little amounts of clothing (loin cloth) and travelled to places barefoot; the boys had to partake in these methods because in doing so they are making themselves much more stronger. Spartan boys were disciplined to a great extent in order to create tough…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Kind of like the U.S.A., Sparta had 3 types of classes. One was the Spartans, who were full citizens. Another was the helots, who were slaves. “The Spartan way of life would not have been possible without the Helots” (Athens and Spartans).They handled all the everyday tasks to keep the society functioning. The last is the perioeci, who were neither slaves nor citizens. They were craftsmen, traders and built weapons for Spartans. The most important thing that a Spartan has is loyalty to its home state. If they did not obey that, they would be killed or shunned. Also loyalty to the state comes first, even before their own family. That is why the babies of Sparta have to be perfect to live in Sparta. If not perfect, they will be thrown off a cliff or another way of death. Also the babies were raised by nurses, not by…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sparta Research Paper

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sparta is known for its military dominance. What gave it this reputation was defeating its rival city state Athens in the Peloponnesian War. Sparta had very brutal training of their warriors, in fact, most the culture was based around its military and the training of its warriors. They started this process at birth, where they picked the healthiest and strongest babies they could find. If the officers did not think the baby was healthy or strong enough to endure the training of a Spartan warrior they would leave it for death…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Spartan culture was surrounded around warfare and military. Spartan children were trained from a very young age to be successful warriors. Boys were sent to a boot camp/boarding school (ague). The training in these boot camps helped the boys not to be weak, but instead to become warriors. The Spartan girls were given the same physical training as Spartan boys. Spartan women were taught to be healthy and strong individuals (Powell, 43) so that one day they can bear strong sons. The Spartan women were also given the opportunity to take charge of businesses when their men went away for war. However, despite their focus on the war, the Spartans were reluctant to stray far from their homes.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Spartans encouraged athletic completion and the victors where held in high esteem. They married the strongest boys with the strongest girls and the fastest boys with the fastest girls in order to bread the best warriors. Infamously, the Spartan elders would inspect new born infants and any found to be imperfect, judged to be puny or deformed, were thrown from a cliff. They were sent to a military boarding school, or agoge, at age seven where they formed a class with other boys their age. Their education emphasized physical, mental and spiritual toughness and could be quite brutal.…

    • 1603 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Spartan girls were allowed to remain with their parents, but they were also subjected to a rigorous education and training program. Much of the Spartan agoge involved typical Greek school subjects like reading, writing, rhetoric and poetry, but the training regimen also had a vicious side. To toughen the young warriors and encourage their development as soldiers, instructors and older men would often instigate fights and arguments between trainees. This was partially designed to help make the youths resistant to hardships like cold, hunger, and pain. Boys who showed signs of cowardice or timidity were subject to teasing and violence by peers and superiors alike (Plutarch).…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    ap euro

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages

    After the helots revolted, the Spartans had to develop a new way of life. There were almost 10 times the amounts of helots as compared to the free citizens. To do this, the Spartans made changes that turned their city into a military academy and camp. An official would decide if an infant was fit to survive, and if he was, he was taken from his home at age seven, and trained to become a warrior. Their constitution was mixed, with various parts of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy. The goal of the new government in Sparta was to “win glory in war”.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Athens and Sparta had lots of things in common, but Athens had and did stuff better than Sparta. Like Athens geography, they were able to develop a strong naval fleet because they were close to the Aegean sea, and geographic features helped influence the development of society. Also, it was easier for Athens to trade because they were close to the Aegean sea. They also had better cultural achievements. Athens had the Olympic games when people come and watch people fight and do tons of activities.…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Spartan Warrior

    • 4169 Words
    • 17 Pages

    When babies were born in Sparta, Spartan soldiers would come by the house to examine them. If the baby did not look healthy, it was taken away and left to die or trained as a slave. If the baby was healthy, it was assigned membership in a brotherhood or sisterhood. The boys in Sparta were sent to military camps of their brotherhood when they turned 7. They learned how to read and write until they were about 14. The Spartan government wanted to make the boys tough. To do this they were given little clothing and no shoes. They slept on hard beds made of reeds and were not given any covers. They were not given enough food. They were trained in survival skills and how to be a good soldier. Reading and writing were taught as secondary skills.…

    • 4169 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Every infant was examined shortly after birth by the elders do the tribesman who either passed it or, if the baby was weakly or deformed, ordered it to be thrown over a special cliff. At the age of eight the boy would be enrolled in a ‘herd' under supervision of a senior Spartiate. When the boy reached the age of thirteen he would move on to another ‘herd'#. The training was mainly centered around athletics and military. Sparta was not known for their arts but the young men would study literature learning how to read. The boys lived a very hard regimented lifestyle living in dormitories, only receiving one garment a year, and where not aloud to bathe. They where fed meager rations and where encouraged to steal yet punished if they where careless and got caught.# The boys would be put through relentless…

    • 1920 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Spartan boys were expected to become brave soldiers. They learned to suffer pain without complaining. They slept on hard beds and washed in cold water. They marched without shoes. They did not have enough food, so they learned to go hungry.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays