Sparta Dbq Analysis

In the 5th century, a Greek city state named Sparta came and rivaled Athens. Sparta rivaled Athens because they have strength, discipline and obedience with their army, which sometimes is not a very good thing. (Background Essay). Many Greek settlements had to fight to survive, which Sparta did. I believe that the weakness outweighed the strengths. How did Sparta do this, how did they manage fighting for rivalry? One reason how they did this was with a strong, obedient army. Sparta had a formation called a phalanx, this consisted of strong, tight soldiers, interlocked with each other holding shields, with each man carrying a short sword. That was not the most important thing on how they rivaled, they rivaled because they have a army, that is obedient and strong.
The army is strong because, a male boy starts conditioning at age 7 to start for the army. They are put through hard tasks that are very unfair. All boys are put into agoge troops that separate all the other boys. These agoge troops usually develop family like relationships because boys won't see their families for 13 years. Spartan boys only live with their real families until age 7 (Doc. A). The weaknesses outweigh the strengths because Spartan boys …show more content…
They were trained to be liars and thieves. They did this to teach them to be clever and sneaky. If they were caught to be doing this act, they shall be whipped. They were whipped, so they can learn better, to be more clever and not to get caught (Doc A and B). Spartan boys were to not wear shoes, and they wore very little clothing. They happend to do this because they needed to learn how to be strong in harsh conditions. They were to also learn how to fight on an empty stomach. They only got small rations of food because they believed working on an empty stomach is the best work (Doc B). The weaknesses outweighed the cost because it encourages unethical things like stealing, cruelty and