Life In Ancient Sparta

Ancient Sparta was Greece’s only real military city-state, where men, women, and children were born into and lived in a military force. Sparta had three main classes, the helots were slaves, the perioeci were the middle class, and the spatriata was the ruling class. The life for a young boy had many more aspects than life for a young girl. Spartan women were treated better than women in other Greek city-states. The Spartan military was one of the most powerful militaries in all of history. The way Sparta carried out their life and their city was much different than other Greek societies. The Spartan military was trained to be the most powerful, paying attention to every detail of training and strength starting at birth. The Spartan military …show more content…
The helots were the lowest “citizens”- slaves. That being said, the slaves in Sparta were treated more as citizens than actual slaves. Their main purpose was to take care of crops, but here, unlike other places in Greece, the helots were allowed to keep some of the crops they grew. With these crops, they supported their family, which they were allowed to live with. And eventually, the helots were able to own land. The middle classes, the Perioeci, was the manufacturers, merchants, and craftsmen of the Spartan society. The Perioeci had their own laws and customs that they followed. They contributed to political and economic parts of the society as a whole. They lived free, having their own land to take care of. Most of the Perioeci were the foreigners. The Spartiatai, on the other hand, were native Spartans. There were few of them but they were very high in class. The Spartiatai served in and ruled the military. They owned the helots, so there was never a need for them to do labor. They were the only classes allowed to vote on political matters. The Spartan classes are few, but their classifications are fairly …show more content…
Considered the lawgiver, Spartan’s looked to Lycurgus for all the answers. Sparta came to be what we know it as today because of Lycurgus. Detail was very important for the Spartan society. From birth, men and women were raised to produce more strong men and women. The strength of Sparta was the main success of their military. Spartan women were treated more like people than women in other Greek states. The children were raised differently, but it made them successful, even if they lived as a perioeci. Although Sparta was successful at their time, their ultimate demise in 464 BC was the Spartan earthquake, destroying most of their