The Spartan Political System

Some of the Spartan soldiers questioned their King, King Agesilaus why there were no fortification walls around the city state. The king simply pointed to his soldiers and said, “These are Sparta’s walls”. Sparta is regarded as one of the most militaristic societies during the time of the Ancient Greeks. Between the 5th to 7th century, this city-state was considered the strongest military force. There was also a very unusual political system that included modernly a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy and a democracy. One of the famous Spartans to have impacted the political system was Lycurgus. Sparta relied heavily on certain societal norms as they were likely to prove successful. Although, these norms impacted social relationships and …show more content…
The kings had hereditary reigning from the Agiad and Eurypontids families. It is suggested that these families are descendants of Hercules. The kings provided the commandment of rituals and were in charge of militaristic functions. Although the Kings were seen as the underlying political powerhouses the Ephoroi had the most power. The Ephoroi was elected citizens that had power indict the Kings, they were the “supreme court” of the Spartan political system. The next step down from the Ephoroi were the Gerousia. The Gerousia were modernly known as the council of elders. This group was derived of twenty-eight citizens over sixty elected for life and the two actively serving Kings. These civilians had the power to initiate legislation to the assembly. The lowest political power of the four total powers was the Apella. The Apella included 10,000 men, also known as the Spartiates. These citizens could only vote yes or no and could not offer additional opinions. Overall, the politics of Sparta were scarce as they included four different systems that kept one system from becoming too …show more content…
This system was vital as it “was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasise the importance of the Spartan state.” They were deliberately underfed to encourage them to master the skill of stealing food. The punishment was given to the boys if they answered with a witty remark or did not answer a question to the teacher’s expectation. The boy’s study’s varied from reading, writing, music and dancing. At the age of twelve, the Agoge obliged Spartan boys to take an older male mentor. This mentor was expected to act as a father figure as well as a role model, however, sexual relationships did occur. At the age of eighteen, the men were sorted into groups and then were sent into the countryside with only a knife and forced to survive on their skills and cunning. The immediate objective was to seek out and kill any helots as part of a larger program of terrorizing and intimidating the helot population. Education was very important as it was the basis for the militaristic reforms that the Spartans enforced to the incoming