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Spartan Society. To the battle of Leuctra 371BC. Chronology of Sparta. Key Terms: Geography & Social Structure. Study Questions. What effect did the surrounding mountains have on Sparta?
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Spartan Society To the battle of Leuctra 371BC
Study Questions What effect did the surrounding mountains have on Sparta? “Sparta’s virtual isolation from non-Peloponnesian influences contributed to its insularity.” What does this mean? Describe the climate and soil of Laconia. What kind of city was Sparta? Draw or describe how it would have looked.
Study Questions The Spartans enslaved the original inhabitants of Laconia and Messenia. How did this impact on their social structure? Compare the lives of the Spartiates, Helots and Perioikoi (see table) on next slide.
The Sources on LykourgosPlutarch Lykourgos1 There is so much uncertainty in the accounts which historians have left us of Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, that scarcely anything is asserted by one of them which is not called into question or contradicted by the rest. Their sentiments are quite different as to the family he came of, the voyages he undertook, the place and manner of his death, but most of all when they speak of the laws he made and the commonwealth he founded.
The Great RhetraPlutarch ibid.5-6 …he applied himself, without loss of time, to a thorough reformation, and resolved to change the whole face of the commonwealth; for what could a few particular laws and a partial alteration avail? …Amongst the many changes and alterations which Lycurgus made, the first and of greatest importance was the establishment of the gerousia (council), which having a power equal to the king’s in matters of great consequence…gave steadiness and safety to the commonwealth… the people then being thus assembled in the open air, it was not allowed to any one of their order to give his advice, but only either to ratify or reject…the kings Polydorus and Theopompus inserted into the Rhetra, or grand covenant, the following clause: “That if the people decide crookedly it should be lawful for the elders and leaders to dissolve”, that is to say, refuse ratification, and dismiss the people…