The Social Structure of Sparta

Question 1

To be a Spartiate, what did both of your parents have to be? What would the child have to go through? and who did he have to be accepted by?

Answer 1

Had to both be Spartan and to become a Spartiate had to go through the agoge. Finally had to be accepted into a syssition by its existing members.

Question 2

What would Spartiates have to continue?

Answer 2

Their physical and military training and not display conwardice in battle.

Question 3

What would Spartiates not have to do?

Answer 3

Manual trades, they would not have jobs of other Greek states might have done.

Question 4

Which ways did Lycurgus try and curb wealth and greed?

Answer 4

1) Spartans were banned from the pursuit of wealth,
2) making money was not necessary as provisions were all contributed on an equal basis,
3) Someone who helped his fellows by physical labour was more well-thought of than one who spent money,
4) The currency Lycurgus introduced was very bulky, needing a wagon to mova a relatively small amount,
5) Searches were made for gold and silver and anyone found with it were fined.
All these are found in Xenophon (Constitution of the Spartans 7, LACTOR 21, D53).

Question 5

Plutarch maintains that Lycurgus banned silver and gold coinage, why can’t this be true?

Answer 5

If Lycurgus did exist, he would have banned silver and gold coinage before the Greeks actually introduced coinage. Archaeology does, however, show that Spartans did not issue coins as other states later did.

Question 6

What does Plutarch also add on about the ban on coined money?

Answer 6

Led to a decline in trade and luxury goods, and the archaeological record can also support this.

Question 7

Who were the perioikoi?

Answer 7

Mostly inhabitants of the towns and villages of Lakonia and Messenia. Periokoi towns were able to govern themselves, but could not have an independent foreign policy and served in the Spartan army alongside the Spartiates, though they did not go through agoge.

Question 8

What is it assumed the perioikoi do for the Spartans?

Answer 8

As Spartans were not allowed to take part in manufactoring or trade, it is assumed that the perioikoi made the weapons, cooking and eating pots and utensils, shoes and other leather goods and items to be used as offering at sanctuaries. Some who lived on the coast were fishermen, some may have engaged in trade with other city states and most were probably farmers.

Question 9

What number of perioikoi settlements does Cartledge count? what about Androtion, an early fourth century orator?

Answer 9

About eighty settlements. Androtion mentions about 100.

Question 10

Who were the Helots?

Answer 10

The enslaved populations of Lakonia and Messenia.

Question 11

What percentage of their produce did Helots contribute?

Answer 11

about 50%.

Question 12

What jobs did Helots have?

Answer 12

Some farmed the Spartiates’ estates, some worked as household slaves, and attended the young Spartiates as they went through the agoge.

Question 13

What does archaeological evidence show about how Helots lived?

Answer 13

Suggests that in the Messenia region, the Helots lives in settlements rather than scattered around on individual farms. This is supported by Strabo who also implies that they lived in settlements.

Question 14

What was the helot role in war?

Answer 14

They worked as servants for Spartiates when they went to war. It was normal for a Spartiate to have at least one Helot attendent with him.

Question 15

How many helots does Herodotus claim each spartiate had serving him?

Answer 15

Seven to each Spartiate.

Question 16

How were helots treated by the Spartiates?

Answer 16

The spartans treated helots badly, Myron of Priene says ‘they insisted that they must all wear a dog-skin cap; be dressed in animal skins; receive a set number of beatings each year irrespective of any wrongdoing, so that they would never forget that they were slaves.’ Spartan owners also had to whip their slaves if they got too fat.

Question 17

What major shortage did Sparta suffer from through the study period?

Answer 17

Oliganthropia - a shortage of manpower.

Question 18

What helot event happened after an earthquake in the 464 BC?

Answer 18

A helot revolt.

Question 19

What two factors show a constant fear of Helot revolt in Sparta?

Answer 19

A further clause in the peace of Nicias,
- if the slaves rise up in revolt, the Athenians must come to help the Spartans with all their strength as far as they can. (Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, 5.23),
This is a one-sided clause.
Additionally constant slowness in Spartan commitment of troops (e.g. only sending 5000 of their 8000 spartiates to Plataea in 479 BC); didn’t want to expose themselves to a possible helot revolt. Those this reluctance could have been due to other factors; e.g. religious events.

Question 20

What do we know of Spartan women’s role in society?

Answer 20

1) Did not work wool and make clothes,
2) Exercised,
3) Competed with each other.

Question 21

What can be summarised from what Xenophon and Plutarch say about Spartan marriages?

Answer 21

1) A man should not be seen entering or leaving his wife’s room,
2) A man could not marry when he wanted to,
3) An elderly husband of a young wife was required to allow a younger man to have sex with his wife for the purpose of producing children,
4) An unmarried man could ask another man’s permission to have sex with his wife to father children,
5) The woman would take control of both men’s households,
6) Plutarch also gives the rather strange details of the ‘wedding by capture’.

Question 22

What was the purpose of marriage?

Answer 22

To rear strong and healthy children, not to have a normal family life; men would live in the barracks until 30 years old, and boys would enter the barracks at 7 years of age.