Did the Spartans have a professional army?
The Spartan army stood at the center of the Spartan state, citizens trained in the disciplines and honor of a warrior society. At the height of Sparta’s power – between the 6th and 4th centuries BC – other Greeks commonly accepted that “one Spartan was worth several men of any other state.”
What led to the creation of a military society in Sparta?
What led to the creation of a military society in Sparta? They needed to keep the majority helots under their control. List details about the Greek polis: its typical features, its government, its role in Greek society. TYPICAL FEATURES: It housed temples.
What did Sparta do to make sure they had the best army?
Spartan troops drilled relentlessly, until they could execute tactics with perfection. “It was probably their training in tactical maneuvers which really gave Spartan soldiers their edge on the battlefield,” J.F. Lazenby writes in his book The Spartan Army.
What was the Spartans military strategy?
The Spartans’ constant military drilling and discipline made them skilled at the ancient Greek style of fighting in a phalanx formation. In the phalanx, the army worked as a unit in a close, deep formation, and made coordinated mass maneuvers. No one soldier was considered superior to another.
How did the Spartans develop their military system?
A Spartan woman saying goodbye to her young son who is going off to war. According to the ancient Greek historian Plutarch, who wrote several centuries after Sparta’s heyday in the 400s B.C., Spartans began developing soldiers shortly after birth, when male infants were evaluated by Spartan elders.
What did the people of Sparta do for a living?
Unlike such Greek city-states as Athens, a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, Sparta was centered on a warrior culture. Male Spartan citizens were allowed only one occupation: soldier. Indoctrination into this lifestyle began early.
How did the children of Sparta get trained?
The “well-built and sturdy” children were allowed to live, while those who were deemed unhealthy or deformed were left at the foot of a mountain to die. At age seven, Spartan boys were turned over by their parents to the state, where they were organized into companies that lived, studied and trained together.
What kind of punishment did the Spartans use?
Such harsh punishment was a prominent part of the Spartan training system. The Spartans even turned it into an annual ritual, in which boys tried to steal cheeses from a temple altar, which required them to evade guards armed with whips. “Whipping was a test of courage and stoicism,” Reiter says.