Sparta College Essays Samples For Students

Lycurgus of Sparta

Lycurgus of Sparta was a very important figure in the history of Sparta as well as that of the world because of his actions that have shaped history and have put Sparta on the historical map. He is well known for the military reforms he brought to Sparta. He was born at around the eight century BC, and this is according to how some ancient historians put it. His life, actions as well as his legacy have mostly been depicted through Plutarch’s work with the most notable being ‘life of Lycurgus’ and is a form of collection of Lycurgus history ...

Peloponnesian War is the name that was given to the conflict between Sparta and Athens. These conflicts lasted from 431 until 404 BC. This is a war brought about by disputes between Athens and Sparta on how to deal with their allies. According to Burn, (123), the Peloponnesian War was between the rivals Athens and Sparta. It was a war ignited by insignificant civil conflicts and spurred by interests from third party cities. Violent disputes erupted between them and the war began when Sparta issued ultimatums to Athens. The Spartans wanted Athens to lift its economic sanctions against the Megara city. ...

The Trojan War is easily one of the most critical events in Greek Mythology as perhaps best emphasized in Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. While there are variations in the accounts as to the causes of the War, the War that was waged by Achaeans against Troy, follows the loss of the King of Sparta’s wife to Paris. This does however remain largely debatable as regards its historical veracity, with beliefs that Homeric literature did exaggerate different things in line with varied poetic needs. This paper assesses the varied accounts of the primary and secondary factors that caused ...

Throughout its existence, Ancient Greece did not know a single centralized power, despite of numerous attempts of its establishing. Relatively stable associations emerged in the Ancient Greece during wars with Persia. They were headed by two most powerful city-states – Athens and Sparta, which formed two centers of Greek civilization, and each of them had its own, drastically different way of historical development. History of Athens – this is primarily the story of the formation and the victory of ancient democracy, while Sparta is considered to be militaristic, even “policeman”, highly conservative state. The rivalry of these two policies has led to ...

Discussion Board: Topics in Cultural Studies

What forces contributed to the cultural makeup of early civilizations?
Early civilizations were impacted by their geography and the weather. A good example is from a comparison of ancient Rome and ancient Greece. Greece has a mountainous geography. It is a peninsula that juts out into the Aegean and Mediterranean but the shorelines are rocky and steep. This lead to the isolation of people in small groups and city states developed. The rocky land made feeding large numbers of people difficult using hunting or agriculture so isolated groups of people would be able to survive more successfully. On the other hand ...

Synopsis

The ancient Sparta is a good example of an ideal hoplite state of ancient Greek. Sparta was proud for having avoided tyranny and enjoyed a permanent state of her constitution that was almost unthought-of of in the 5th century.

In the 10 BC, the city state of Sparta came into existence. This was as a result to the defeat that the Dorian community had over the non Dorian communities when they attacked them. The Spartan community came into existence as a political entity and as from 650 BC; they steadily grew stronger because of their military prowess that was far much above others ...

Introduction

Athens and Sparta were the two most powerful city-states in the ancient Greek that developed during the Classical Age. Despite being in the same territory, they had very different modes of governance and social lives. They had different forms of governments, but both governments were elected by the people they ruled (Aristotle and Lord 7). Their geographical locations were also different. Sparta was naturally protected by mountains that surrounded it while Athens was built on a hill just below Acropolis (Aristotle and Lord 16). It was difficult to invade Athens because it was almost exposed, hence, making it vulnerable ...

At the end Peloponnese, Sparta town was the only one left and was in a fit enough condition to conquest as leader of Greece. Nevertheless, rather than invigorating the other city states of greek from the power of Delian League and Athens as it had promised, Lysander begun installing obligarchies. The regime was run by individuals who had huge amount of wealth.
This led division of the general populace in the states. It became purely a case of the poor and the rich and lack of familiarity in leadership of Greece begun to show, and many other states realized that ...

Among many advanced democracies of the ancient world, the most advanced and stable democracy was in Athens. The period from the middle of the 5th century until the middle of the 4th BC was the apogee of the development of democracy in Athens. It shall be noticed, that ever since the Solomon reforms democratization of the political power structure began in Athens.
Antique community as a community of citizens was the basis of the Athenian political hierarchy. This community did not include completely the entire population of Athens. Most part of the Athens` society included slaves and metics together. ...

Aristotle admitted that his argument that some human beings were ‘natural’ slaves was a weak one because he was aware that slaves often did not show the characteristics of meekness, servility and stupidity that was expected, and often rebelled against their masters. This was true in the slave society of Sparta, just as it was in the Roman Republic and the plantation colonies of the America. Much as their masters wished them to be like dumb brutes and animals, and even where slaves put on a pretense of matching this stereotype, the reality was often different. Slavery’s real basis was ...

Two major power centers which dominated Greece by5th century BC were the “military oligarchy of Sparta” on the one hand and the “Democratic Athens” on the other hand. Initially, Sparta had unilaterally enjoyed powerful land dominance in Greece controlling many territories in the neighborhood that were structurally linked to the land as slaves. On the other hand, Athens was the official head of the naval alliance and derived her power from her command of the sea. Athens thus created an empire which was only but “in the name”.2 Other than Athens and Sparta, Gortyn was one other major ...

In the early times, when ancient Greece was the dominant power in military, economic, and cultural influence, the male gender was the dominating voice. Women were not allowed to vote, hold public office or work in court as juries as these positions were persevered for men. The city state of Greece that was a bit more advance in matters of public life was Athens, though the legal status of Athenian women was that of minorities. Moreover, management of the family property or money was bestowed in men. Other issues affecting women involved discussions relating to marriage, their status in ...

(I/2) Aristophanes and Plato are among the three primary sources of information about Socrates, including Xenophon. Aristophanes, the playwright, is the earliest source, who claimed that he knew Socrates in his early years. In 423 B.C., Xenophon and Plato were still infants, when Aristophanes produced his comedy The Clouds, in which Socrates appears. During Socrates’s trial and execution, Plato was about twenty-five.

When it comes to having been acquainted with Socrates, Aristophanes’s account is favored since Plato was some forty-five years younger than Socrates, so he must have been acquainted to him in his later years. However, ...

Lives of women in the ancient and early-modern world

During the ancient and early modern days, women were characterized by some Christian beliefs as either being corrupted or saintly. For instance, Judeo-Christian belief portrayed women’s righteousness to that of Virgin Mary while their corrupt nature was linked to Eve of the Holy Bible. And as such, there were a lot of literature that intended to teach women on how they should behave and carry themselves.
Women of these days were not only denied legal persona but were also subjected to control by their male counterparts. In China, for instance, this act was manifested by Neo-Confucianism that gave ...

Gender roles have existed since the dawn of time. Men and women have different roles in which society they have lived in. To most members of an ancient society, their roles were given based on their gender. Civilizations in the past such as Ancient Athens held little regard to women. Women in Ancient Athens did not have much choice in what to do with their life and society did not deem it necessary for women to be educated since her role was simple to produce heirs for her husband and look after the family (Tetlow). Men are involved in ...

Herodotus Assessment

In the ancient time period, the recording of history was connected to the activity of narrators and thinkers that did not aim to write historical, but rather literary. At the same time, the history genre belonged to literary prose. The initial works incorporated the features of two different sides of human activity: science and art. Due to this fact, the Greek narrative authors traditionally attracted the attention of readers. A special place in the development of history belongs to Herodotus’s work, which is considered as the first example of both historical and literary prose. In this essay, the ...

Abstract

In ancient times, states were known for their military power. As a result many nation invested a lot in the military in terms of funds and time. The military was considered to be something powerful to an extent that it was incorporated into the cultures of their respective nations. This paper looks at the comparison of two such militaries, that is, the Spartan and the roman militaries. It achieves this by looking at several aspects that depicts how the set-up of the armies were organized. These two cities were considered to be stable during their time and they had ...

The Greeks and the Persians were people who made a great impact in history. They were rivals for many years though their people intermarried. Despite their differences, they still have some practices in common. Both nations were situated near the Mediterranean Sea, and their leaders shared many qualities. Both nations fought for land, resources and the mostly wanted to outdo each other regarding leadership and political reforms. Both nations practiced slavery and slave trade (Gates). The Persian Empire resembled Sparta city-state since they both had two kings. Both societies were paternal, and men were the only ones who held ...

The first feminist ever

There has always existed a confrontation between men and women. It all started perhaps in old Greek and since then continues to remain the point at issue. It is considered that men are still “the strongest gender” and that the world stubbornly retains a male-dominated, competitive one. However, time changes and now women are making their best just as men do. They master new professions which have always expected to be exceptionally men’s one. Moreover, they are doing it perfectly and achieve great success. There is nothing impossible for an ambitious, hard-working woman especially when she is meditating ...

Mesopotamia is comprised in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Here, a very impressive culture developed beginning with the year 6.000 BCE. Akkad and Sumer are the most important kingdoms which emerged on these lands. These civilizations’ development was closely connected to geographical and climatic specificities of the area. The weather in the area is very hot, rains are scarce and the two rivers often cause floods. People had to develop irrigation systems to be able to cultivate the land and thus, to survive (Ross-Nazzal, 2015). Another important cultural characteristic is the polytheistic belief. Both the geographical location ...

Events of 427 BCE and the growing brutalization that occurred during the war

427 BCE marked the year that the siege of Plataea ended after there was a combined force between Spartan and Theban force. The Spartan and Theban forces then imposed very ruthless penalties on the people that had opposed them. “They brought them again one by one and asked each of them the same question, that is to say, whether they had done Spartans and allies any service in the war; and upon their saying that they had not, took them out and slew them without exception”. The women of the people who had been slain by the Spartans and Theban ...

Mesopotamia is believed to be a land that’s between two rivers. Ancient Mesopotamia was occupied by different people with different cultures, wealth, gender, and religion. This therefore, brought about conflicts and warfare because of inequality. It is a fact that ancient Mesopotamia was growing and due to trade others became wealthy while others remained poor. The laws were made by the elite who made it possible for it to benefit them. In the laws when a poor person commits the same crime as the rich person they will be given a harsher punishment compared to the rich person. The education system was ...

Troy (2004): Movie Review

Troy: The Myth Behind the Movie
Introduction
Wolfgang Petersen brought an important historical epic event to the silver screens through the movie entitled Troy in 2004. The movie stars a list of Hollywood’s finest actors to play the role of Greek history’s prominent figures such as Achilles (Brad Pitt), Prince Hector (Eric Bana), Prince Paris (Orlando Bloom), Helen of Troy (Diane Kruger) and a whole lot more. However, the underlying question here is whether or not the events depicted in the movies is really what history told. The movie will be analyzed ...

Greek political and religious thought is said to have flourished during the lifetimes of the three classical Greek philosophers, namely, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The influence of these classical thinkers pervaded Western political and thought up to the modern times. The Persian influence on Greek political and religious thinking was most felt during the ancient times. The influence of Persia on Greek political and religious thought cannot be ignored. These two cultural systems have combined to give a lasting impact on much of modern political systems, especially the Greco-Athenian concept of democracy. In this exercise, we draw a comparison and contrast ...

In the 5th Century BC, the classical Greek city-states were at their apex of power and glory, with Athens and Sparta as the two strongest powers. Greece was not a united nation at this time, even during the wars against the two Persian invasions of Darius and Xerxes, which had ended in total defeat of the would-be conquerors at the naval battle of Salamis and the land battles of Marathon and Plataea. After this time, the Athenian and Spartan empires clashed over which state would be hegemonic, and essentially fought each other to exhaustion and bankruptcy over thirty years during ...

ANSWERS ON ESSAY QUESTIONS REGARDING HISTORY

FURTHER LOOK AT HISTORY

Religious Diversity in the Indian Society

C.N. Venugopal, Religion and Indian Society (New Delhi, India: Gyan Publishing House, 1998), p. 30.

G.S. Ramesh, Philosophy of Indian Society (New Delhi, India: Global Vision Publishing House, 2005), p. 14.

India is considered to be of many religious belief systems around the world. Besides, most of the major religions throughout human history originated from Indian culture. Nevertheless, as with the case of other religious beliefs, these diverse religions are based on either the political, cultural, or social perspectives of their founder(s).

...

Epic war films are genres focusing on battles either on land, water, or air. Their themes may be military operations, undercover operations, prisoner rescues, or even personal revenges. Hence, the genre may be based on a true story, fictional, historical, or a docudrama. Caldwell (106) narrates four elements listed by John Belton that are crucial in identifying a successful war film in Hollywood. They are: focus on collective goals, as opposed to individual ones, absence of human morality during war times, recuperation of veterans shown, and either rivalry between groups of men or objectification of women. Also, Caldwell (123) asserts that in ...

VOICES OF THE UNDERREPRESENTED IN ANCIENT ATHENS:

Voices of the Underrepresented in Ancient Athens: Women
Ancient Athens was the center of the Ancient Greece and the marvelous and outstanding city that brought us democracy and important values of Western Civilization. Nowadays, due to works of famous Greek scholars and writers, we have enough information about how the Athens’ government was organized and who were the main rulers of the city, and we know that such social groups as metics, slaves, children, and women were underrepresented there. The aim of this paper is to study the role of women in Ancient Athens and the views Athenians had ...

Greece has a prolong history, which can be stretched back to thousands of years B.C. Greek Civilization is one of the most ancient civilizations in the world. The cultures and civilizations all over the world change in the course of time. The political, social, economic factors contribute a lot in disappearance of the old values and the emergence of new values in the society. Every culture and civilization has its unique characteristics. Greek civilization too has witnessed several transitions.The present paper aims to analyze those features of Greek civilization between the period of Monolithic Age and the Greece in ...

One of the historians, who described the Persians, was Herodotus. Herodotus is considered to be one of the first true historians of Western Civilization, who lived during the Classical Age of Greece. Modern historians call him the «Father of History and Lies», because his depiction of that time seems to be a «jumble of fact and fable». In his work «Histories», Herodotus described the Persians the way he had seen and imagined them. According to Herodotus, Persians lived in the land of contrast, land where there were deserts and fertile valley networking, land where there was hot summer and ...

Speakers in this comedy depict a woman passively suffering from the war, as opposed to actively suffering Men create war. But these passive women are suddenly extremely active as soon as Lysistrata manages to send them to fight with men.
Lysistrata in the prologue of the play is relatively easy to manage to carry out a specific women's "strike": On the initiative of energetic and enterprising Lysistrata, the women all gathered her solemnly pledge to each other to refuse to weasel their husbands as long as they do not stop the war. The main figure of this opening ...

The civilization of ancient Greece centered on the Aegean Sea, the region that today includes Greece and the western part of Turkey. Ancient Greece was not a single country ruled by one person. Ancient Greece consists of numerous city-states that share a common language and culture. About 800 B.C. Greeks began to form ‘polis’ or city-states throughout the country. Each polis has its own government. Some city-states had a few thousand inhabitants, but some city-states such as Athens have a total population of 250,000. City-states were set up as far from Greece as France and Spain. There were several different forms of ...

Introduction

This study seeks to provide concise yet comprehensive information on the value of diplomacy in combating terrorism, which is an issue of grave concern to the international community. Diplomacy, in the context of terrorism, posits invaluable virtues for resolving matters between conflicting parties in international relations. The organization of human beings within communities – a phenomenon that traces back to early history, has rendered the use of diplomatic skills and reasoning, given varying community interests that tend to conflict with one another. It is notable to consider that engaging in warfare has become the predominant method for dealing with international affairs ...

Greek mythology as it exists today was a culmination of oral tradition that was part of the early Greek civilization. Different regions of the Greek empire had different heroes with their own traditions and thus Greek mythology was firmly tied to it geographical location. Geography and physical places/ space helped shape Greek mythology to a large extent. Homer’s Odyssey, Iliad and Hesiod’s Theogony are examples of Greek mythology where the myth is tied with the geographical space. With the mention of places these poets also driven by a certain ‘Panhellenic’ impulse-a desire to appeal to as many city states as ...

Introduction

The transition of Rome to an empire was characterised by many battles and constant struggles. The civilization was majorly established around the dictatorship forms of governance as well as the big defensive holdings around the Mediterranean and European territories. The imperial Roman Republic was marred by civil wars which had weakened the governance system prior to the transition to a roman empire. Thucydides writes on the historical accounts of an Athenian general regarding the war that had been experienced about 2000 years ago and dwells on the aspects of human nature. As the foregoing shows, both the Rome’s transition ...