Spartan Values

Question 1

What is the importance of education in Spartan values?

Answer 1

To form them from childhood: right to die [Tyrtaeus], women to bear children

Education(or indoctrination) emphasized obedience, endurance, and military success.

Question 2

According to Tyrtaeus, what is considered noble for a man?

Answer 2

To fall in the front line

This reflects the Spartan ideal of valor in battle.

Question 3

What does Spartan education emphasize regarding obedience?

Answer 3

• Running rather than walking in answer to a summons [Xen.Lak.Pol.8]
• Habit of instant obedience [Plut. Lyk. 16.6]
• Endurance of pain [Plut. Lyk. 16.6]
• Military success [Plut. Lyk. 16.6]

These principles are highlighted in the works of Xenophon and Plutarch.

Question 4

What does austerity mean in the context of Spartan values?

Answer 4

Luxury simply died away of its own accord [Plut. Lyk 9]

Plutarch notes that older men do not even ask for bits of meat [Plut. Lyk 12] ,indicating a lifestyle of simplicity.

Question 5

What does Plato suggest about the flow of money in Lakedaimon?

Answer 5

There is not in all Greece as much gold and silver as in private hands in Lakedaimon

Although money flows in, it does not flow out, disproving Spartan Austerity

Question 6

What is the Spartan saying regarding cowardice?

Answer 6

With your shield or on it, according to Plutarch, Moralia, Sayings of Lacadaemonians]

This phrase emphasizes the expectation of bravery in battle.

Question 7

What happens to cowards in Spartan society?

Answer 7

They must give up their seats, even to younger people [Xen.Lak.Pol.9]

This reflects the strict social expectations regarding bravery.

Question 8

What does Xenophon, Lak Pol 9 say about Spartan songs and cowards?

Answer 8

They castigates as cowards those who trembled

This highlights the cultural disdain for cowardice in Sparta.

Question 9

What was the fate of the Helots who fought with Brasidas?

Answer 9

They were given their freedom [Thuc.5.34]

This reflects the complex relationship between Spartans and the Helots.

Question 10

What is the duty to the state in Spartan values?

Answer 10

Men only got gravestones for dying in battle and women for dying during childbirth [Plut. Lyk.27]

This illustrates the high value placed on sacrifice for the state.