Sparta at War: the Agoge and the Battle of Thermopylae

Almost nobody Spartan wrote it down

You have already met a warning on this course about writing on Sparta, in the context of Spartan women: almost everything we know comes from writers who were not Spartan. That is worth stating again at the start of this module, because it applies to the whole topic and it changes how every piece of evidence should be handled. Sparta produced very little writing about itself. What survives was written by outsiders - Greeks from other cities who admired Sparta, Greeks who feared it, and writers working long after the events they describe. Some of them were impressed and wanted their own city to be more like it; some wanted to explain how such a small state produced such a formidable army. Neither is a neutral position. So a Spartan institution described by an Athenian is a description of something the writer did not live inside. There is one exception, and it is why your specification prescribes the objects it does. A bronze figure of a Spartan warrior, and a Corinthian helmet dedicated at Olympia, are among the few things Spartans left of their own. They are not writing, and they cannot tell you what a battle was like - but they show what somebody chose to make, and what somebody chose to dedicate, which no outsider's account can. Holding those two kinds of evidence apart is the skill this option keeps asking for.

Words for the Spartan system

Six terms your specification names. The first four describe how Spartan society was arranged, and they are best learned together because each one depends on the others.

Match each group to what it was

Who did the farming

Spartan citizens devoted themselves to military training rather than to farming or trade. How was that possible?

• An enslaved population, the helots, worked the land, and free non-citizens called perioeci carried out trade and crafts
• Sparta imported all its food using the wealth from its empire
• Spartan citizens farmed in between periods of training
• Sparta was small enough that little farming was needed

The system underneath the army

Your specification asks for the institutions, so here they are described as a system rather than as a set of impressive facts. The agoge was a state-run upbringing that Spartan boys entered as children. They lived communally rather than at home, and were trained through discipline, physical hardship and endurance towards military life. It was compulsory for those who were to become citizens, which is the part worth noticing: this was not a school somebody chose. The syssitia were the common messes, groups of men who ate together. Membership was tied to citizen status, and a man contributed to his mess from the produce of land worked for him. The perioeci were free people living in Spartan territory who were not citizens. They handled trade and crafts, which Spartan citizens did not, and could serve in the army, but had no voice in how Sparta was governed. The helots were an enslaved population who worked the land, held collectively by the state rather than by individual owners, and their labour is what freed Spartan citizens for full-time military life. ⚠️ That last sentence is the one to carry into an answer, and it should be stated plainly rather than softened. Sparta's celebrated army existed because a large population was compelled to do the work that fed it. Describing that accurately is not a judgement you are adding; it is the arrangement the sources themselves describe, and an answer that presents Spartan discipline admiringly while leaving the helots out has not described the society at all.

Which two describe the perioeci

Select the TWO accurate statements about the perioeci.

• They were free, and carried out trade and crafts that Spartan citizens did not
• They could serve militarily but had no say in how Sparta was governed
• They were an enslaved population who worked the land
• They were Spartan citizens who had lost their status

The Spartan system in words

Spartan boys entered the _____, a state-run upbringing training them for military life. Adult citizens dined together in groups called the _____, and membership was tied to citizen status. Free non-citizens known as the _____ carried out trade and crafts. The land was worked by an enslaved population, the _____, whose labour freed citizens for full-time military life. In _____ BC a small Greek force under Leonidas held a narrow pass against the invading Persian army.

Outsiders writing, Spartans dedicating

The two bodies of evidence for this topic, and they cut in opposite directions. A strong answer says which one it is using and why.

How the pass was lost

Put the events of the Battle of Thermopylae into the order they happened.

• Xerxes leads a Persian invasion into Greece
• A small Greek force under the Spartan king Leonidas takes up position in the narrow pass at Thermopylae
• The narrowness of the pass prevents the Persians bringing their full strength to bear, and the Greeks hold it
• Ephialtes shows the Persians a path through the hills around the pass
• The Greeks are outflanked, and most of the force withdraws
• Leonidas and those who remain hold the pass until they are overwhelmed

Five names to know

The five figures your specification names for this battle. Answer from memory.

An object read properly

Your specification prescribes two material sources: a bronze figure of a Spartan warrior and a Corinthian helmet dedicated at Olympia. Here is how to use one, and the method is the same as for a text but the answers come out differently. The question: what does the dedicated helmet tell us about Sparta at war? A weak answer: "It shows that Spartan soldiers wore helmets like this in battle." True, thin, and it wastes the most interesting thing about the object. A strong answer: "It is a piece of military equipment given to a sanctuary as an offering, so it was deliberately taken out of use and placed where it would be seen. That tells us something an account by an Athenian cannot: that arms themselves were thought worth dedicating, and therefore that military success was something to be displayed publicly and connected with the gods. As evidence of the equipment, it is first-hand and physical, which is stronger than any description. What it cannot show is how the helmet was used, what the man who wore it thought, or anything about the battle it may have come from. And a dedication is a chosen act, so it tells us what somebody wanted remembered rather than what typically happened." ⚠️ Notice the two moves worth reusing on any object. First, ask what the object was FOR, including the act of dedicating it, not only what it is. Second, remember that an object is silent: it carries no argument, which makes it free of an author's bias and equally unable to explain itself.

The answer that admires instead of explaining

Four sentences about Spartan society. Select the ONE that admires the system rather than describing it.

• Spartan citizens were freed for military life because an enslaved population, the helots, worked the land.
• The Spartans were the finest warriors of the ancient world, and their tough upbringing shows what discipline can achieve.
• Boys entered the agoge as children and lived communally, and it was compulsory for those who were to become citizens.
• Almost all our accounts of Sparta were written by non-Spartans, some of whom admired it and wanted their own city to imitate it.

Say who is telling us

Assemble a sentence that reports what we know about Sparta and where it comes from.

Judging what we can know

You are asked what the evidence allows you to say about Sparta. Work through each decision.

• An Athenian writer describes the agoge in detail and admires it. How do you use him?
• A question asks what Spartan military success rested on. What must your answer include?
• You want to use the dedicated helmet as evidence. What can it establish?
• A classmate writes that Thermopylae proves Spartan superiority. What is the problem?

Explain Sparta at war and its sources

Explain how Spartan society was organised for war, describe what happened at Thermopylae, and explain what the different kinds of evidence can and cannot show.

• Describe the agoge and say what it was for
• Explain what the syssitia were and how they related to citizenship
• Explain the position of the perioeci, and how it differed from that of the helots
• Explain how the helots made full-time military life possible for citizens
• Describe what happened at Thermopylae, naming the figures involved
• Explain why almost all our written evidence about Sparta comes from non-Spartans
• Explain what a dedicated object can show that a written account cannot
• Finish by explaining what the evidence does not allow you to claim