Sparta

Sparta is a city-state nation from the Hellas peninsula. A warrior culture that values strength of arms and skill above such things as "Science" or "Philosophy" They have made themselves arch enemies of the more learning leaning Athens. They are able to work together with other Greek city states for the greater good of Hellas, but this is rare and only seen a few times. They have fierce pride, and are fiercer in battle.

## Government

Sparta is an oligarchy, a government seen rarely outside the Mediterranean area. The state was ruled by two hereditary kings of the Agiad and Eurypontid families, both supposedly descendants of Heracles and equal in authority, so that one could not act against the power and political enactments of his colleague. This government has served them well so far.

The duties of the kings were primarily religious, judicial, and military. A king had to insure popularity with the public as though they were loyal, rebelling Spartans would be a hard force to face. As chief priests of the state, they maintained communication with the Delphian sanctuary, whose pronouncements exercised great authority in relatively complex Spartan politics. In the time of Herodotus their judicial functions had been restricted to cases dealing with heiresses, adoptions and the public roads. Aristotle describes the kingship at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship"

Civil and criminal cases were decided by a group of officials known as the ephors, as well as a council of elders known as the gerousia. The gerousia consisted of 28 elders over the age of 60, elected for life and usually part of the royal households, and the two kings. High state decisions were discussed by this council, who could then propose policies to the damos, the collective body of Spartan citizenry, who would select one of the alternatives by vote.
Kings have began to lose some power in Sparta with a series of decrees, but this is probably not going to have a great effect until later.

## Life In Sparta

### The Battle at Birth

Life in Sparta is a battle since birth. Babies are judged. If one is disabled or malformed or anything of the

like they are left to die on the hills surrounding the cities. This is a hard practice some disapprove of, but many Spartans believe it is more merciful the letting people at such disadvantage live in a hard society, and they would ruin the rest of the Unit.

### Military Lives

When male Spartans began military training at age seven, they would enter the agoge system. The agoge was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of the Spartan state. Boys lived in communal messes and, according to Xenophon, whose sons attended the agoge, the boys were fed "just the right amount for them never to become sluggish through being too full, while also giving them a taste of what it is not to have enough." In addition they were trained to survive in times of privation, even if it meant stealing. Besides physical and weapons training, boys studied reading, writing, music and dancing. Special punishments were imposed if boys failed to answer questions sufficiently 'laconically' (i.e. briefly and wittily). Young Spartans would take
Older mentors to teach them the ways of the Spartan warrior and trained especially in Hoite formation. Spartans were your in the army and trained hard, little food met excruciating work as they trained restlessly to reach physical and mental strength required to be a true Spartan. They served in the army In some capacity till they were very advanced in age, like sixty. Trains never to retreat, they are trained to not fear death, and know that Spartans never surrender.

## History

### Mysterious formation and early Sparta

It is generally unknown how Sparta was founded. A Sparta appears to have been on Hellas as long as anyone can remember. The city of Sparta has no walls, as the people are a good enough defense. They must have had a very difficult and violent time in the formation to develop Sparta as such a hard warrior culture, and it appears there have been small wars with Athens since it began.

### Classical Sparta

Sparta began developing into how it is now, a hard nation of well trained warriors ready to defend there much beloved Hellas homeland. They fear no death. Here they began many ancient practices and fought many great wars for glory and for defense. The best of which were fought with Athens, but slowly a new power took rise, and began to threaten Hellas itself.

#### Persian War

Massive armies form the emperor of Persia marched to Hellas to conquer and enslave it. Athens and Sparta worked together with other city states and fought back.King Leonidas of Sparta took a small army of 300 men to the Hot Gates to defend them form Persia. Sparta held them at the Hot Gates until a traitor revealed a secret passage and the 300 Spartans, and there brave king Leonidas perished, sending Sparta into mourning aNd and continuing to bring Hellas to war.

The war continued. Sparta and Athens defended from Persia in many epic battles. The battle of Salamis featured Athens decimating the Perisns fleet. A series of other Athenian naval victories crushed the rest. Athens was sacked before this, so it was in great vengeance. The Spartans held back the Persians on land, until finally the invasion subsided. Sadly, Hellas went back to its warring ways.

### Peloponnesian War

The Spartan league and Athens league of city states battled for influence through all of Hellas. Now, this led to war. Hellas was engulfed in the flames of war once again as the Athenian leagues sea dominance meets the land dominion of Sparta. Athens tweeters on the brink of collapse due to the overwhelming assault of Sparta.

## Spartan Women

Spartan women, of the citizenry class, enjoyed a status, power, and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world. Generally this is because the Spartans don’t care who you are or what you are. The higher status of females in Spartan society started at birth; unlike Athens, Spartan girls were fed the same food as their brothers. Nor were they confined to their father's house and prevented from exercising or getting fresh air as in Athens, but exercised and even competed in sports. Most important, rather than being married off at the age of 12 or 13, Spartan law forbade the marriage of a girl until she was in her late teens or early 20s. The reasons for delaying marriage were to ensure the birth of healthy children, but the effect was to spare Spartan women the hazards and lasting health damage associated with pregnancy among adolescents. Spartan women, better fed from childhood and fit from exercise, stood a far better chance of reaching old age than their sisters in other Hellenic cities, where the median age for death was 34.6 years or roughly 10 years below that of men. This was very important as Sparta needed everybody it could get.

Unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the house, Spartan women wore dresses (peplos) slit up the side to allow freer movement and moved freely about the city, either walking or driving chariots. Girls as well as boys exercised, possibly in the nude, and young women as well as young men may have participated in the Gymnopaedia ("Festival of Nude Youths"). This freedom has led to many Spartan women going on to become important in there society.

Another practice that was mentioned by many visitors to Sparta was the practice of “wife-sharing”. In accordance with the Spartan belief that breeding should be between the most physically fit parents, many older men allowed younger, more fit men, to impregnate their wives. Other unmarried or childless men might even request another man's wife to bear his children if she had previously been a strong child bearer. For this reason many considered Spartan women polygamous or polyandrous. (Which has caused much anger from Creatites) This practice was encouraged in order that women bear as many strong-bodied children as they could. The Spartan population was hard to maintain due to the constant absence and loss of the men in battle and the intense physical inspection of newborns. This is a odd practice among the world, a quirk of Sparta. Creatite Spartans refuse to do it, seeing it as unholy.

Spartan women were also literate and numerate, a rarity in the ancient world. Furthermore, as a result of their education and the fact that they moved freely in society engaging with their fellow (male) citizens, they were notorious for speaking their minds even in public. Plato, in the middle of the fourth century, described women's curriculum in Sparta as consisting of gymnastics and mousike (music and arts). Plato goes on to praise Spartan women's ability when it came to philosophical discussion, which is generally unheard of in such places as Athens or Rome.

Most importantly, Spartan women had economic power because they controlled their own properties, and those of their husbands. Once again, very rare for women of the time. It is estimated that in later Classical Sparta, when the male population was in serious decline, women were the sole owners of at least 35% of all land and property in Sparta. The laws regarding a divorce were the same for both men and women, a very progressive thing. Unlike women in Athens, if a Spartan woman became the heiress of her father because she had no living brothers to inherit (an epikleros), the woman was not required to divorce her current spouse in order to marry her nearest paternal relative.

## Helots

Essentially slaves, sad were the lives of a Helot, and hard were there jobs. Soldiers alone can not churn the wheels of civilization and thus they need workers. These are Shelton, doing the mental tasks that keep the Spartans afloat. Hard repression of the helots insures Spartan dominance, in fact on reason the Spartans are so strong is to make sure the Helots don’t get uplift. Helots are made from some conquered enemies and criminals.

## Thanks, Wikipedia.

Most of the women’s and other section is copied from there, with many changes to make it different and better fit the world. Thanks, Wikipedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta