Sparta where is my mind

These heroics might have put him on track for mythic fame, but his next campaign would make that prospect far more complicated. Storming the beach at Pylos that same year, Brasidas ordered his ship to wreck itself on the rocks so he could assault the Athenians. He then barreled down the gangplank straight into the teeth of the enemy. One might expect a Spartan warrior who had both lost his shield and fainted in battle to prefer death to dishonor.

Herodotus tells us the two Spartan survivors of Thermopylae received such scorn from their city-state for having lived through a defeat that they took their own lives.

But Brasidas, though surely shamed by his survival, did not commit suicide. Instead, he learned. And arming and training slaves always threatened to backfire on the slavers. Far from rushing in, as he once had done, he now captured city after city from the Athenians through cunning—and without a single battle.

Arriving at his destination in northeastern Greece, he used diplomacy, threats, showmanship and outright lies to convince the city of Akanthos to revolt from Athens and join Sparta, deftly playing on their fear of losing a harvest that had not yet been gathered. The nearby city of Stagiros came over immediately after. But his greatest prize was Amphipolis modern Amfipoli , a powerful city that controlled the critical crossing of the Strymon River the modern Struma, stretching from northern Greece into Bulgaria.

Launching a surprise attack, he put the city under siege—and then offered concessions that were shocking by the standards of the ancient world: free passage for any who wished to leave and a promise not to pillage the wealth of any who remained. It certainly runs counter to the myth of the Spartan super-warrior who scoffed at soft power and prized victory in battle above all else.

But it worked. Three more cities came over to Sparta. Brasidas then took Torone modern Toroni, just south of Thessaloniki with the help of pro-Spartan traitors who opened the city gates for him.

Women had few rights, but were more independent in Sparta than elsewhere in Greece. Delian League with Athens clearly the most powerful ; Athens taxed and protected other city-states. Military strength. Strong army, best and most feared fighters on land. Life style and values. Democratic values for citizens. They believed in participation in government as a civic responsibility. Athenians believed in their cultural superiority and in their role in an empire and benefiting from trade.

See Pericles' Funeral Oration showing these values. We hold contests and offer sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to drive away sorrow. The magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbor, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his own.

Spartan culture: Militaristic values. Children of citizens were raised to be "Spartan", taught to get along with almost nothing. Spartiate citizens were not permitted to own gold or silver or luxuries. Spartan children were taught to respect elderly, women, and warriors.

This lifestyle was praised by Xenophon , an ancient historian c. Boys: Schools taught reading, writing and mathematics, music, poetry, sport and gymnastics. Based upon their birth and the wealth of their parents, the length of education was from the age of 5 to 14, for the wealthier 5 - 18 and sometimes into a student's mid-twenties in an academy where they would also study philosophy, ethics, and rhetoric the skill of persuasive public speaking.

Finally, the citizen boys entered a military training camp for two years, until the age of twenty. Foreign metics and slaves were not expected to attain anything but a basic education in Greece, but were not excluded from it either.

Girls: Girls received little formal education except perhaps in the aristocrats' homes through tutors ; they were generally kept at home and had no political power in Athens. The education of a girl involved spinning, weaving, and other domestic art. Boys: Boys were taken from parents at age seven and trained in the art of warfare. They were only give a cloak - no shoes or other clothes, and not enough food so they had to steal to learn survival skills.

At age 20 they were placed into higher ranks of the military. To age 30 they were dedicated to the state; then they could marry but still lived in barracks with other soldiers. They were educated in choral dance, reading and writing, but athletics and military training were emphasized. Girls: Girls were educated at age 7 in reading and writing, gymnastics, athletics and survival skills.

Could participate in sports; treated more as equals. Role of women. Athenian women: Athenian women and girls were kept at home with no participation in sports or politics. Wives were considered property of their husbands.

They were were responsible for spinning, weaving and other domestic arts. Some women held high posts in the ritual events and religious life of Athens where the goddess Athena was the patron. Prostitutes and courtesans were not confined to the house. Some became influential such as Aspasia see the 'Character Stories section of this Web site.

Spartan women and the role of Spartan women : Girls were educated in reading and writing and could participate in sports; they were treated more as equals to men. What image is conjured in your mind? The ancient Spartans are often seen as the venerated, the heroes of Thermopylae. But they are also the villains, the enslavers of the helots, and the supporters of eugenics.

In fact, the contemporary view of the ancient Spartans as heroic macho warriors is so widespread, thanks to , that when we explore the Spartans in more detail, the image that appears can seem surprisingly complex and uncomfortable.

Not only do we have to deal with the complications of modern interpretations of Sparta some of them appropriated by political extremists , but we need to tackle the complications of ancient interpretations too. With the lack of any meaningful historical narratives written by a Spartan, the evidence from Sparta itself can be bitty and difficult to interpret.

For example, the Classical agora remains unexcavated, and many inscriptions are still untranslated. The major accounts about the Spartans that do survive are written by non-Spartans such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Aristotle, Pausanias, and Plutarch.

They come with their own interpretative issues too. Thucydides fought, and lost, against the Spartans. Xenophon was buddies with a Spartan king. Plutarch wrote nearly half a millennium after the period of Spartan hegemony and dealt in writing engaging biographies. We are not the only generation for whom the image of the Spartans could be decidedly one-dimensional, over-exaggerated, or dowsed in political and philosophical motives.

Studying the Spartans can be an interesting exercise in a world with increasingly complicated sources of opinions, facts, and fictions dressed as facts. So, for one of our assessments, I decided that students might benefit from a digital project that would allow them to explore a facet of Sparta that might appeal to, and be surprising for, a general audience.