"Ancient Greece was a bunch of city-states, and two of them were Athens and Sparta."
Yesterday we talked about Athens, and if Athens is a literary and artistic youth, then Sparta can be said to be a typical representative of angry youth.
The geographical location of Athens is "facing the sea, spring is warm", and Sparta is an inland place that has to be reached by climbing mountains.
Tell us about the composition of spartan residents.
Around 1200 BC, the Dorian people marched south, conquered the indigenous people, and established the city-state of Sparta. Here, the ruling and the ruled classes are clearly demarcated.
The first is the ruling class, the Dorian nation, who live centrally in the city center. Military service was the only job of these pure-blooded Spartans, and the right to participate in the affairs of the state was enjoyed only by these people.
The second was the class engaged in industry and commerce, called the Piriasi. They were neither Dorians nor indigenous spartans, they were probably Greeks born elsewhere who followed the Dorian peoples. The Piriasi were free men, but had no civil rights or the right to participate in state affairs, but were obliged to perform military service.
Finally, the lower classes were serfs, called the Hilo. These people were spartan natives before the Dorian invasion, equivalent to slaves. Apart from marriage, they did not have many of the rights enjoyed by the citizens, such as suffrage, private property rights, and judicial power, or even military service. Their only job was toiling on the Spartan farms.
The population ratio of Spartans, Piriasi and Shiloh is about 1:7:16. This proportion of the population determines everything in Sparta.
Sparta was known for its harsh discipline, aristocratic rule, and militarism.
The Spartans despised cultural education. Teenagers are only required to be able to write orders and notes. The Spartans demanded that their children speak concisely and directly, and develop a habit of being taciturn from an early age. They speak like military passwords.
Once, a king threatened the Spartan king with obedience to his orders or to razed sparta to the ground, to which the Spartan king replied, "Please!" This succinct answer came to be called a Spartan answer.
Similarly, the Spartans despised literature and the arts and the natural sciences. In spartan city, there is hardly a magnificent building and a spectacular temple in sight, only one village after another. Nor did the Spartans produce elaborate works of art for posterity.
Lycugu reforms
Sparta had two kings ruling at the same time, and they were hereditary by two famous families, which was two-headed politics, also known as the two-party system. Even in a time when all the city-states of All Greece were influenced by Athenian democracy, Sparta maintained its unique form of government.
Not only that, but in the second half of the 7th century BC, the reforms carried out by Lycugu further cemented the system, making the Spartan style more radical.
Lycugu's reforms made Sparta a more radical military power, and their daily lives were based on military affairs.
As soon as a child is born, it is examined by the elders, and the child who is considered not strong enough is immediately abandoned or reduced to slavery.
From the age of 7, strong children leave their parents to start living in groups. They live with their peers and are educated according to a rigorous plan aimed at training qualified warriors. He began military service at the age of 20 and retired at the age of 60.
Before the age of 30, you have to live in a group, and even if you are married, you must return to the barracks at night. Whether it is a teenager's dormitory or a soldier's barracks, they must live in tents. The purpose of this was to make the Spartans tolerant of harsh conditions.
Spartans, who were considered independent citizens after the age of 30, could live with their wives and children in walls and roofed interiors, and only independent citizens could enjoy this right.
In Sparta, men and women are fully equal, except for participation in state affairs and military service.
Women, like men, are obliged to eat a good meal in order to have a strong physique, and of course to have healthy offspring. For this reason, there is strict weight management, and sweets, alcohol and delicacies are strictly prohibited.
Like men, women must also be physically educated and tested in sports meetings, and it is easier to get married if they have good grades.
Sparta believed that the more disguised, the easier it was to have evil thoughts, so women, like men, whether training or sports, should be carried out naked. In Sparta, X life was nothing more than a means of producing strong warriors. If the husband dies in battle, the widow who has already raised children is encouraged by the state to remarry.
The duty of the Spartan woman was to have as many healthy children as possible, while taking care of the household chores, which were mainly textiles.
Even men, with the exception of books suitable for teenagers to study, do not welcome books with high content and chatter. The taciturn in Italy is still referred to as a "Spartan" person.
In Sparta, let alone immersed in reading, even doubts or fantasies are not recognized.
For the Spartans, virtue was bravery, obedience, and patriotism.
In order to make the Shangwu reform successful, Raikugu abolished gold and silver coins and used iron coins as circulating currency. For only in this way merchants from other countries would not come to trade, and everything that had nothing to do with the harsh and simple life would not enter Sparta again.
And what is needed for a hard and simple life can be self-sufficient in Sparta. No matter how low the standard of living, as long as everyone is at the same level, there is no jealousy, and naturally there is no class struggle between the rich and the poor. Sparta was thus known for having no thieves and no power struggles, thus maintaining long-term political stability.
Since the Spartans were subordinate to military purposes, their military might was frighteningly powerful. In Greece, when we mention elite troops, we mean spartan infantry regiments.
By the end of the 6th century BC, almost the entire Peloponnese peninsula was under Sparta's rule. Sparta united all the city-states already under its rule to form the "Peloponnesian League". One of the conditions for joining this military alliance was the provision of troops to help Sparta when it went to war, and the introduction of an aristocratic rather than a democracy.
Around 500 BC, of the 150 Greek city-states, only Athens and Sparta rose up, far ahead of the others. Athens relied on economic power, and Sparta relied on military power. At this time, there was no conflict between the two powers. After this, the Persian War began.