The Spartan Way

"One visitor remarked that after eating the Spartan's food, he understood why they were so willing to die in the battle."
What did you think about when you first read this, lets say, quote? You can immediately imagine how they lived way back then, how they were treated, and especially how they ate. It doesn't seem very delightful according to the quote, right?

This article is about the way Spartans lived, their education, the way women lived, and of course how Sparta came to a decline.
Sparta was the most powerful city-state in ancient Greece for more than 200 years! This is because the warriors trained a billion times more than we do today for certain sports, and they were much more successful than any other city-state because they usually won in battles and wars. Spata was a secretive place run by olygarchy of rich families.The families in Sparta were very, very brave, they had strength, and they were fearlessness of death. This is what made them accomplish their goal. A perfect example of this would be the story of the boy and the fox cub. This indicates how the boy had lied that he didn't steal the fox cub, even if it meant he was going to die if they found out the truth.

The Spartan men had little time to spend on education and learning, unlike Athens who were aming to become scholars. It was certainly much more difficult for warriors to live because they didn't get to eat with their families; instead, they ate in the hallways with other warriors. And what's worse is that they had to walk barefoot instead of wearing shoes like we do today. Warriors spend almost all their time practicing for battles in gyms and other big places. However, Spartan men did lots of things during their free time. All their time was taken by choral, dances, festivals, feasts, hunting expeditions, physical excersize, and conversation. They had neighbors and slaves who were two groups of conquere people. Their free time was basically possible by those two groups.

The women, however, lived differently from the men. While the main job for men was to become soldiers, the main job for women was to have children. They say that only wealthy and stable women could give birth to strong babies. They were more free than other women in acient Greece. However, they did have to stay in homes, unless they had to go to special occasions of festivals. They couldn't wear jewlery, nice clothes, perfrume of any of that "overreactive fancy" stuff (That's how I call it).

After years and years, Sparta crashed Athens and became the leader of ancient Greece, while even later Thebes took over Sparta, which was kind of sad, if you had noticed how hard they worked and how much effort they put into everything.
By the time the Romans took over, Sparta had become a tourist attraction, where visitors came to see the site and the buildings and everything else.

All in all, Sparta was a very powerful city-state, one to remember for ages.

"Price, Sean. "The Spartan Way." The Spartan Way. Junior Scholastic, 2010. 174-79. Print"