Spartan Landscape
What river ran through the centre of Laconia and provided water for agriculture?
The Eurotas River
How many kings did Sparta have at one time?
Two
What name was given to full male Spartan citizens, also known as the homoioi?
Spartiates
What was a Spartan land allotment called?
A kleros
What material was used by Spartan craftspeople to produce weapons, armour, figurines and vessels?
Bronze.
Name the mountain range located to the west of Sparta.
Taygetus
What was the council consisting of 28 elders and the two kings called?
The Gerousia
What name was given to the state-owned serfs who performed much of Sparta's agricultural labour?
Helots
According to Aristotle, approximately what proportion of Spartan land eventually came to be owned by women?
Two-fifths, or about 40%
What famous Laconian cup depicts the King of Cyrene supervising the weighing and storage of produce?
The Arcesilas Cup
Why was the Laconian Plain particularly valuable to Sparta?
Its fertile alluvial soil supported extensive agriculture and helped provide Sparta with a plentiful food supply.
What were the five annually elected Spartan magistrates called?
Ephors
What two requirements involving education and communal dining had to be met by a Spartiate to maintain full citizen status?
Successful completion of the agoge and membership/contribution to a syssition.
What happened to a Spartiate who could no longer make the required contribution to his syssition?
He could lose his full citizenship rights/status as one of the homoioi.
What does archaeological evidence from the 7th and 6th centuries suggest about the traditional image of Sparta as culturally barren?
Sparta had a developed artistic culture producing painted pottery, bronze work, carved ivory and other objects.
Explain ONE way Sparta's geography contributed to the distinctive development of Spartan society.
The surrounding mountain ranges provided protection and isolation, limiting outside influences and helping Sparta develop its distinctive and conservative society.
Which Spartan political body could prepare business for the Ekklesia AND reject its decisions?
The Gerousia
Why were the perioikoi essential to the Spartan system?
They performed important economic roles including industry, craft production and trade, allowing the Spartiates to concentrate on military and political duties.
Explain how the kleros and helot labour supported the Spartan military system.
Helots farmed the kleroi and produced the agricultural surplus that supported Spartiate households and syssitia, freeing male citizens from agricultural labour so they could devote themselves to military training and service.
What do the Eileithyia figurines found at the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia reveal about Spartan society?
They provide evidence of religious concerns surrounding fertility and childbirth and therefore the importance of women's reproductive role.
Sparta's expansion into Messenia solved one problem but created another. Explain both.
Conquering fertile Messenian territory greatly increased Sparta's agricultural land and resources, but enslaving its population created a large and potentially rebellious helot population that had to be controlled.
Why can the Spartan constitution be described as a "mixed constitution"?
It combined monarchical elements in the two kings, oligarchical elements in the Gerousia, and democratic elements through the Ekklesia and ephors.
Explain how Sparta's social structure allowed the Spartiates to become a specialised warrior class.
Helots supplied agricultural labour while perioikoi performed much of the trade and craft production. This division of labour freed Spartiates from ordinary economic occupations and allowed them to concentrate on military training and service.
Why does the evidence about land ownership challenge the traditional idea that the Spartiates were genuinely "Equals"?
Although tradition associated Lycurgus with equal land distribution, evidence indicates substantial inequalities developed. Aristotle describes land concentrated in relatively few hands, including women owning about two-fifths, while modern scholars such as Hodkinson dispute that equal landholding ever existed.
Explain how archaeological evidence challenges Thucydides' image of Sparta as culturally unimpressive.
Surviving painted pottery, bronzes, ivory and bone carvings, terracottas and sculpture demonstrate considerable artistic production, particularly during the Archaic period, despite Sparta's later reputation for austerity.