Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
Sparta's social model keeps its share of mystery. The laws attributed to its lawgiver Lycurgus are said to have created a rare balance, in the sharing of property as in daily life. Plato drew on it for The Republic. But did this 2,500-year-old ideal society really exist, or was it only a carefully built facade?
For twenty-five centuries, Sparta has served above all as a mirror for the ideals of each era. And none of that story comes from the Spartans themselves: written laws were forbidden there, and only fragments survive from two poets, Alcman and Tyrtaeus. No source describes Sparta from the inside.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Lycurgus and the mixed constitution
- 3Athletic girls, boys of the agoge, "Equals"
- 4An army built to hold down the helots
- 5The decline of a shrinking city
Open-book quiz8 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary8 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
