Tag Archives: Spartans

The Helots: Slave Warriors of Ancient Sparta

By Ḏḥwty, Contributing Writer, Ancient Origins The ancient Greek city-state of Sparta had a social hierarchy that was different from many of its neighbors. The top of the social pyramid was occupied by the two kings, whose powers were checked by a ‘council of elders’. These elders were chosen from the next class, the Spartiates.

Written on May 10, 2022 at 12:01 pm, by Sean Kelly

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Categories: Places

Tags: helots, Herodotus, Messenian Wars, Spartans, Thucydides

The Lost City of Thebes

By Sean Kelly, Managing Editor, Classical Wisdom I’m sure like many of you, I’m a huge fan of Greek tragedy. For many people Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex can be their first exposure to the world of Ancient Greek literature, and the Classical world in general. More than two and a half millennia since its first performance,

Written on July 19, 2021 at 8:36 pm, by Sean Kelly

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Categories: Author, Culture, Oedipus Trilogy

Tags: Alexander the Great, Antigone, History of thebes, Oedipus, Paul Cartledge, Spartans, Theban Cycle, Thebes

Sparta: The Warrior State?

Written by Meghan McKenna, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Sparta, home of Ancient Greece’s most brutal warriors, trained from their youths to become capable hoplites. It is an image that has become a staple of our thoughts when thinking about how Spartan society may have been. But is this the case or is this a force-fed

Written on August 21, 2020 at 6:13 am, by Alex Barrientos

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Categories: Military History

Tags: Agoge, Ancient Greek Military History, Education, Herodotus, Lycurgus, Plutarch, Sparta, Spartan women, Spartans, Xenophon

Discipline: Lessons from the Ancient World

Written by David Hooker, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Derived from the Latin discipulus, “discipline” has several shades of meaning. It can mean a branch of knowledge or learning, or “a training that develops self-control, character, or efficiency,” or submission to an authority and a system of rules, such as those for military purposes, or a

Written on May 22, 2020 at 6:23 am, by David Hooker

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Categories: Philosophy

Tags: Antonine plague, Athenian Plague, Coronoa virus, Discipline, Leonidas, Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Roman legionnaires, Roman military, Spartans, Stoic, Stoicism, stoics

Fitness Tips from Ancient Greece

Written by M. Reed Myers, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom If you are like most people, you probably wonder what life would be like if you had the body of a Greek god. You wonder what doors would open for you if you had the kind of physique that only a Praxiteles would be fit to

Written on January 3, 2020 at 11:00 am, by M. Reed Meyers

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Categories: Sport

Tags: Ancient Greek Olympics, boxing, discus, fitness, gymnasia, Olympics, Sparta, Spartan women, Spartans

After 300: The Posthumous Vengeance of King Leonidas of Sparta

By Riley Winters, Contributing Writer, Ancient Origins Mythologically descended from the hero Herakles, the Agiad dynasty of ancient Sparta reigned alongside the Eurypontids almost since the beginning of the city-state. When war was on the borders of their land, and that of their neighboring city-states, it was to the current Heraklean descendent that those city-states

Written on April 3, 2018 at 6:08 pm, by plato

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Categories: Wars

Tags: Athenians, battle of mycale, battle of plataea, Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas, Spartans