Download DBQ Sparta (Without Question)

EUROPEAN HISTORY
(Suggested writing time __________ minutes)
Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying documents. (Some of
the documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.)
This question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical
documents. Write an essay that:
 Has a relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.
 Uses a majority of the documents.
 Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as
possible.
 Does not simply summarize the documents individually.
 Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ points of
view.
You may (should!) refer to relevant historical information not mentioned in the
documents.
Historical Background: Influenced by the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia,
Minoan civilization developed in numerous city-states on the Greek mainland.
Although mountains separated Greek communities from one another, this land of
islands and jagged coastlines had a common focus—the sea. Greek traders carried their
ideas and culture around the Mediterranean.
Another result of geographic divisions was the growth of separate city-states, two of
which were Sparta and Athens. After the Persian Wars, democracy thrived in Athens as
it became the most powerful and prosperous Greek city-state. However, rivalry among
the Greek city-states led to conflict. The resulting Peloponnesian War ended Athenian
greatness.
Greek philosophers developed ideas about government, morality, and the purpose of
life. In literature and the arts, the Greeks sought beauty, harmony, and order. Their
achievements set standards for future generations. Greece's golden age was followed by
eventual decline and conquest at the hands of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian
general who forged an extended empire. A blending of eastern and western cultures
took place, especially in cities such as Alexandria in Egypt. In the many lands that
Alexander conquered, Hellenistic civilization flourished.
Question Preamble: Scholars have long argued that the Spartans were a warlike and
Question culture
will be given
on test
day...
aggressive
obsessed
with
the pursuit of honor and glory in battle; obsessed
with blood and military fitness and physical toughness. Recent cult films like 300
seem to reinforce this view.
DBQ Question: To what extent is the view of the Spartans expressed above accurate
and supportable by the evidence?
In your essay do NOT use signal phrases like:
Document 1 shows…
Document 4 proves
As seen in Document 5…
In your essay DO USE signal phrases like:
Words spoken by Simonides of Creos, after the battle of Thermoplae, suggest…
Images on Spartan pottery reveal that…
Document 1
Simonides of Creos c. After the Battle of Thermopylae - Epitaph (a phrase or statement
written in memory of a person who has died, esp. as an inscription on a tombstone.) for
the Spartan Dead at Thermopylae, where the Spartans held off the Perians
"Go, stranger, and to the Spartans tell
That here, obedient to their word, we fell."
Document 2
Bronze figurine - Spartan sheepherder (6th C. BC)
Document 3
Alkman - Spartan poet c. 625 B.C.
I know the tunes, of every bird, but I, Alkman, found my words and song in the
tongue of the strident partridge.
Now chasms and mountain summits are asleep, and sierra slopes and ravines;
creeping things nourished by the dark earth, hillside beasts and generations of bees,
monsters in the depths of the purple brine, and also tribes of flying birds.
Often at night along the mountain tops, when gods are reveling by torch light,
you came carrying a great jar (like the one shepherds use) but of heavy gold.
You filled the jar with milk drawn from a lioness, and made a great cheese
unbroken and gleaming white.
The dappled worm is the murderer within the eyes of blooming vines.
Dew, a child of moon and air, causes the deer grass to grow.
Document 4
Images found on Spartan pottery:
Document 5
Sayings of Tyrtaeus of Sparta spoken c. 630 BC
"Frontiers - You should reach the limits of virtue before you cross the border of death."
"Courage - For no man ever proves himself a good man in war unless he can endure to
face the blood and the slaughter, go close against the enemy and fight with his hands. It
is beautiful when a brave man of the front ranks, falls and dies, battling for his
homeland, and ghastly when a man flees planted fields and city and wanders begging
with his dear mother, aging father, little children and true wife. He will be scorned in
every new village, reduced to want and loathsome poverty; and shame will brand his
family line, his noble figure. Derision and disaster will hound him. A turncoat gets no
respect or pity; so let us battle for our country and freely give our lives to save our
darling children."
Document 6
Sayings of Terpander of Antissa c. 650 B.C.
On Sparta - "There flowers the battle-spear of young men, there the Muse is eloquent,
there Justice in the wide ways lends force to actions of honor."
Document 7
Sayings of Alkman of Sparta c. 625 B.C.
(On his poetry) ~ "Muse of the round sky, daughter of Zeus, I sing my poems loud and
clear to you."
(On man's lessons) ~ "Experience and suffering are the mother of wisdom."
Document 8
Plutarch (a Roman historian) - The Ancient Customs of the Spartans [237AD]: (written 400
years after this time period, which makes him a secondary source and NOT an
eyewitness to the lives of Spartans)
"They learned to read and write for purely practical reasons; but all other forms of
education they banned from the country, books and treatises being included in this
quite as much as men. All their education was directed toward prompt obedience to
authority, stout endurance of hardship, and victory or death in battle."
Document 9
Xenophon (Spartan warrior) - On the Spartan leader Lycurgus - "Lycurgus prohibited
free citizens from having anything to do with business.... they should not desire wealth
with a view to sensual gratification. At Sparta the citizens pay strictest obedience to the
magistrates and the laws. Lycurgus did not attempt to establish such an ‘Excellent
Order of Things’ (EUNOMIA) until he had brought the most powerful men in the state
to be of the same opinion as he was with regard to the constitution... OBEDIENCE is of
the greatest benefit, as well in a State as in an army and a family..."
Document 10
Demaratus, a Greek, explaining the nature and character of the Spartans to the Persian
King Xerxes, during the Greek wars with Persia
"The same goes for the Spartans. One-against-one, they are as good as anyone in the
world. But when they fight in a body, they are the best of all. For though they are free
men, they are not entirely free. They accept Law as their master. And they respect this
master more than your subjects respect you. Whatever he commands, they do. And his
command never changes: It forbids them to flee in battle, whatever the number of their
foes. He requires them to stand firm -- to conquer or die. O king, if I seem to speak
foolishly, I am content from this time forward to remain silent. I only spoke now
because you commanded me to. I do hope that everything turns out according to your
wishes."
Document 12
The ruins of a Spartan theater (found by archeologists) at which it was said up to 16,000
people could view the dramas enacted there
Document 13
Spartan warrior helmet (bronze)