Download Athenian Attitudes towards Sparta

SWBAT analyze how Athenians viewed
the Spartans through interpreting
primary documents and inferring the
author’s perspectives towards Sparta.
Focus Questions:
How did Athens view Sparta?
How do we learn about ancient peoples?
How do we analyze primary documents or artifacts?
How does an author’s perspective affect history?
Do Now
• Recall the differences
between Athens and
Sparta.
• How do you think
Spartans viewed
Athenians?
How did Athens view Sparta?
• Since the Spartans left no
written history, it is next to
impossible to know what their
true perspective may be.
• We do have, however, many
different sources from Athenian
writers, all of whom wrote
about Sparta and the Spartans.
How did Athens view Sparta?
• We are going to analyze how
these writers viewed Sparta and
what their perspective is on
Sparta.
• Let’s see if all Athenians viewed
them as the enemy, or if they
have a more complex view.
The authors:
Thucydides – Athenian
general, exiled due to his
military record, who wrote
the most thorough account
of the Peloponnesian War
(431-404 BCE) between
Athens and Sparta.
Herodotus – Athenian
historian and writer, known
as the “Father of history.”
Often embellished events
for a good story.
Pericles – Athenian
politician and general
who led Athens during
her “golden age” and
began the war against
Sparta.
Xenophon – Athenian
military officer and writer
who fought alongside—
and lived among—the
Spartans, and admired
their culture.
Vocabulary
• Lacedaemon – specifically refers to the land on which
Sparta is situated. Is often used to refer to Sparta itself.
Spartans are thus also called Lacedaemonians.
• Hellas – Word used to describe Greece as a whole.
Greeks are thus also referred to as Hellenes.
Protocol for reading ancient texts
• Identify the author, purpose and audience.
• Read the document one paragraph or verse at a time instead of the
entire document at once.
• Within each paragraph, identify the subject, verb and object in each
sentence. (“Who” is doing “What” to “whom”, or “it”, or “them”?)
• Look at any of the extra phrases, clauses or words in the sentence.
Ask: “Are these important or necessary to understand the
document?” Ignore or cross out unnecessary details.
"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring
states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators
ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the
few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws,
they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no
social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation
for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to
interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a
man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the
obscurity of his condition…”
Activity
• Each group will be assigned one of five short passages by one of the
four authors we are studying (Thucydides,Herodotus, Xenophon,
and Pericles)
• Read the text using the protocol to get at the central idea.
• As a group, answer the following on your activity sheet:
1. According to the author, what kind of people were the Spartans? What
evidence in the passage led you to this answer?
2. What do you think is the author’s perspective on Sparta? Use evidence in
the passage to support your answer.
3. Would a typical Athenian agree with the author? Why/Why not?
Passage 1
“Show yourself a brave man, as a Spartan should; and do you,
allies, follow him like men, and remember that zeal, honor,
and obedience mark the good soldier, and that this day
will make you either free men and allies of Lacedaemon
(Sparta), or slaves of Athens…No cowardice then on your part,
seeing the greatness of the issues at stake, and I will show that
what I preach to others I can practice myself.”
Passage 2
"If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our
antagonists (enemies). We throw open our city to the world,
and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any
opportunity of learning or observing…while in education,
where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline
seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please,
and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate
danger.”
Passage 3
“These men have come to fight us for the pass and they are
getting ready to do just that. It is their custom to do their hair
when they are about to risk their lives. But you can rest
assured that if you defeat these men and the force that awaits
you in Sparta, there is no other race on earth which will take
up arms and stand up to you, my lord, because you are now
up against the noblest and the most royal city in Greece, and
the bravest men.”
Passage 4
“It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly populated of
states, was evidently the most powerful and most celebrated city in Greece; and I
fell to wondering how this could have happened. But when I considered the
institutions of the Spartans, I wondered no longer…In other states, I suppose, all
men make as much money as they can. One is a farmer, another a ship-owner,
another a merchant, and others live by different handicrafts. But at Sparta
Lycurgus forbade freeborn citizens to have anything to do with business affairs. He
insisted on their regarding as their own concern only those activities that make for
civic freedom. Indeed, how should wealth be a serious object there, when he
insisted on equal contributions to the food supply and on the same standard of
living for all, and thus cut off the attraction of money for indulgence' sake? Why,
there is not even any need of money to spend on cloaks: for their adornment is due
not to the price of their clothes, but to the excellent condition of their bodies.”
Passage 5
“This coalition, after repulsing the barbarian (Persians), soon afterwards split into
two sections…At the end of the one stood Athens, at the head of the other
Lacedaemon, one the first naval, the other the first military power in Hellas. For a
short time the league held together, till the Lacedaemonians and Athenians
quarrelled and made war upon each other with their allies, a duel into which all the
Hellenes sooner or later were drawn, though some might at first remain neutral. So
that the whole period from the Persian war to this, with some peaceful intervals,
was spent by each power in war, either with its rival, or with its own revolted
allies, and consequently afforded them constant practice in military matters,
and that experience which is learnt in the school of danger… The growth of the
power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war
inevitable.”
What was their attitude towards Sparta?
Author
Thucydides
Xenophon
Pericles
Herodotus
Attitude towards Sparta
(+, -, 0, ?)
Wrap Up Questions
• Can any of these passages be the authentic,
definitive opinion of the average Athenian towards
Sparta?
• How did each author’s experience play into their
perspective?
• Can we ever truly understand what Athenians
thought of Sparta?
Exit Slip
• Answer the following based on your analysis:
“How did Athens view Sparta?”