Sparta was the city-state that dominated the Peloponnese, the region that is separated from Athens and the rest of Greece by the narrow Isthmus at Corinth, and without that isthmus it would be an island to itself. Sparta was a traditional and conservative agricultural society that was not welcoming to foreigners, other than aristocratic guest-friends.

We will discuss:
• How the Dorian Spartan citizens dominated the Perioeci freemen and the Helot slaves or serfs.
• How changes wrought by the Messenian Wars fought in the centuries prior to the Peloponnesian Wars changed Sparta from an open society, thriving with learning and poets, into a closed militaristic society only focused on warfare
• That our ancient sources include Xenophon, Thucydides, Plutarch, Herodotus, Pausanias, the modern historian Will Durant, and the Teaching Company professors Kenneth Harl and Jeremy McInerney.
• How many modern historians tried to interpret the Peloponnesian Wars through the lens of the Cold War, equating Sparta with Russia, and Athens with America, which meant that the wrong side lost the war. This analogy was strained by the fact that Sparta fought the war with the slogan, Free the Greeks, or free the Athenian Allies from the tyranny of the Athenian Empire.
• Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, lawgiver of Sparta, where Lycurgus is the prototypical Spartan, and how he was attacked by Alcander.
• Comparing Lycurgus to the lawgivers of Athens, Solon and Draco.
• Constitution of Sparta and the roles of the Assembly, Elders, Dual Kings, and Ephors.
• The Spartan secret police, or krypteia.
• Bravery of Spartan hoplites in the Battle of Thermopylae in the Greco Persian wars, defending against the Persian army under King Xerxes.
• How Spartans lived in military barracks from the age of seven until the age of thirty.
• Sparta was also known as Lacedaemon and Laconia.

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As Socrates teaches us, the examined life is a life worth living. We would be fools if we did not desire to learn from our multitude of friends whose words live in the works of the classics that have survived from past centuries and millennia. The Stoic and moral philosophers of Greece and Rome saw philosophy as an evangelical enterprise, seeking to spread the joy of living a godly life for its own sake.

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This is original content based on research by Bruce Strom and his blogs. Images in the Public Domain, many from Wikipedia, some from the National Archives, are selected to provide illustration. When images of the actual topic or event are not available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.

All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. The ancient world was a warrior culture out of necessity, to learn from the distant past we should not only judge them from our modern perspective but also from their own ancient perspective on their own terms.