When one hears the word Sparta, images of elite soldiers fighting the forces of Persia usually come to mind. However, few know of the home life of Sparta or how they became the ancient military powerhouse they’re remembered as today. 

Spartan militarism began with the invasion of Messenia in the 8th century BC. After conquering Messenia, Sparta enslaved the inhabitants and gave its own citizens use of Messenian lands. The slaves were treated poorly by their Spartan captors, a situation which boiled over and eventually resulted in a mass slave revolt. The Spartans quelled this rebellion, but to prevent such an uprising from happening again Sparta became much more militaristic in order to keep the Messenians in subjugation. Moving forward, this is why Sparta would have such an intent focus on military strength. 

At age seven, Spartan males left home for 13 years of military training. The boys were given one cloak, no shoes, and just enough food to keep them alive. The winters were cold and the food was barely enough to live off of, so they had to steal or forage extra to survive. However, if they were caught stealing, they would be harshly punished. 

After this arduous training at age 20, these soldiers entered into the citizen army and were allowed to marry. At age 30, they became citizens but despite this achievement still had to eat at public mess halls. This helped to enforce the idea that the State and Sparta were more important than one’s own family. Even though the quality of each individual soldier was far superior to that of Athens or the other Greek city states, the Spartans did have two significant challenges. Firstly, Sparta did not have a strong navy to rival the Athenian navy. Secondly, fears of slave revolts forced Sparta to keep a significant amount of troops in the homeland. These disadvantages would become evident in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. Nevertheless, on land Sparta’s military was unmatched. 

While Sparta’s military prowess is often discussed, life in Sparta is relatively unknown by most people. Even though certain aspects of their history, such as their treatment of the Messenians, were abhorrent, we still must learn what led up to them being the Greek superpower they would eventually become. 

Socrates and Plato are probably the two most prominent philosophers to ever live. It would be impossible to review all of their teachings in one essay, so I will cover one aspect of each philosopher’s career. Specifically, Socrates’ disagreement with the Sophists and Plato’s allegory of the cave. 

Socrates was intrigued by matters of morality and interpersonal relationships. Since Socrates had no writings of his own, most of what we know about his teachings come from his student, Plato. Socrates was strongly opposed to the Sophists, mostly because they taught subjective truth: the idea that what was true for one person could be untrue or false to another. Socrates argued that truth was objective and no matter what someone believed or didn’t believe that doesn’t change the reality of truth or falsity of that belief. While debating with Sophists, Socrates rightly argued that it was against their own teachings to tell opponents that their beliefs were untrue or wrong because they did not believe in objective truth, and therefore contradicted the foundation of their argument. Because of his teachings and his disagreements with the Sophists, who held more mainstream views at the time, Socrates was sentenced to death for charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. He was convicted by a jury and executed by drinking poison. 

After Socrates’ death, Plato succeeded him. Plato argued that everything has non-essential traits, but people are still able to determine that a thing is part of a certain group. He used the example that a triangle is still a triangle whether it’s scalene, isosceles, equilateral, whether it’s written in red or black pen, whether it’s thick or thin. Everyone will still be able to identify a triangle since all triangles share common characteristics. For example, they all add to 180 degrees. Plato also taught that even if all triangles disappeared, the idea and truths of triangularity would still exist. He thought this same logic could be applied to concepts like justice and goodness, believing these were not man-made invented concepts, but rather are unchanged standards that existed before us and will exist after.  

Most of Plato’s beliefs are summed up in what he called “the allegory of the cave.” In this parable, prisoners are chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. They are only able to see a wall in front of them. Behind them there is a fire burning and a bridge on which puppeteers walk and cast shadows on the wall. The prisoners would be unable to see the puppets, or real objects, that passed behind them, but would only be seeing the shadows and echoes cast by the real objects. Plato asserted that these prisoners would certainly mistake the appearance of the shadows as reality. They would have no idea the shadows they perceived as reality were really just shadows cast by real objects behind them. Plato’s point is that people may acquire concepts of physical objects, but those concepts are not on the same level as the things we perceive. 

Although Plato and Socrates lived thousands of years ago, their teachings are still relevant today. These philosophers held many views and beliefs. However, Socrates’ arguments against the Sophists and Plato’s allegory of the cave are critical to grasping their worldviews and our reality today.