Felipe Arraño’s Reviews > Athens: A History, From Ancient Ideal to Modern City > Status Update

The wholehearted commitment of Athens to be an empire, provoked the strongest reaction from Sparta (p. 175). Sparta didn’t have any pretensions to artistic culture, they didn’t have playwrights and only few grand buildings like the Parthenon; Sparta was like a military camp (p. 176). In 371 BCE, Spartaties (fully blooded Spartans) were outnumbered by Helots (slaves/captives) who seized power and made a rebellion (p. 176). In Sparta, kids were removed from their mothers from the age of 6-7 until they were 30; they lived and ate in barracks; they were bred and trained to be warriors (p. 176-177). Homosexual affairs in the same mess and platoon were encouraged and institutionalized (p. 178). The outbreak of the peloponnesian war (p. 180-182).