Comparision of Rome and Sparta essays

Comparision of Rome and Sparta essays Sparta and Rome were military behemoths in their time, marching over rival armies without hesitation. Between around 600 B.C. and 370 B.C., Sparta was renowned for its incredible military strength, and was feared throughout Greece and the rest of the world. The Roman Empires armies dominated the world in much of the same way, conquering Gaul, Germania, Britain, North Africa, West Asia and all of Southern Europe. The Spartan and Roman soldiers were highly trained soldiers who could defeat any foe. The structure of the Roman and Spartan armies was incredibly similar, which suggests that Rome based their army on Spartas phalanx, which was what a Spartan army was called. The Spartan military's singular focus of individual prowess on the battlefield was the foremost fault in their system, whereas Rome's focus on each small group's aptitude in battle allowed their nearly identically composed army to achieve more. When a Spartan boy was born, the conventional childhood for him was far removed from what childhood is perceived in the majority of societies. A boy would spend the first seven years of his life at home, where his mother would teach him the basics of life, whilst his father, still enlisted in the army, was living at his barracks. When the boy turned seven, the state would remove him from his household and take control of his adolescence. He would then begin agoge, which was a very intense discipline and education program with a predominantly military philosophy taught by the army. The state would enlist each seven year old boy in an Agele, which was a troop, where training would begin. Elder Spartan men were the supervisors of these Ageles, and also acted as instructors for the boys. When a group of boys turned thirteen, one was chosen among them to become the Eirena. This choice was based on sensibility and strength in a boy, and when chosen, the Eirena would have partial leaders hip transferred to him. Gymnastics, ...