Sparta - History and society

Match the following terms to do with Sparta

• Messenia

• Greek enslaved by Spartans to work on their farms

• Taygetus

• Mountain that borders Spartan territory

• Eurotas

• River that ran through Sparta

• helot

• Neighbouring territory invaded and oppressed by Sparta

• Peloponnese

• Larger area of Greece where Sparta was located

Which of these was a consequence of the 2nd Messenian War?

• Sparta created the helot system

• Sparta developed into a militarised system to suppress helots in future

• Sparta formed the Peloponnesian League

• Persia invaded Greece

Reorder the following events to do with the history of Sparta

• The 2nd Messenian War

• The Persian Wars

• The Spartans invade Messenia and create helots

• The Formation of the Peloponnesian League

• The Peloponnesian War

Which of these were done by the Spartans to ensure that they could control the helots?

• War was declared on the helots at the start of every year

• The Peloponnesian League was formed

• Every Spartan male trained only as a soldier

• Every Spartan had an equal portion of land

Which of these were part of Lycurgus' reforms of Spartan society?

• communal mess halls where all male citizens ate together

• creating two kings instead of one

• a monetary system without gold or silver coinage

• No private belongings; everything was owned by the state

For every Spartan there were (according to Herodotus) how many helots?

What does the word 'perioikoi' mean?

• Those who do odd-jobs

• Those who live around

• Those who we have conquered

• Those who we don't like

Match the following sources on Sparta to their details

• Herodotus

• Athenian general and writer who fought in the Peloponnesian war

• Thucydides

• A much later Greek who wrote biographies of famous Spartans

• Plutarch

• A Spartan poet who wrote war-songs

• Tyrtaeus

• Greek historian who wrote about the Persian wars. Might have visited Sparta

• Xenophon

• Athenian who liked the Spartan system and retired to live near Sparta

The man credited with creating the Spartan system was called...

Which of these was a possible problem for Spartan society created by the reforms of Lycurgus?

• It stopped creativity and flexible thinking

• It caused Spartans to leave Sparta for other places to escape

• It made the helots angry

• It caused tensions between Spartans because it was unfair