The Virtue Of Sparta's Arete In Sparta

The ideal citizen was viewed as one that helped its city survive in the way the city and culture saw best for itself.

The city state of Sparta was a great example of a city that needed to fight in order to survive. The Spartans were outnumbered by Messenians 10 to 1. This means that the only way the Spartans could possibly retain power and order was to close this power gap through thorough and rigorous military training. This kind of drive and motivation for military power embedded itself deep into Sparta’s culture and way of life.

Arete is a concept in ancient Greece that refers to excellence of any kind or moral virtue. To be Arete in Sparta was very simple, you had to be a courageous Spartan fighter. Sparta was not the only city state

For Sparta freedom meant preserving the independence of the Fatherland. To do so did not require cultural flourishing, only a flourishing military and that’s exactly what they had.

Sparta pulled the average boy away from his family at the age of only 7 years old. This was done to train them into strong and fierce Spartan warriors, ones that would help preserve Sparta and keep it alive. These were the kind of men that Sparta needed and admired as these were the men Sparta relied on. To be a loyal and disciplined warrior was exactly what Sparta needed and it’s what Sparta was built on. This was the basis of their concept of Arete.

The women of Sparta also had their own expectations from Sparta. They were the ones who were to bear the children that would be trained. This could be seen as their central task, as it was of huge importance to strengthen civilization. The women were even encouraged to take part in sporting events such as running, discus and even driving chariots, all in order to strengthen their body for

In the democratic government only allowed wealthy and well borne men to vote or hold public office. But as time passed this began to change and more and more individuals gained the right to vote. Athenian democracy was called a direct democracy, this meant that only citizens voted and debated on the issues. For an Athenian citizen to be ideal he must be voting with the right intention and making the right decisions for his community as he has the power to do so. Here we have the Athenian concept of Arete. Arete placed a heavy emphasis on the good citizen, one that was greatly concerned with his community, so much so that it outweighed his goals and aspirations. These ideal citizens were expected to devote a great deal of time and energy to civic matters. These were the kind of people that Athens needed and wanted, and it is reflected very clearly on their concept of Arete. In such a democratic civilization where any citizen could vote and held the power to change laws and virtually all aspects of Athenian life, any such citizen was expected to be very involved in civic and community matters that benefited the society he lived