Discuss the importance of social structure and two kings in Sparta; explain the roles and religious roles of Spartan Kings, as well as their privileges.
INTRODUCTION / 200
The two kings of Sparta provided a checks and balances system, required for fairness and just decision in their society. The importance of the structure of oligarchy that they had placed in society at the time of King Leonidas and their oligarchic system was very significant, and existed to allow Spartan society to function in peace and uphold their values. Spartan Kings did not completely rule over their country, as they had a group of elders known as the
PRIVILEGES / 200
Privileges of the two kings in Spartan society were not a
ROLES AND ROLES IN RELIGION / 400
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Son of a Spartan king named Anaxandrides who had died in 520 B.C., it was his right to become king when his older half-brother Cleomenes I, who was also a son of Anaxandridies, died under a violent circumstances in 490 B.C, without having produced a male heir. His shared rule over the Spartan society spaned from 490 B.C until his death just ten years later in 480 B.C. His death was seen as a heroic sacrifice because he sent most of his army away when the Persian army had advanced. Greek historians have covered a lot of King Leonidas’s history in his roles as King and as general in the battle of Thermopylae, however, almost everything that is known about the Kin comes from the work of the Greek historian Herodotus, who had lived from 484 B.C until 425 B.C. As one of the two kings of Sparta were to take responsibility for the military, and one for the political side, Leonidas was both a political leader as well as a military one. Similarly to most Spartan boys, as a child Leonidas had been trained to become a hoplite warrior, which were armed with a shield that was round, an iron short sword and a spear. The importance of Kings in Sparta and King Leonidas himself and his role as King in the Spartan