Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________
Class ____________________
Worksheet – Athenian attitudes towards Sparta – Passage 1:
The following was a statement by Brasidas, a Spartan general, to his men before going into battle with
Athens. It was written by the Athenian historian Thucydides in Book 5 of his History of the
Peloponnesian War:
“Show yourself a brave man, as a Spartan should; and do you, allies, follow him like men, and
remember that zeal, honor, and obedience mark the good soldier, and that this day will make
you either free men and allies of Lacedaemon (Sparta), or slaves of Athens…No cowardice then
on your part, seeing the greatness of the issues at stake, and I will show that what I preach
to others I can practice myself.”
According to the author, what kind of people were the Spartans? What evidence in the passage led you
to this answer?
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What do you think is the author’s perspective on Sparta? Use evidence in the passage to support your
answer.
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Would a typical Athenian agree with the author? Why/Why not?
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Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________
Class ____________________
Worksheet – Athenian attitudes towards Sparta – Passage 2:
The following was part of a speech by Pericles, an Athenian politician, honoring the war dead after the
first year of the war with Sparta. It was written by the Athenian historian Thucydides in Book 2 of his
History of the Peloponnesian War:
"If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists (enemies). We throw
open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of
learning or observing…while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful
discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready
to encounter every legitimate danger.”
According to the author, what kind of people were the Spartans? What evidence in the passage led you
to this answer?
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What do you think is the author’s perspective on Sparta? Use evidence in the passage to support your
answer.
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Would a typical Athenian agree with the author? Why/Why not?
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Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________
Class ____________________
Worksheet – Athenian attitudes towards Sparta – Passage 3:
The following was a statement about the Spartans by a Persian commander, and written by the
Athenian historian Herodotus in his book Histories:
“These men have come to fight us for the pass and they are getting ready to do just that. It is
their custom to do their hair when they are about to risk their lives. But you can rest assured
that if you defeat these men and the force that awaits you in Sparta, there is no other race on
earth which will take up arms and stand up to you, my lord, because you are now up against the
noblest and the most royal city in Greece, and the bravest men.”
According to the author, what kind of people were the Spartans? What evidence in the passage led you
to this answer?
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What do you think is the author’s perspective on Sparta? Use evidence in the passage to support your
answer.
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Would a typical Athenian agree with the author? Why/Why not?
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Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________
Class ____________________
Worksheet – Athenian attitudes towards Sparta – Passage 4:
The following is from The Constitution of the Lacedaemonians by Xenophon, ah Athenian general who
lived in Sparta after the Peloponnesian War. Here he discusses the laws put down by the founder of
Spartan culture, Lycurgus:
It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly populated of states, was
evidently the most powerful and most celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how
this could have happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I wondered
no longer. In other states, I suppose, all men make as much money as they can. One is a
farmer, another a ship-owner, another a merchant, and others live by different handicrafts. But
at Sparta Lycurgus forbade freeborn citizens to have anything to do with business affairs. He
insisted on their regarding as their own concern only those activities that make for civic
freedom. Indeed, how should wealth be a serious object there, when he insisted on equal
contributions to the food supply and on the same standard of living for all, and thus cut off the
attraction of money for indulgence' sake? Why, there is not even any need of money to spend
on cloaks: for their adornment is due not to the price of their clothes, but to the excellent
condition of their bodies.
According to the author, what kind of people were the Spartans? What evidence in the passage led you
to this answer?
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What do you think is the author’s perspective on Sparta? Use evidence in the passage to support your
answer.
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Would a typical Athenian agree with the author? Why/Why not?
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Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________
Class ____________________
Worksheet – Athenian attitudes towards Sparta – Passage 5:
In this excerpt from History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides describes the relationship between
Sparta and Athens until the start of the war:
“This coalition, after repulsing the barbarian (Persians), soon afterwards split into two
sections…At the end of the one stood Athens, at the head of the other Lacedaemon, one the
first naval, the other the first military power in Hellas. For a short time the league held
together, till the Lacedaemonians and Athenians quarrelled and made war upon each other
with their allies, a duel into which all the Hellenes sooner or later were drawn, though some
might at first remain neutral. So that the whole period from the Persian war to this, with some
peaceful intervals, was spent by each power in war, either with its rival, or with its own revolted
allies, and consequently afforded them constant practice in military matters, and that
experience which is learnt in the school of danger… The growth of the power of Athens, and the
alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.”
According to the author, what kind of people were the Spartans? What evidence in the passage led you
to this answer?
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What do you think is the author’s perspective on Sparta? Use evidence in the passage to support your
answer.
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Would a typical Athenian agree with the author? Why/Why not?
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