The women of Sparta had to shave their heads when preparing to get married. Even after they married the women had to keep their hair short. Since the men under thirty were required to live in communal barracks, married couples typically lived apart and husbands could only see their wives by sneaking away at night.
Like most Greeks, Spartans fought Hoplite style. They wore a bronze helm, protecting their head, bronze greaves to protect their legs and carried a large round shield. The shield was made of wood, bronze covered the front of it, while the back was hollowed out with a shield stand attached. This would keep the shield upright and ready to use at a moment’s notice. The soldiers would each go into battle with a xiphos, which was a short leaf bladed sword made for close combat, and an eight foot long spear. Since arrows had little effect in Spartan warfare, Archers were not very common, but some were still brought on. Calvary was also an uncommon use to the Spartans.
The Spartans had a very honorable policy during wartime. They would not loot the bodies of the defeated armies nor will they pursue them. Similar to how today’s armies have dog tags, the Spartan warriors would bring two wooden sticks with their names carved into them. They would leave one stick in a bowl before …show more content…
Though the key factors of Sparta’s decline was the diminishing number of Spartans and the unwise polices made towards the other Greek city-states. Sparta’s severe earthquake in 462 BC had left them with many of their people dead and with fewer Spartans available, the helots rebelled. Having difficulty squashing the rebellion, Sparta turned to Athens for help. After debating, Athens decided to aid Sparta in their rebellion problem. However, Sparta fearing that the aid of the democratic Athens would encourage the revolt further had decided against their help after all, insulting Athens in the