Sparta

Students studied how ancient Greece addressed economic inequality, focusing on Sparta and the reforms of Lycurgus. They examined how unequal land, debt, and social division threatened the stability of the polis, discussed insights from Herodotus, Plutarch, and Aristotle, and explored how hoplite warfare reshaped political life. The lesson centered on Lycurgus’s strict solution, land redistribution, shared meals, and disciplined education, evaluating both its strengths (unity and stability) and its costs (loss of freedom and exclusion). Students concluded by preparing to compare Sparta’s approach with Athens’s solutions in the next lesson.