Hello again.

Welcome to another history lesson with me, Ms. Roberts.

I'm going to be taking you through a lesson about ancient Greece today.

We will be exploring what life was like for people that lived in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, and more specifically, we'll be thinking about how life in Sparta was different from life in Athens.

There's a lot of new information and some words that will be new to you today, but don't worry, I'm here to take you through the lesson every step of the way.

So let's get started.

By the end of the lesson today, you will be able to compare the ancient Greek city-states of Sparta and Athens.

We're going to start with our keywords for today.

There are four of these keywords, and later you'll be able to use these words yourself to talk about the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta.

Our first keyword is Sparta.

Can you say Sparta? Well done.

Our next keyword can be a bit tricky to pronounce, so listen carefully.

This word is militaristic.

I'll say that again.

Militaristic.

Can you repeat militaristic? Well done.

You may have heard the word military, that's related to militaristic.

Next we have the word council.

Can you say council? Great.

And our final keyword is actually the name of a war that happened in ancient Greece.

Listen closely.

It's Peloponnesian War.

I'll say that again.

Peloponnesian War.

Can you try to repeat that one? Go slowly and take it syllable by syllable.

Well done.

That was a really good effort.

Now I'll take you through the meanings of these words and then we'll meet them again later in the lesson.

So first of all, Sparta.

Sparta was a militaristic city in the southern part of ancient Greece.

We've got two keywords in one sentence there.

So let's discover what militaristic means.

A society or a culture, in this case the society of Sparta, is described as militaristic when war and fighting are important to it.

So we already know that Sparta was militaristic.

A council.

That was the next keyword.

That's a group of people who gather together and they make decisions and discuss important things about a society.

Last we had this war.

The war was called the Peloponnesian War, and that war was fought between Athens and Sparta, and they were fighting because they both wanted to dominate ancient Greece.

So there's quite a lot happening between Athens and Sparta, isn't there? Let's get started with the lesson and find out more.

We will have two parts to this lesson, and firstly we're going to ask what was Sparta like? Later we'll be asking what was Spartans like? So we are beginning with the place and then we are moving on to look at the people.

Are you ready? Let's go.

Take a look at this map.

This map shows three of the most important cities in ancient Greece, Athens, Corinth, and Sparta.

Today we are looking in particular at Sparta, which is the most southern of the three cities shown on this map.

Sparta was a large city-state in the south of ancient Greece.

Sparta was very different from Athens.

In fact, the states of Sparta and Athens were great rivals.

This means that they were enemies of each other and their rivalry was mostly because of their differences.

Look again at the map.

I would like you to talk to a partner now about the location of Sparta.

Pause the video whilst you share your ideas.

You've got some excellent suggestions.

Well done.

As we can see from this map, Sparta is not located on the coast like Athens.

Instead, Sparta was located inland.

Sparta was actually located in a very hilly valley near the Eurotas river, and it was built in the shadow of a mountain called Mount Taygetus.

The drawing shows what people believe ancient Sparta may have looked like.

You can see the steep rocky mountainsides in the background.

Upland valleys like this can have very harsh and cold winters, and the landscape surrounding Sparta was very rocky and barren, which meant it was not good for farming.

So we have already seen some key differences between Sparta and Athens.

Let's use what we know so far for a quick challenge.

I want you to give three facts about Sparta in 30 seconds.

Are you ready? You can pause the activity now while you complete the challenge.

Are you finished? Did you get three facts within the time limit? Aisha and Izzy are going to share their facts with us now.

Aisha says that Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece.

True.

She says that it was not on the coast.

True.

And she says that it was in a hilly valley.

Excellent job, Aisha.

Now let's hear Izzy's facts.

Izzy says that Sparta was near the Eurotas river.

True.

That it was beside Mount Taygetus.

True.

And that the landscape was very rocky and barren.

They're great observations, Izzy, well done.

And well done you, too.

Let's continue our journey now and find out some more about what Sparta was like.

We know that, because of the rocky landscape and the harsh weather, that life wasn't easy for the Spartan people.

However, their main focus was on war and fighting because they were a militaristic society.

The Spartan people actually spent decades fighting in wars with other people and other city-states in ancient Greece.

The Spartans had no interest in farming, which would've been difficult anyway on the mountainsides.

And because they had no coast, so they could not trade by seafaring and import food by ship.

The Spartans did need to eat though.

So they solved this problem by conquering the state next door.

The state next door was called Messenia.

Messenia had better farmland and the Messenian people were known to be excellent farmers.

So the Spartans conquered Messenia and they enslaved the Messenian people and forced them to farm for them.

They became known as helots.

Having helots to do the farming for them meant that the Spartans could dedicate their time to what they thought was the more important thing, training their soldiers for war.

The map shows how large the city-state of Sparta was after they conquered Messenia.

It took up the entire pink area on the map.

The area ruled by the city-state of Sparta was called Laconia.

Let's pause there for a moment and have a quick check on what we have heard so far.

What were the people of Sparta good at? A, fighting, B, seafaring, C, trading, or D, farming? Think carefully and make your choice.

Have you decided? Let's take a look at the answer together.

The Spartan people were good at fighting because they were a militaristic society.

War and fighting were very important to them.

They weren't seafarers because Sparta was not by the coast.

They weren't traders because they weren't seafarers.

And they weren't good at farming because they weren't interested in farming.

What about the people of Messenia? What were those people good at? A, fighting, B, seafaring, C, trading, or D, farming? Think now and make your decision.

Have you chosen? The Messenian people were good at farming, weren't they? Well done.

The Messenian people lived in the state next door to Sparta.

When the Spartans realised that they needed to eat, but they didn't want to farm, they conquered Messenia and enslaved the people, calling them helots, and getting them to do all of the farming for them.

Let's continue our journey now and find out some more about Sparta.

Now, although Sparta and Athens were both governed by a council, they weren't organised in the same way.

In Athens, for example, their council was made of 500 men and those men were elected by the assembly.

But in Sparta, the council was only made up of 28 men, and those men were all elders.

Elders were men that were specifically older than 60 years of age.

Sparta was led by two kings.

It was the two kings who led the Spartan army and they made all the important decisions.

Although they were the decision-makers, they were guided by that council of 28 men, and also by a smaller group of five powerful lawmakers called ephors.

So that's very different to the way that the Athenian people organised their society.

Laura is sharing a really interesting fact here.

And that's that the Spartan people believed that those two kings were direct descendants of a Greek god called Heracles.

That's very interesting, and it accounts for why the Spartans believed that their kings were so powerful.

Let's try some activities now about the city-state of Sparta.

Starting with this true or false situation.

I'm going to read you a statement and I want you to decide if this is true or if this is false.

Listen carefully.

Sparta and Athens were both governed by men.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Have you chosen? Do you agree that this is true? Yes, it is definitely true.

Both Sparta and Athens were governed by men.

This is a characteristic that they shared.

Now, as a historian, whenever we make statements about people from the past, we always need to remember to include some additional information or evidence that explains how we know what we are talking about.

I'm going to share with you two statements now that can help us explain how we know this.

Listen carefully and decide which of these two statements is the most helpful.

Statement A.

In Sparta and Athens, a council of men made decisions and ran each city-state.

Statement B.

Sparta had two kings who ruled over both Sparta and Athens.

Which of these two sentences is the most helpful in this situation? Have you picked one? I'm picking option A in this situation.

And the reason I am picking option A is because option B is not true.

Sparta did have two kings, but those kings only ruled over Sparta.

They did not rule over Athens.

In both Sparta and Athens, they had a council, and those councils were both made up of men.

It was those men that made the decisions and ran the city-states.

So option A helps us to explain how we know it's true that Sparta and Athens were both governed by men.

Well done.

Now let's try an activity about everything we've learned.

I want you to think of three adjectives that you could use to describe Sparta.

For each adjective that you select, I want you to explain why you have chosen it.

Things you could think about include, Sparta's landscape, Sparta's people and the society, and what Sparta did to Messenia and the Messenian people.

Pause the video now whilst you have a think and choose your adjectives.

Are you finished? Good job.

I'm going to share my choices with you now.

You may have chosen adjectives like these yourself.

The first adjective I chose was barren.

I chose this because Sparta was an upland valley and its landscape was rocky.

The next adjective I chose was militaristic.

That was one of our keywords in this lesson.

I chose militaristic because the people of Sparta only cared about fighting and military success.

My third choice for an adjective is ruthless.

I have chosen ruthless because of what the Spartans did to the Messenian people.

They conquered Messenia and enslaved the Messenian people to be their farmers.

I think that's very ruthless.

Good job.

Okay, let's move into the second part of our lesson now, and we are going to investigate the question, what were Spartans like? To understand and answer this question, we need to think about what was most important to the Spartan people.

And we have already discovered that Sparta was a militaristic society.

So war and fighting were of great importance to the Spartan people.

Sparta and Athens went to war with each other in a conflict called the Peloponnesian War.

The city-states were fighting each other because they both wanted full control over the ancient Greek civilization.

The Peloponnesian War lasted for over 25 years.

The war was eventually won by the stronger Spartan army in around 404 BCE.

This only made the rivalry between Athens and Sparta even stronger.

Were you listening closely to that information about the Peloponnesian War? Aisha, John and Sam are talking about it.

I'd like you to listen to what they say and then decide who is correct.

But be careful.

You may hear more than one correct statement.

Aisha says that Athens won the Peloponnesian War.

John says that the Peloponnesian War lasted for 25 years.

And Sam says that Sparta won the Peloponnesian War.

Who is correct? Have a think and make your choice now.

Have you decided? I think there's more than one correct statement here.

John is correct by saying that the Peloponnesian War lasted for 25 years.

Yes, it did.

It went on for a very long time.

Now, Aisha says that Athens won the war and Sam says that Sparta won the war.

Who is right? Who won the Peloponnesian War? Sparta won the war.

So Sam is right.

The Spartan army were better trained, were larger, and were stronger than the Athenians.

Let's continue now and discover some more about Spartan society.

Now, Spartans, as we have just said, were very good fighters.

In fact, they trained to fight from a very early age.

All children, boys and girls, went to school and did lots of physical exercise, including running, wrestling, and learning to use weapons like the javelin, which is a type of spear.

At the age of about seven, just the boys would then be sent on to a special school to learn more about the military.

That's the army.

And they would be trained there as soldiers.

This training would not finish until they reached the age of around 20, and then they would join the army and stay in the army until they reached 60 years of age.

While the men were away fighting, the women would stay behind and keep the households running.

The women would then be in charge of the enslaved people.

They would do the cooking, they would do the cleaning.

They could spend their time weaving cloth or making clothes, and sometimes they would play instruments for entertainment.

As the men were away, the Spartan women could also work for themselves, usually on the family-owned farms, and they were allowed to own land and property.

This means that the women in Sparta had more rights than women in other city-states like Athens, where women were not allowed to own property or land, for example.

As children, the Spartan girls were also trained at school in things like running fast and throwing weapons like javelins.

So even when the men were away in the army, the women were still able to defend their homes and the land of Sparta from any potential threats.

Javelin-throwing is now a sport.

It is an event that athletes from all around the world compete in.

The photo shows a woman athlete about to throw a javelin.

So thinking about the rights of women in Sparta, can you answer this multiple-choice question for me? What could a woman in Sparta do that a woman in Athens could not? A, weave cloth, B, cook and clean, C, own property, or D, work to earn money? Now be careful, there could be more than one correct choice.

Have a think now and make your decision.

Have you decided? Let's check.

In Sparta, unlike Athens, women could own property and they could work to earn money.

Did you choose C and D? Good job.

So let's try this activity now.

We've heard a lot about Spartan life and how Sparta was different from Athens.

So this is a note-making task.

I want you to complete the table with notes about the similarities and differences between the ancient Greek city-states of Sparta and Athens.

When you finish, share and compare your notes with a partner.

Pause the video now while you complete the task.

Are you ready? Great.

You've got some excellent ideas.

I'm going to share my ideas with you now.

You may have included notes like these in your table.

Starting with the similarities.

I believe that both city-states were in ancient Greece.

That's true.

Both had a council and both were governed by men.

Athens and Sparta both fought in the Peloponnesian War.

And in both states women did cooking and cleaning and weaving.

Now moving on to the differences.

I noted that Athens was a seafaring society, but Sparta was militaristic.

Sparta had two kings, but Athens did not have a king.

In Athens, the women could not own property or work to earn money, but in Sparta, the women could do both of those things.

So they were very similar in many ways, but they were very, very different in a lot of others.

We've covered an awful lot today, so let's review what we now know at the end of this lesson.

We know that Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, and that the city of Sparta was located inland in a hilly area near the Eurotas river.

We know that Sparta was ruled by a council that was made of two kings with 28 elders.

We know that Sparta was a militaristic society and that boys were trained as soldiers from the age of seven, and that was up until the age of about 20.

We also know that Sparta conquered the city-state next door, which was Messenia, and they enslaved the people, forcing them to farm all the food that they needed.

We also know that Sparta fought against its rival Athens in the Peloponnesian War.

After more than 25 years of fighting in this war, the Spartans won in 404 BCE.

And finally, we know that women in Sparta had more rights than the women in Athens did.

I hope you have had an interesting time today, learning about the differences between Athens and Sparta.

I'm very excited to find out more next time in another lesson about ancient Greece.

Bye for now.