Brief Essay: Please answer one (1) and only one of the following brief essays. A

Question

Brief Essay: Please answer one (1) and only one of the following brief essays. A good answer should be four to five paragraphs in length and tell me everything that was covered in the lecture concerning the essay topic

1) Please describe the rise and structure of Spartan Society. A good answer should discuss The Messenians, Lycurgus the Lawgiver, Spartan Education, Spartan Government, Spartan Society and its big problem.

2) Please discuss the Carolingian Empire. A good answer will discuss Charles Martel, the Rise of Charlemagne as well as his government and religious policies and finally will discuss the fall of the Carolingian Empire

3) Please discuss the movement from The Roman Empire to the Micro-polities. A good answer will discuss the breakdown of trade (both internationally and internally) and the effects that this will have on taxation, money, and centralized government. A good answer will also discuss the rise of feudal society as it is seen in the processes of Subinfeudation and the rise of Honor codes

Explanation / Answer

Plutarch tells the story of Lycurgus as if he had been a real person, albeit an eleventh-generation descendant of Hercules, since the Greeks generally ascribed genealogy that went back to the gods when writing about important figures.

In Sparta there were two kings who jointly shared the power. Lycurgus, according to Plutarch, was the younger son of one of these two kings. His older brother's wife was pregnant when both Lycurgus' brother and father died, and so, the unborn would have become king -- assuming it was a boy -- in time. Lycurgus' sister-in-law proposed to Lycurgus, saying she would do away with the child if he would marry her. In that way both she and Lycurgus would maintain power in Sparta. Lycurgus pretended to agree with her, but instead of having the child killed after birth, as was a Greek custom, Lycurgus presented the child to the men of Sparta, naming the child and saying that he was their future king. Lycurgus himself was to act as guardian and advisor until the baby came of age.

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