Sparta

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Sparta , city of ancient Greece, capital of Laconia, on the Eurotas (Evrótas) River in the Peloponnesus.

Spartan Society

Sparta's government was headed by two hereditary kings furnished by two families; they were titular leaders in battle and in religion. Some of these kings were able (e.g., Cleomenes I, Leonidas, and Agis II), but all were held in check. There was a council of elders and a general assembly of citizens; but the real rulers were the board of five ephors , elected annually. The business of the state was conducted with secrecy (unlike the open forum methods of Athens), and every effort was made to keep the institutions unchanged.

The ruling class, the Spartiates, gave themselves wholly to war. At birth a boy was inspected by the elders, and if he appeared too weakly for future military service, he was taken into the mountains and abandoned. If he was fit, he was taken from his mother at the age of seven to begin rigorous military training. He became a soldier at 20, a citizen at 30, and continued as a soldier until 60. Thus his entire life was spent under rigorous discipline. Spartiate women, under less severe discipline, were part of the soldierly society and were not secluded. The Spartiates were the only citizens and the only sharers in the allotment of lands and of the helots (serfs who were bound to the land). The helots farmed the land and paid part of the produce to their masters, the Spartiates. They could not be sold, but they had no legal or civil rights and were constantly watched by a sort of Spartiate secret police for fear of insurrection. In somewhat less stringent subjection were the perioeci, freemen who were permitted to carry on commerce and handicrafts, by which some of them prospered. Nevertheless, the perioeci were entirely subordinate to the Spartiates.

History

Early History

Located in a fertile, mountain-walled valley, the city-state of Sparta was created by invading Dorian Greeks, who later conquered the countryside of Laconia and Messenia (c.735–715 BC). For a long time the Spartans had no city walls, trusting to the strength of their army for defense against invaders and against their own Laconian and Messenian subjects. In the 7th cent. BC Sparta enjoyed a period of wealth and culture, the time of the poets Tyrtaeus and Alcman. After 600 BC, however, Sparta cultivated only the military arts, and the city became an armed camp, established (according to the official legend) by Lycurgus , in reaction to a Messenian revolt (see Messenia ).

The Persian and Peloponnesian Wars

By the 6th cent. BC, Sparta was the strongest Greek city. In the Persian Wars , Sparta fought beside Athens, first at Thermopylae (480), under Leonidas; later that year at Salamis; and in 479 at Plataea (won by Pausanias ). Before 500 BC, Sparta had formed a confederacy of allies (the Peloponnesian League), which it dominated. Through the league and by direct methods Sparta was master of most of the Peloponnesus.

After the Persian Wars rivalry with Athens sharpened, and Athens grew stronger. An earthquake at Sparta (464 BC), followed by a stubborn Messenian revolt, greatly weakened Sparta. In the end a contest with Athens came indirectly, provoked by Corinthian fears of Athenian imperialism. This was the great Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which wrecked the Athenian empire.

Soon after their victory over Athens the dominant Spartans, led by Agesilaus II , were involved in a war with Persia; then the Spartan envoy Antalcidas concluded (386 BC) a treaty with Artaxerxes II by which Sparta surrendered the Greek cities of Asia Minor in return for withdrawal of Persian support from the Athenians, who were again at war with Sparta, and from the Athenians' allies, the Thebans. Thebes fought on and by the victory at Leuctra (371 BC) gained ascendancy in Greece. Sparta fell an easy prey to Macedonia and declined. In the 3d cent. BC there were determined but futile attempts by kings Agis IV (see under Agis ) and Cleomenes III and by Nabis (d. 192 BC) to restore glory to Sparta by vigorous reforms. Under the Romans, Sparta prospered. It was devastated by the Goths in AD 395. The ruins of old Sparta, including sanctuaries and a theater, remain near the modern city of Sparta.

Bibliography

See A. H. M. Jones, Sparta (1967); J. Lazenby, The Spartan Army (1985); P. Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta (1987).

Sparta (Greek Spartí) A city in the southern Peloponnese in Greece. In ancient Greece, Sparta was a powerful city-state, capital of the state of Laconia. Invading Dorian Greeks occupied Laconia c.950 BC, and by about 700 BC the Spartans had emerged as the dominant element among them, with a large slave class of helots working on the land. Sparta had also, in the late 8th century, defeated and annexed the territory of Messenia, its western neighbour, reducing its population to helotry and dividing its land among the full Spartiate citizens. The stark austerity, militarism, and discipline of Spartan society were traditionally ascribed to a single great legislator, Lycurgus, variously dated c.900 and c.700 BC; it is likeliest that the fully developed Spartan system took shape somewhere between 700 and 600 BC.

From the 6th century, Sparta became the hub of an alliance comprising most of Peloponnesian and Isthmian states except its traditional rival, Argos; but many of these allies in the ‘Peloponnesian League’ were little more than puppets of Sparta. Sparta led the successful Greek resistance in the GREEK-PERSIAN WARS, but later came into protracted conflict with ATHENS in the PELOPONNESIAN WAR. Its final victory in 404 BC left it dominant in Greece and the Aegean; but after crushing defeats by Thebes at Leuctra (371) and Mantinea (362) and the loss of Messina it declined in importance.

Sparta City-state of ancient Greece, near the modern city of Spárti. Founded by Dorians after c.1100 bc, Sparta conquered Laconia (se Peloponnese) by the 8th century bc, and headed the Peloponnesian League against Persia in 480 bc. In the Peloponnesian War (431–404 bc), it defeated its great rival, Athens, but was defeated by Thebes in 371 bc, and failed to withstand the invasion of Philip II of Macedon. In the 3rd century bc, Sparta struggled against the Achaean League (a confederation of city-states), subsequently joining it but coming under Roman dominance after 146 bc. In ad 395 the Goths, led by Alaric I, destroyed the ancient city. Sparta was famous for its remarkable social and military organization.

Sparta, Canada, USA All places are probably named, directly or indirectly, after the ancient city‐state in Greece. See Spárti.

sparta, sparto; spartita, spartito (It.). Score.

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