With its overpowering hoplite warriors, rigid lifestyle and legendary agoge school, this martial civilisation in the southern Peloponnesian peninsular rose to be one the great powers of Ancient Greece and inspired fascination not only in its own day but throughout history.
As always it is impossible to narrow a civilisation so intricate and involved as Sparta's into ten bullet points, however here is a Sparta by numbers.
1- Lycurgus, the legendary "founder" of Sparta, established the laws and systems of government that are seen in the structure of classical Sparta in the 8th and 7th century BC.
2 - Sparta was ruled by two Kings. Each from a family descended from Heracles himself. These two kings were equal in authority so that they could not work against each other.
3- Sparta's military power was built upon the backs of the enslaved people, Helots, from neighbouring Messenia. Herodotus writes that at the battle of Plataea
"...ordered five thousand Spartans to march before dawn.
Seven helots were appointed to attend each of them"
The number of helots was always a fear of the Spartans and they rose in rebellion several times against their subjugation, but their enslavement was what allowed Spartan men to focus on military training as opposed to farming.
4 - Sparta's most famous battle took place in 480 BC at Thermopylae. For three days Sparta and allied forces of Greece held the small pass against the supreme might of the Persian empire under Xerxes. |
| Jacques-Louis David's Leonis at Thermopylae |
5 - Herodotus in Book 8 Chapter 24 tells us that King Leonidas, his bodyguard of three hundred Spartans and some of their allies killed up to 20,000 Persian invaders.
6 - Sparta and Athens were engaged in a war for supremacy over mainland Greece between 431 - 404 BC.
"Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any that preceded it"
The result of the war was the fall of Athenian supremacy in Greece and the rise of Spartan.
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| Degas' Young Spartans Exercising in the National Gallery |
7 - Spartans entered the agoge for their military training at the age of seven. If they survived the experience, no dramatics intended it was a dangerous and deadly experience, at the age of twenty they joined the army.
"They were the only men in the world with whom war brought a respite in the training for war"
8 - Spartan girls were not only educated at a young age in dance, gymnastics and sports, but were also not married until they were in their late teens or 20's.
9 - Spartan power in Greece was finally broken by the Thebans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC where the Thebans using revolutionary hoplite tactics against the Spartan line
"so confounded that there was a flight and slaughter of the Spartans
such as had never before been seen"
10 - After Greece's subjugation by Rome in 146 BC, Sparta, along with the other Poleis of Greece became a tourist destination for Roman aristocracy, looking to marvel in Sparta's martial heritage.
These ten facts barely touch the surface of Sparta, let alone scrape it, but they are none the less, ten facts about the city state of Sparta.
Thanks for Reading
James
These ten facts barely touch the surface of Sparta, let alone scrape it, but they are none the less, ten facts about the city state of Sparta.
Thanks for Reading
James
Sparta was certainly a complex and multi layered society that's left a deeper legacy and influence than many people would ever imagine.
ReplyDeleteThe highly disciplined and frugal life the young boys endured in the Agoge has left us with the word 'spartan' to mean plain, bland, unadorned , most basic. The modern meaning hardly does the old city state much justice.
Much more inciteful and fitting is the word 'laconic' derived from Laconia which is the area in which Sparta situated.Again there is that sense of the back to basics approach of the Spartans because one definition of laconic would be to speak with economy,effectively, short and direct but also it can mean a witty, pithy, irreverent,mocking, ironic,almost self depricating remark or reply and could also mean a comeback that's blunt and biting enough to cut someone down to size with few words.
I suppose the most famous would be the mothers farewell to a son or wife's to husband going to battle 'either with your shield or on it'.
Also their approach to the Spartan women and women'sf place in society was surprisingly very enlightened even compared to many modern societies let alone the ancient world and they had a freedom to express themselves and revel in it that shocked much of the Greek world outside Sparta.
Think of that iconic women who captured the hearts of the king then turned the head of a weak prince thereby kickinf off the Trojan War and launching a thousand ships, Helen was a Spartan girl though she known now for being the wife of Troy
Thank you for your response. The greatest laconic response in my opinion will always be there answer to Phillip II of Macedon who said "If I invade Laconia you will be destroyed never to rise again". The Spartans replied to his message with one word, "If". Not that is Laconic.
DeleteThe professional and well-trained Spartan hoplites with their distinctive red cloaks, long hair, and lambda-emblazoned shields were probably the best and most feared fighters in Greece, fighting with distinction at such key battles asThermopylae and Plataea in the early 5th century BCE. The city was also in constant rivalry with the other major Greek cities ofAthens and Corinth and became involved in two protracted and hugely damaging conflicts, the Peloponnesian Wars of the mid- to late 5th century BCE and the Corinthian Wars of in the early 4th century BCE. I liked your blog, Take the time to visit the me and say that the change in design and meniu?
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