Sparta

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This article is about the ancient Greek city-state. For modern-day Sparta, see Sparta, Peloponnese.
For other uses, see Sparta (disambiguation).
"Spartan" redirects here. For other uses, see Spartan (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 37°4′55″N 22°25′25″E

Lacedaemon
Λακεδαίμων

900s–192 BC

Lambda was used by the Spartan army as a symbol of Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων)

Territory of ancient Sparta

Capital Sparta
 Common languages Doric Greek

Religion Greek polytheism

Government Diarchy
Oligarchy

King

Legislature Gerousia

Historical era Classical antiquity

• Foundation 900s BC

• Messenian War 685–668 BC

• Battle of Thermopylae 480 BC

• Peloponnesian War 431–404 BC

• Battle of Mantinea 362 BC

• Annexed by Achaea 192 BC

Preceded by Succeeded by

Greek Dark Achaean

Ages League

Roman
Republic

This article contains special characters.Without

proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes,
or other symbols.
Hollow Lacedaemon. Site of the Menelaion, the ancient shrine to Helen and Menelaus constructed in the
Bronze Age city that stood on the hill of Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas River overlooking the future
site of Dorian Sparta. Across the valley the successive ridges of Mount Taygetus are in evidence.

Sparta (Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, Spártā; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, Spártē) was a prominent city-
state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known
as Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων, Lakedaímōn), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement
on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese.[1] Around 650 BC, it
rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.
Given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek
forces during the Greco-Persian Wars.[2] Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the principal enemy
of Athens during the Peloponnesian War,[3] from which it emerged victorious, though at a great cost
of lives lost. Sparta's defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Sparta's prominent
role in Greece. However, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of
Greece in 146 BC. It then underwent a long period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages, when
many Spartans moved to live in Mystras. Modern Sparta is the capital of the Greek regional unit
of Laconia and a center for the processing of goods such as citrus and olives.
Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which configured their
entire society to maximize military proficiency at all costs, and completely focused on military training
and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates (Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full
rights), mothakes (non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans), perioikoi (free residents, literally
"dwellers around"), and helots (state-owned serfs, enslaved non-Spartan local population).
Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and
Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed
considerably more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical antiquity.
Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in Western culture following the
revival of classical learning.[n 1] This love or admiration of Sparta is known as Laconism or
Laconophilia. At its peak around 500 BC the size of the city would have been some 20,000–35,000
citizens, plus numerous helots and perioikoi. The likely total of 40,000–50,000 made Sparta one of
the largest Greek cities;[4][5] however, according to Thucydides, the population of Athens in 431 BC
was 360,000–610,000, making it unlikely that Athens was smaller than Sparta in 5th century BC.[n
2]
The French classicist François Ollier in his 1933 book Le mirage spartiate ("The Spartan Mirage")
warned that a major scholarly problem regarding Sparta is that all the surviving accounts were
written by non-Spartans who often presented an excessively idealized image of Sparta.[7] Ollier's
views have been widely accepted by scholars.[7]

Contents
 1Names
 2Geography
 3Mythology
 4Archaeology of the classical period
o 4.1Menelaion
 5History
o 5.1Prehistory, "dark age" and archaic period
o 5.2Classical Sparta
o 5.3Hellenistic and Roman Sparta
o 5.4Postclassical and modern Sparta
 6Structure of Classical Spartan society
o 6.1Constitution
o 6.2Citizenship
o 6.3Non citizens
 6.3.1Helots
 6.3.2Perioikoi
o 6.4Economy
 7Life in Classical Sparta
o 7.1Birth and death
o 7.2Education
o 7.3Military life
o 7.4Agriculture, food, and diet
o 7.5Marriage
 8Role of women
o 8.1Political, social, and economic equality
o 8.2Historic women
 9Laconophilia
 10Notable ancient Spartans
 11See also
 12Notes and references
 13Sources
 14External links

Names
The earliest attested term referring to Lacedaemon is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨, ra-ke-da-mi-
ni-jo, "Lacedaimonian", written in Linear B syllabic script,[8][n 3] being the equivalent of the written in the
Greek alphabet, latter Greek, Λακεδαιμόνιος, Lakedaimonios (Latin: Lacedaemonius).[14][15]
Eurotas River

The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the home location of the Spartans. The first
refers primarily to the main cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River: Sparta.[16] The
second word was Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων);[17] this was also used sometimes as an adjective and
is the name commonly used in the works of Homer and the historians Herodotus and Thucydides.
Herodotus seems to denote by it the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne, in contrast to the lower
town of Sparta. It could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it was not. It denoted the
terrain on which Sparta was situated.[18] In Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the
countryside: wide, lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken (full of ravines).[19]The hollow
suggests the Eurotas Valley. Sparta on the other hand is the country of lovely women, a people
epithet.
The name of the population was often used for the state of Lacedaemon: the Lacedaemonians. This
epithet utilized the plural of the adjective Lacedaemonius (Greek: Λακεδαιμὀνιοι;
Latin: Lacedaemonii, but also Lacedaemones). If the ancients wished to refer to the country more
directly, instead of Lacedaemon, they could use a back-formation from the
adjective: Lacedaemonian country. As most words for "country" were feminine, the adjective was in
the feminine: Lacedaemonia (Λακεδαιμονία, Lakedaimonia). Eventually, the adjective came to be
used alone.
"Lacedaemonia" was not in general use during the classical period and before. It does occur in
Greek as an equivalent of Laconia and Messenia during the Roman and early Byzantine periods,
mostly in ethnographers and lexica glossing place names. For example, Hesychius of
Alexandria's Lexicon (5th century AD) defines Agiadae as a "place in Lacedaemonia" named after
Agis.[20] The actual transition may be captured by Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae (7th century AD),
an etymological dictionary. He relied heavily on Orosius' Historiarum Adversum Paganos (5th
century AD) and Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicon (early 5th century AD) as did Orosius. The latter
defines Sparta to be Lacedaemonia Civitas but Isidore defines Lacedaemonia as founded by
Lacedaemon, son of Semele, relying on Eusebius.[21] There is a rare use, perhaps the earliest of
Lacedaemonia, in Diodorus Siculus,[22] but probably with Χὠρα (‘’chúra’’, "country") suppressed.
The immediate area around the town of Sparta, the plateau east of the Taygetos mountains, was
generally referred as Laconice (Λακωνική).[23] This term was sometimes used to refer to all the
regions under direct Spartan control, including Messenia.
Lakedaimona was until 2006 the name of a province in the modern Greek prefecture of Laconia.

Geography
Sparta is located in the region of Laconia, in the south-eastern Peloponnese. Ancient Sparta was
built on the banks of the Eurotas River, the main river of Laconia, which provided it with a source of
fresh water. The valley of the Eurotas is a natural fortress, bounded to the west by Mt.
Taygetus (2,407 m) and to the east by Mt. Parnon (1,935 m). To the north, Laconia is separated
from Arcadia by hilly uplands reaching 1000 m in altitude. These natural defenses worked to
Sparta's advantage and contributed to Sparta never having been sacked. Though landlocked, Sparta
had a harbor, Gytheio, on the Laconian Gulf.

Mythology
Lacedaemon (Greek: Λακεδαίμων) was a mythical king of Laconia.[24] The son of Zeus by the
nymph Taygete, he married Sparta, the daughter of Eurotas, by whom he became the father
of Amyclas, Eurydice, and Asine. He named the country after himself and the city after his wife.[24] He
was believed to have built the sanctuary of the Charites, which stood between Sparta and Amyclae,
and to have given to those divinities the names of Cleta and Phaenna. A shrine was erected to him
in the neighborhood of Therapne.

Archaeology of the classical period

The theater of ancient Sparta with Mt. Taygetus in the background.

Thucydides wrote:
Suppose the city of Sparta to be deserted, and nothing left but the temples and the ground-plan,
distant ages would be very unwilling to believe that the power of the Lacedaemonians was at all
equal to their fame. Their city is not built continuously, and has no splendid temples or other edifices;
it rather resembles a group of villages, like the ancient towns of Hellas, and would therefore make a
poor show.[25][26]
Until the early 20th century, the chief ancient buildings at Sparta were the theatre, of which,
however, little showed above ground except portions of the retaining walls; the so-called Tomb
of Leonidas, a quadrangular building, perhaps a temple, constructed of immense blocks of stone and
containing two chambers; the foundation of an ancient bridge over the Eurotas; the ruins of a circular
structure; some remains of late Roman fortifications; several brick buildings and mosaic
pavements.[25]
The remaining archaeological wealth consisted of inscriptions, sculptures, and other objects
collected in the local museum, founded by Stamatakis in 1872 and enlarged in 1907. Partial
excavation of the round building was undertaken in 1892 and 1893 by the American School at
Athens. The structure has been since found to be a semicircular retaining wall of Hellenic origin that
was partly restored during the Roman period.[25]
Ruins from the ancient site

In 1904, the British School at Athens began a thorough exploration of Laconia, and in the following
year excavations were made at Thalamae, Geronthrae, and Angelona near Monemvasia. In 1906,
excavations began in Sparta.[25]
A small circus described by Leake proved to be a theatre-like building constructed soon after AD 200
around the altar and in front of the temple of Artemis Orthia. Here musical and gymnastic contests
took place as well as the famous flogging ordeal (diamastigosis). The temple, which can be dated to
the 2nd century BC, rests on the foundation of an older temple of the 6th century, and close beside it
were found the remains of a yet earlier temple, dating from the 9th or even the 10th century.
The votive offerings in clay, amber, bronze, ivory and lead found in great profusion within the
precinct range, dating from the 9th to the 4th centuries BC, supply invaluable evidence for early
Spartan art.[25]
In 1907, the sanctuary of Athena "of the Brazen House" (Chalkioikos) was located on the acropolis
immediately above the theatre, and though the actual temple is almost completely destroyed, the
site has produced the longest extant archaic inscription of Laconia, numerous bronze nails and
plates, and a considerable number of votive offerings. The Greek city-wall, built in successive stages
from the 4th to the 2nd century, was traced for a great part of its circuit, which measured 48 stades
or nearly 10 km (6 miles) (Polyb. 1X. 21). The late Roman wall enclosing the acropolis, part of which
probably dates from the years following the Gothic raid of AD 262, was also investigated. Besides
the actual buildings discovered, a number of points were situated and mapped in a general study of
Spartan topography, based upon the description of Pausanias.[25]
Menelaion
Main article: Menelaion, Sparta
The Menelaion is a shrine associated with Menelaus, located east of Sparta, by the river Eurotas, on
the hill Profitis Ilias (Coordinates: 37.0659°N 22.4536°E). Built early 8th century BC it was believed
by Spartans to be the home of Menelaus. In 1970 the British School in Athens started excavations in
an attempt to locate Mycenaean remains in the area around Menelaion. Among other findings, they
uncovered the remains of two Mycenaean mansions and found the first offerings dedicated to Helen
and Menelaus. These mansions were destroyed by earthquake and fire, and archaeologists consider
them the possible palace of Menelaus himself.[27][better source needed] Excavations made from the early 1990s
to the present suggest that the area around Menelaion in the southern part of the Eurotas valley
seems to have been the center of Mycenaean Laconia.[28] The Mycenaean settlement was roughly
triangular in shape, with its apex pointed towards the north. Its area was approximately equal to that
of the "newer" Sparta, but denudation has wreaked havoc with its buildings and nothing is left save
ruined foundations and broken potsherds.[25]

History
Main article: History of Sparta

Prehistory, "dark age" and archaic period

The prehistory of Sparta is difficult to reconstruct because the literary evidence is far removed in
time from the events it describes and is also distorted by oral tradition.[29] However, the earliest
certain evidence of human settlement in the region of Sparta consists of pottery dating from the
Middle Neolithic period, found in the vicinity of Kouphovouno some two kilometres (1.2 miles) south-
southwest of Sparta.[30] These are the earliest traces of the original Mycenaean Spartan civilisation,
as represented in Homer's Iliad.[citation needed]
This civilization seems to have fallen into decline by the late Bronze Age, when, according to
Herodotus, Macedonian tribes from the north (called Dorians by those they conquered) marched into
Peloponnese and, subjugating the local tribes, settled there.[29] The Dorians seem to have set about
expanding the frontiers of Spartan territory almost before they had established their own
state.[31] They fought against the Argive Dorians to the east and southeast, and also
the Arcadian Achaeans to the northwest. The evidence suggests that Sparta, relatively inaccessible
because of the topography of the Taygetan plain, was secure from early on: it was never fortified.[31]

Lycurgus

Nothing distinctive in the archaeology of the Eurotas River Valley identifies the Dorians or the Dorian
Spartan state. The prehistory of the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the Dark Age (the Early Iron Age)
at this moment must be treated apart from the stream of Dorian Spartan history.
The legendary period of Spartan history is believed to fall into the Dark Age. It treats the mythic
heroes such as the Heraclids and the Perseids, offering a view of the occupation of the
Peloponnesus that contains both fantastic and possibly historical elements. The subsequent proto-
historic period, combining both legend and historical fragments, offers the first credible history.
Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC the Spartans experienced a period of lawlessness and civil
strife, later attested by both Herodotus and Thucydides.[32] As a result, they carried out a series of
political and social reforms of their own society which they later attributed to a semi-mythical
lawgiver, Lycurgus.[33] These reforms mark the beginning of the history of Classical Sparta.
Classical Sparta
In the Second Messenian War, Sparta established itself as a local power in Peloponnesus and the
rest of Greece. During the following centuries, Sparta's reputation as a land-fighting force was
unequalled.[34] In 480 BC a small force of Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans led by
King Leonidas (approximately 300 were full Spartiates, 700 were Thespians, and 400 were Thebans
although these numbers do not reflect casualties incurred prior to the final battle), made a
legendary last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, inflicting very
high casualties on the Persian forces before finally being encircled.[35] The superior weaponry,
strategy, and bronzearmour of the Greek hoplites and their phalanx again proved their worth one
year later when Sparta assembled at full strength and led a Greek alliance against the Persians at
the battle of Plataea.
The decisive Greek victory at Plataea put an end to the Greco-Persian War along with Persian
ambition of expanding into Europe. Even though this war was won by a pan-Greek army, credit was
given to Sparta, who besides being the protagonist at Thermopylae and Plataea, had been the de
facto leader of the entire Greek expedition.[36]
In later Classical times, Sparta along with Athens, Thebes, and Persia had been the main powers
fighting for supremacy against each other. As a result of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta, a
traditionally continental culture, became a naval power. At the peak of its power Sparta subdued
many of the key Greek states and even managed to overpower the elite Athenian navy. By the end
of the 5th century BC it stood out as a state which had defeated the Athenian Empire and had
invaded the Persian provinces in Anatolia, a period which marks the Spartan Hegemony.
During the Corinthian War Sparta faced a coalition of the leading Greek
states: Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos. The alliance was initially backed by Persia, whose lands
in Anatolia had been invaded by Sparta and which feared further Spartan expansion into
Asia.[37] Sparta achieved a series of land victories, but many of her ships were destroyed at the battle
of Cnidus by a Greek-Phoenician mercenary fleet that Persia had provided to Athens. The event
severely damaged Sparta's naval power but did not end its aspirations of invading further into
Persia, until Conon the Athenian ravaged the Spartan coastline and provoked the old Spartan fear of
a helot revolt.[38]
After a few more years of fighting, in 387 BC the Peace of Antalcidas was established, according to
which all Greek cities of Ionia would return to Persian control, and Persia's Asian border would be
free of the Spartan threat.[38] The effects of the war were to reaffirm Persia's ability to interfere
successfully in Greek politics and to affirm Sparta's weakened hegemonic position in the Greek
political system.[39] Sparta entered its long-term decline after a severe military defeat
to Epaminondas of Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra. This was the first time that a Spartan army lost a
land battle at full strength.
As Spartan citizenship was inherited by blood, Sparta now increasingly faced a helot population that
vastly outnumbered its citizens. The alarming decline of Spartan citizens was commented on
by Aristotle.
Hellenistic and Roman Sparta
Sparta never fully recovered from the losses that the Spartans suffered at Leuctra in 371 BC and the
subsequent helot revolts. Nonetheless, it was able to continue as a regional power for over two
centuries. Neither Philip II nor his son Alexander the Great attempted to conquer Sparta itself.
Even during its decline, Sparta never forgot its claim to be the "defender of Hellenism" and
its Laconic wit. An anecdote has it that when Philip II sent a message to Sparta saying "If I enter
Laconia, I will raze Sparta", the Spartans responded with the single, terse reply: αἴκα, "if".[40][41][42]
When Philip created the league of the Greeks on the pretext of unifying Greece against Persia, the
Spartans chose not to join, since they had no interest in joining a pan-Greek expedition unless it
were under Spartan leadership. Thus, upon defeating the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus,
Alexander the Great sent to Athens 300 suits of Persian armour with the following inscription:
"Alexander, son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the Spartans, give these offerings taken from
the foreigners who live in Asia".
During Alexander's campaigns in the east, the Spartan king, Agis III sent a force to Crete in 333 BC
with the aim of securing the island for Sparta.[43] Agis next took command of allied Greek forces
against Macedon, gaining early successes, before laying siege to Megalopolis in 331 BC. A large
Macedonian army under general Antipater marched to its relief and defeated the Spartan-led force in
a pitched battle.[44] More than 5,300 of the Spartans and their allies were killed in battle, and 3,500 of
Antipater's troops.[45] Agis, now wounded and unable to stand, ordered his men to leave him behind
to face the advancing Macedonian army so that he could buy them time to retreat. On his knees, the
Spartan king slew several enemy soldiers before being finally killed by a javelin.[46] Alexander was
merciful, and he only forced the Spartans to join the League of Corinth, which they had previously
refused to join.[47]
During the Punic Wars Sparta was an ally of the Roman Republic. Spartan political independence
was put to an end when it was eventually forced into the Achaean League after its defeat in the
decisive Laconian War by a coalition of other Greek city-states and Rome and the resultant
overthrow of its final king Nabis. Sparta played no active part in the Achaean War in 146 BC when
the Achaean League was defeated by the Roman general Lucius Mummius. Subsequently, Sparta
become a free city in the Roman sense, some of the institutions of Lycurgus were restored[48] and the
city became a tourist attraction for the Roman elite who came to observe exotic Spartan customs.[n 4]
Postclassical and modern Sparta
According to Byzantine sources, some parts of the Laconian region remained pagan until well into
the 10th century AD. Doric-speaking populations survive today in Tsakonia. In the Middle Ages, the
political and cultural center of Laconia shifted to the nearby settlement of Mystras, and Sparta fell
further in even local importance. Modern Sparti was re-founded in 1834, by a decree of King Otto of
Greece.

Structure of Classical Spartan society

Constitution
Main article: Spartan Constitution

Structure of the Spartan Constitution

Sparta was an oligarchy. The state was ruled by two hereditary kings of the Agiad and
Eurypontid families,[51] both supposedly descendants of Heracles and equal in authority, so that one
could not act against the power and political enactments of his colleague.[25]
The duties of the kings were primarily religious, judicial, and military. They were the chief priests of
the state and also maintained communication with the Delphian sanctuary, which always exercised
great authority in Spartan politics. In the time of Herodotus, about 450 BC, their judicial functions had
been restricted to cases dealing with heiresses, adoptions and the public roads. Aristotle describes
the kingship at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship" (Pol. iii. 1285a),
while Isocrates refers to the Spartans as "subject to an oligarchy at home, to a kingship on
campaign" (iii. 24).[25]
Civil and criminal cases were decided by a group of officials known as the ephors, as well as a
council of elders known as the gerousia. The gerousia consisted of 28 elders over the age of 60,
elected for life and usually part of the royal households, and the two kings.[52] High state policy
decisions were discussed by this council who could then propose action alternatives to the damos,
the collective body of Spartan citizenry, who would select one of the alternatives by voting.[53][54]
The royal prerogatives were curtailed over time. Dating from the period of the Persian wars, the king
lost the right to declare war and was accompanied in the field by two ephors. He was supplanted
also by the ephors in the control of foreign policy. Over time, the kings became mere figureheads
except in their capacity as generals. Real power was transferred to the ephors and to the gerousia.[25]
The origins of the powers exercised by the assembly of the citizens called the Apella are virtually
unknown because of the lack of historical documentation[25] and Spartan state secrecy.
Citizenship
Not all inhabitants of the Spartan state were considered to be citizens. Only those who had
undertaken the Spartan education process known as the agoge were eligible. However, usually the
only people eligible to receive the agoge were Spartiates, or people who could trace their ancestry to
the original inhabitants of the city.
There were two exceptions. Trophimoi or "foster sons" were foreign students invited to study. The
Athenian general Xenophon, for example, sent his two sons to Sparta as trophimoi. The other
exception was that the son of a helot could be enrolled as a syntrophos[55] if a Spartiate formally
adopted him and paid his way. If a syntrophos did exceptionally well in training, he might be
sponsored to become a Spartiate.[56] Spartans who could not afford to pay the expenses of
the agoge could lose their citizenship.
These laws meant that Sparta could not readily replace citizens lost in battle or otherwise and
eventually proved near fatal to the continuance of the state as the number of citizens became greatly
outnumbered by the non-citizens and, even more dangerously, the helots.
Non citizens
Others in the state were the perioikoi, who were free inhabitants of Spartan territory but were non-
citizens, and the helots,[57] the state-owned serfs. Descendants of non-Spartan citizens were not able
to follow the agoge.
Helots
Main article: Helots
The Spartans were a minority of the Lakonian population. The largest class of inhabitants were the
helots (in Classical Greek Εἵλωτες / Heílôtes).[58][59]
The helots were originally free Greeks from the areas of Messenia and Lakonia whom the Spartans
had defeated in battle and subsequently enslaved. In contrast to populations conquered by other
Greek cities (e.g. the Athenian treatment of Melos), the male population was not exterminated and
the women and children turned into chattel slaves. Instead, the helots were given a subordinate
position in society more comparable to serfs in medieval Europe than chattel slaves in the rest of
Greece.
Helots did not have voting rights, although compared to non-Greek chattel slaves in other parts of
Greece they were relatively privileged. The Spartan poet Tyrtaios refers to Helots being allowed to
marry and retaining 50% of the fruits of their labor.[60] They also seem to have been allowed to
practice religious rites and, according to Thucydides, own a limited amount of personal
property.[61] Some 6,000 helots accumulated enough wealth to buy their freedom, for example, in 227
BC.
In other Greek city-states, free citizens were part-time soldiers who, when not at war, carried on
other trades. Since Spartan men were full-time soldiers, they were not available to carry out manual
labour.[62] The helots were used as unskilled serfs, tilling Spartan land. Helot women were often used
as wet nurses. Helots also travelled with the Spartan army as non-combatant serfs. At the last stand
of the Battle of Thermopylae, the Greek dead included not just the legendary three hundred Spartan
soldiers but also several hundred Thespian and Theban troops and a number of helots.[63]
Relations between the helots and their Spartan masters were sometimes strained. There was at
least one helot revolt (ca. 465–460 BC), and Thucydides remarked that "Spartan policy is always
mainly governed by the necessity of taking precautions against the helots."[64][65] On the other hand,
the Spartans trusted their helots enough in 479 BC to take a force of 35,000 with them to Plataea,
something they could not have risked if they feared the helots would attack them or run away. Slave
revolts occurred elsewhere in the Greek world, and in 413 BC 20,000 Athenian slaves ran away to
join the Spartan forces occupying Attica.[66] What made Sparta's relations with her slave population
unique was that the helots, precisely because they enjoyed privileges such as family and property,
retained their identity as a conquered people (the Messenians) and also had effective kinship groups
that could be used to organize rebellion.
As the Spartiate population declined and the helot population continued to grow, the imbalance of
power caused increasing tension. According to Myron of Priene[67] of the middle 3rd century BC:
"They assign to the Helots every shameful task leading to disgrace. For they ordained that each one
of them must wear a dogskin cap (κυνῆ / kunễ) and wrap himself in skins (διφθέρα / diphthéra) and
receive a stipulated number of beatings every year regardless of any wrongdoing, so that they would
never forget they were slaves. Moreover, if any exceeded the vigour proper to a slave's condition,
they made death the penalty; and they allotted a punishment to those controlling them if they failed
to rebuke those who were growing fat".[68]
Plutarch also states that Spartans treated the Helots "harshly and cruelly": they compelled them to
drink pure wine (which was considered dangerous – wine usually being cut with water) "...and to
lead them in that condition into their public halls, that the children might see what a sight a drunken
man is; they made them to dance low dances, and sing ridiculous songs..."
during syssitia (obligatory banquets).[69]
Each year when the Ephors took office they ritually declared war on the helots, thereby allowing
Spartans to kill them without the risk of ritual pollution.[70] This seems to have been done
by kryptai (sing. κρύπτης kryptēs), graduates of the agoge who took part in the mysterious institution
known as the Krypteia.[71] Thucydides states:
"The helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to have
most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their freedom; the
object being to test them, as it was thought that the first to claim their freedom would be the most
high spirited and the most apt to rebel. As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who
crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans,
however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them
perished."[72][73]
Perioikoi
Main article: Perioeci
The Perioikoi came from similar origins as the helots but occupied a significantly different position in
Spartan society. Although they did not enjoy full citizen-rights, they were free and not subjected to
the same restrictions as the helots. The exact nature of their subjection to the Spartans is not clear,
but they seem to have served partly as a kind of military reserve, partly as skilled craftsmen and
partly as agents of foreign trade.[74] Perioikoic hoplites served increasingly with the Spartan army,
explicitly at the Battle of Plataea, and although they may also have fulfilled functions such as the
manufacture and repair of armour and weapons,[75] they were increasingly integrated into the combat
units of the Spartan army as the Spartiate population declined.[76]
Economy

Name vase of the Spartan artist known as the Rider Painter (black-figured kylix, ca. 550–530 BC)

Spartan citizens were debarred by law from trade or manufacture, which consequently rested in the
hands of the Perioikoi.[25] The Periokoi monopoly on trade and manufacturing in one of the richest
territories of Greece explains in large part the loyalty of the perioikoi to the Spartan state.
Lacedaemon was rich in natural resources, fertile and blessed with a number of good natural
harbors. The periokoi could exploit these resources for their own enrichment, and did.[77]
Spartiates, on the other hand, were forbidden (in theory) from engaging in menial labor or trade,
although there is evidence of Spartan sculptors,[78] and Spartans were certainly poets, magistrates,
ambassadors, and governors as well as soldiers. Allegedly, Spartans were prohibited from
possessing gold and silver coins, and according to legend Spartan currency consisted of iron bars to
discourage hoarding.[79][80] It was not until the 260s or 250s BC that Sparta began to mint its own
coins.[81]
The conspicuous display of wealth appears to have been discouraged, although this did not preclude
the production of very fine, highly decorated bronze, ivory and wooden works of art and the
production of jewellery. Archeology has produced many examples of all these objects, some of
which are exquisite.[82]
Allegedly in connection with the Lycurgan Reforms (e.g. in the mid-8th Century BC), property had
been divided into 9,000 equal portions as part of a massive land reform. Each citizen received one
estate, a kleros, and thereafter was expected to derive his wealth from it.[83] The land itself was
worked by helots, who retained half the yield. From the other half, the Spartiate was expected to pay
his mess (syssitia) fees, and the agoge fees for his children. However, we know nothing about
whether land could be bought and sold, whether it could be inherited, if so by what system
(primogeniture or equally divided among heirs), whether daughters received dowries and much
more.[84] What is clear is that from early on there were marked differences of wealth within the state,
and these became even more serious after the law of Epitadeus, passed at some time after
the Peloponnesian War, removed the legal prohibition of the gift or bequest of land.[25][85] By the mid-
5th century, land had become concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, and the notion of all Spartan
citizens being "equals" had become a farce. By Aristotle's day (384–322 BC) citizenship had been
reduced from 9,000 to less than 1,000, and then further decreased to 700 at the accession of Agis
IV in 244 BC. Attempts were made to remedy this situation by creating new laws. Certain penalties
were imposed upon those who remained unmarried or who married too late in life.[25] These laws,
however, came too late and were ineffective in reversing the trend.

Life in Classical Sparta

Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, The Selection of Children in Sparta, 1785. A Neoclassical imaging of
what Plutarch describes.

Birth and death

Sparta was above all a militarist state, and emphasis on military fitness began virtually at birth.
Shortly after birth, a mother would bathe her child in wine to see whether the child was strong. If the
child survived it was brought before the Gerousia by the child's father. The Gerousia then decided
whether it was to be reared or not.[25] It is commonly stated that if they considered it "puny and
deformed", the baby was thrown into a chasm on Mount Taygetos known euphemistically as
the Apothetae (Gr., ἀποθέται, "Deposits").[86][87] This was, in effect, a primitive form
of eugenics.[86] Sparta is often portrayed as being unique in this matter; however, there is
considerable evidence that the killing of unwanted children was practiced in other Greek regions,
including Athens.[88] There is controversy about the matter in Sparta, since excavations in the chasm
only uncovered adult remains, likely belonging to criminals.[89]
When Spartans died, marked headstones would only be granted to soldiers who died in combat
during a victorious campaign or women who died either in service of a divine office or in childbirth.[90]
Education
Main article: Agoge

Bronze appliqué of Spartan manufacture, possibly depicting Orestes, 550–525 BC (Getty Villa)

When male Spartans began military training at age seven, they would enter the agoge system.
The agoge was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the
importance of the Spartan state. Boys lived in communal messes and, according to Xenophon,
whose sons attended the agoge, the boys were fed "just the right amount for them never to become
sluggish through being too full, while also giving them a taste of what it is not to have enough."[91] In
addition they were trained to survive in times of privation, even if it meant stealing.[92] Besides
physical and weapons training, boys studied reading, writing, music and dancing. Special
punishments were imposed if boys failed to answer questions sufficiently 'laconically' (i.e. briefly and
wittily).[93]
There is some evidence that in late-Classical and Hellenistic Sparta boys were expected to take an
older male mentor, usually an unmarried young man. However, there is no evidence of this in
archaic Sparta. According to some sources, the older man was expected to function as a kind of
substitute father and role model to his junior partner; however, others believe it was reasonably
certain that they had sexual relations (the exact nature of Spartan pederasty is not entirely clear).[94] It
is notable, however, that the only contemporary source with direct experience of the agoge,
Xenophon, explicitly denies the sexual nature of the relationship.[91]
Post 465 BC, some Spartan youth apparently became members of an irregular unit known as
the Krypteia. The immediate objective of this unit was to seek out and kill vulnerable helot Laconians
as part of the larger program of terrorising and intimidating the helot population.[95]
Less information is available about the education of Spartan girls, but they seem to have gone
through a fairly extensive formal educational cycle, broadly similar to that of the boys but with less
emphasis on military training. In this respect, classical Sparta was unique in ancient Greece. In no
other city-state did women receive any kind of formal education.[96]
Military life
Main articles: Spartan army and Spartiate

Marble statue of a helmed hoplite(5th century BC), Archaeological Museum of Sparta, Greece

At age 20, the Spartan citizen began his membership in one of the syssitia (dining messes or clubs),
composed of about fifteen members each, of which every citizen was required to be a
member.[25] Here each group learned how to bond and rely on one another. The Spartans were not
eligible for election for public office until the age of 30. Only native Spartans were considered full
citizens and were obliged to undergo the training as prescribed by law, as well as participate in and
contribute financially to one of the syssitia.[97]
Sparta is thought to be the first city to practice athletic nudity, and some scholars claim that it was
also the first to formalize pederasty.[98]According to these sources, the Spartans believed that the
love of an older, accomplished aristocrat for an adolescent was essential to his formation as a free
citizen. The agoge, the education of the ruling class, was, they claim, founded on pederastic
relationships required of each citizen,[99] with the lover responsible for the boy's training.
However, other scholars question this interpretation. Xenophon explicitly denies it,[91] but not
Plutarch.[100]
Spartan men remained in the active reserve until age 60. Men were encouraged to marry at age 20
but could not live with their families until they left their active military service at age 30. They called
themselves "homoioi" (equals), pointing to their common lifestyle and the discipline of the phalanx,
which demanded that no soldier be superior to his comrades.[101] Insofar as hoplite warfare could be
perfected, the Spartans did so.[102]
Thucydides reports that when a Spartan man went to war, his wife (or another woman of some
significance) would customarily present him with his hoplon (shield) and say: "With this, or upon this"
(Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς, Èi tàn èi èpì tàs), meaning that true Spartans could only return to Sparta either
victorious (with their shield in hand) or dead (carried upon it).[103] Unfortunately, poignant as this
image may be, it is almost certainly propaganda. Spartans buried their battle dead on or near the
battle field; corpses were not brought back on their hoplons.[104]Nevertheless, it is fair to say that it
was less of a disgrace for a soldier to lose his helmet, breastplate or greaves than his hoplon, since
the former were designed to protect one man, whereas the hoplon also protected the man on his left.
Thus the shield was symbolic of the individual soldier's subordination to his unit, his integral part in
its success, and his solemn responsibility to his comrades in arms – messmates and friends, often
close blood relations.
According to Aristotle, the Spartan military culture was actually short-sighted and ineffective. He
observed:
It is the standards of civilized men not of beasts that must be kept in mind, for it is good men not
beasts who are capable of real courage. Those like the Spartans who concentrate on the one and
ignore the other in their education turn men into machines and in devoting themselves to one single
aspect of city's life, end up making them inferior even in that.[105]
Aristotle was a harsh critic of the Spartan constitution and way of life. There is considerable
evidence that the Spartans, certainly in the archaic period, were not educated as one-sidedly as
Aristotle asserts. In fact, the Spartans were also rigorously trained in logic and philosophy.[106]
One of the most persistent myths about Sparta that has no basis in fact is the notion that Spartan
mothers were without feelings toward their off-spring and helped enforce a militaristic lifestyle on
their sons and husbands.[107][108] The myth can be traced back to Plutarch, who includes no less than
17 "sayings" of "Spartan women," all of which paraphrase or elaborate on the theme that Spartan
mothers rejected their own offspring if they showed any kind of cowardice. In some of these sayings,
mothers revile their sons in insulting language merely for surviving a battle. These sayings
purporting to be from Spartan women were far more likely to be of Athenian origin and designed to
portray Spartan women as unnatural and so undeserving of pity.[104]
Agriculture, food, and diet
Sparta's agriculture consisted mainly of barley, wine, cheese, grain, and figs. These items were
grown locally on each Spartan citizens kleros and were tended to by helots. Spartan citizens were
required to donate a certain amount of what they yielded from their kleros to their syssitia, or mess.
These donations to the syssitia were a requirement for every Spartan citizen. All the donated food
was then redistributed to feed the Spartan population of that syssitia.[109] The helots who tended to
the lands were fed using a portion of what they harvested.[110]
Marriage
Plutarch reports the peculiar customs associated with the Spartan wedding night:
The custom was to capture women for marriage(...) The so-called 'bridesmaid' took charge of the
captured girl. She first shaved her head to the scalp, then dressed her in a man's cloak and sandals,
and laid her down alone on a mattress in the dark. The bridegroom – who was not drunk and thus
not impotent, but was sober as always – first had dinner in the messes, then would slip in, undo her
belt, lift her and carry her to the bed.[111]
The husband continued to visit his wife in secret for some time after the marriage. These customs,
unique to the Spartans, have been interpreted in various ways. One of them decidedly supports the
need to disguise the bride as a man in order to help the bridegroom consummate the marriage, so
unaccustomed were men to women's looks at the time of their first intercourse. The "abduction" may
have served to ward off the evil eye, and the cutting of the wife's hair was perhaps part of a rite of
passage that signaled her entrance into a new life.[112]

Role of women
Main article: Women in ancient Sparta

Political, social, and economic equality

Spartan women, of the citizenry class, enjoyed a status, power, and respect that was unknown in the
rest of the classical world. The higher status of females in Spartan society started at birth; unlike
Athens, Spartan girls were fed the same food as their brothers.[113] Nor were they confined to their
father's house and prevented from exercising or getting fresh air as in Athens, but exercised and
even competed in sports.[113] Most important, rather than being married off at the age of 12 or 13,
Spartan law forbade the marriage of a girl until she was in her late teens or early 20s. The reasons
for delaying marriage were to ensure the birth of healthy children, but the effect was to spare
Spartan women the hazards and lasting health damage associated with pregnancy among
adolescents. Spartan women, better fed from childhood and fit from exercise, stood a far better
chance of reaching old age than their sisters in other Greek cities, where the median age for death
was 34.6 years or roughly 10 years below that of men.[114]
Unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the
house, Spartan women wore dresses (peplos) slit up the side to allow freer movement and moved
freely about the city, either walking or driving chariots. Girls as well as boys exercised, possibly in
the nude, and young women as well as young men may have participated in
the Gymnopaedia ("Festival of Nude Youths").[115][116]
Another practice that was mentioned by many visitors to Sparta was the practice of “wife-sharing”. In
accordance with the Spartan belief that breeding should be between the most physically fit parents,
many older men allowed younger, more fit men, to impregnate their wives. Other unmarried or
childless men might even request another man’s wife to bear his children if she had previously been
a strong child bearer.[117] For this reason many considered Spartan
women polygamous or polyandrous.[118] This practice was encouraged in order that women bear as
many strong-bodied children as they could. The Spartan population was hard to maintain due to the
constant absence and loss of the men in battle and the intense physical inspection of newborns.[119]
Spartan women were also literate and numerate, a rarity in the ancient world. Furthermore, as a
result of their education and the fact that they moved freely in society engaging with their fellow
(male) citizens, they were notorious for speaking their minds even in public.[120] Plato, in the middle of
the fourth century, described women's curriculum in Sparta as consisting of gymnastics and mousike
(music and arts). Plato goes on to praise Spartan women's ability when it came to philosophical
discussion.[121]
Most importantly, Spartan women had economic power because they controlled their own
properties, and those of their husbands. It is estimated that in later Classical Sparta, when the male
population was in serious decline, women were the sole owners of at least 35% of all land and
property in Sparta.[122] The laws regarding a divorce were the same for both men and women. Unlike
women in Athens, if a Spartan woman became the heiress of her father because she had no living
brothers to inherit (an epikleros), the woman was not required to divorce her current spouse in order
to marry her nearest paternal relative.[123]
Spartan women acquired so much wealth that in Aristotle’s analysis of the laws and history of Sparta
he attributed its precipitous fall (which happened during his lifetime) from being the master of Greece
to a second rate power in less than 50 years to the fact that Sparta had become
a gynecocracy whose intemperate women loved luxury. These tendencies became worse after the
huge influx of wealth following the Spartan victory of the Peloponnesian War, leading to the eventual
downfall of Sparta.[124]
Historic women
Many women played a significant role in the history of Sparta.[125] Queen Gorgo, heiress to the throne
and the wife of Leonidas I, was an influential and well-documented figure. Herodotus records that as
a small girl she advised her father Cleomenes to resist a bribe. She was later said to be responsible
for decoding a warning that the Persian forces were about to invade Greece; after Spartan generals
could not decode a wooden tablet covered in wax, she ordered them to clear the wax, revealing the
warning.[126] Plutarch's Moraliacontains a collection of "Sayings of Spartan Women", including a
laconic quip attributed to Gorgo: when asked by a woman from Attica why Spartan women were the
only women in the world who could rule men, she replied "Because we are the only women who are
mothers of men".[127]

Laconophilia
Main article: Laconophilia
Laconophilia is love or admiration of Sparta and of the Spartan culture or constitution. Sparta was
subject of considerable admiration in its day, even in its rival, Athens. In ancient times "Many of the
noblest and best of the Athenians always considered the Spartan state nearly as an ideal theory
realised in practice."[128] Many Greek philosophers, especially Platonists, would often describe Sparta
as an ideal state, strong, brave, and free from the corruptions of commerce and money.

Young Spartans Exercising by Edgar Degas (1834–1917)

With the revival of classical learning in Renaissance Europe, Laconophilia re-appears, for examples
in the writings of Machiavelli. The Elizabethan English constitutionalist John Aylmer compared the
mixed government of Tudor England to the Spartan republic, stating that "Lacedemonia [meaning
Sparta], [was] the noblest and best city governed that ever was". He commended it as a model for
England. The Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau contrasted Sparta favourably with
Athens in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, arguing that its austere constitution was
preferable to the more cultured nature of Athenian life. Sparta was also used as a model of social
purity by Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.[129]
Certain early Zionists, and particularly the founders of Kibbutz movement in Israel, had been
influenced by Spartan ideals, particularly as a model for education. Tabenkin, for example, a
founding father of the Kibbutz and the Palmach, was influenced by Spartan education. He prescribed
that education for warfare "should begin from the nursery", that children should from kindergarten
age be taken to "spend nights in the mountains and valleys".[130][131]
A new element of Laconophilia by Karl Otfried Müller, who linked Spartan ideals to the supposed
racial superiority of the Dorians, the ethnic sub-group of the Greeks to which the Spartans
belonged. Adolf Hitler praised the Spartans, recommending in 1928 that Germany should imitate
them by limiting "the number allowed to live". He added that "The Spartans were once capable of
such a wise measure... The subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible
because of the racial superiority of the Spartans." The Spartans had created "the first racialist
state".[132]
In the modern times, the adjective "spartan" is used to imply simplicity, frugality, or avoidance of
luxury and comfort.[133] The term laconic phrase describes a very terse and concise way of speaking
that was characteristic of the Spartans.
Sparta also features prominently in modern popular culture (see Sparta in popular culture),
particularly the Battle of Thermopylae (see Battle of Thermopylae in popular culture).

Notable ancient Spartans

 Agis I – king
 Agis II – king
 Agesilaus II – king
 Cleomenes I – king
 Leonidas I (c. 520–480 BC) – king, famous for his actions at the Battle of Thermopylae
 Cleomenes III – king and reformer
 Lysander (5th–4th century BC) – general
 Lycurgus (10th century BC) – lawgiver
 Chionis (7th century BC) – athlete
 Cynisca (4th century BC) – princess and athlete
 Chilon – philosopher
 Gorgo – queen and politician
 Helen – of the Trojan War, Queen of Sparta
 Menelaus – King of Sparta during the Trojan War
 Xanthippus of Carthage – Spartan mercenary, of the first Punic war.
 Clearchus of Sparta – Spartan mercenary in the army of the Ten Thousand (Greek
mercenaries).
 Nabis – King

See also
 List of Kings of Sparta

Notes and references

Notes

1. Jump up^ For the nature of this development, see the article on Laconophilia.
 2. Jump up^ According to Thucydides, the Athenian citizens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War
(5th century BC) numbered 40,000, making with their families a total of 140,000 people in all. The
metics, i.e. those who did not have citizen rights and paid for the right to reside in Athens, numbered a
further 70,000, whilst slaves were estimated at between 150,000 to 400,000.[6]
3. Jump up^ Found on the following tablets: TH Fq 229, TH Fq 258, TH Fq 275, TH Fq 253, TH Fq 284,
TH Fq 325, TH Fq 339, TH Fq 382.[9] There are also words like 𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨, ra-ke-da-mo-ni-jo-u-jo–
found on the TH Gp 227 tablet[9] – that could perhaps mean "son of the Spartan".[10][11] Moreover, the
attested words 𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨 , ra-ke-da-no and 𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨𐀨, ra-ke-da-no-re could possibly be Linear B forms
of Lacedaemon itself; the latter, found on the MY Ge 604 tablet, is considered to be the dative
case form of the former which is found on the MY Ge 603 tablet. It is considered much more probable
though that ra-ke-da-no and ra-ke-da-no-re correspond to the anthroponym Λακεδάνωρ, Lakedanor,
though the latter is thought to be related etymologically to Lacedaemon.[9][12][13]
4. Jump up^ Especially the Diamastigosis at the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, Limnai outside Sparta.
There an amphitheatre was built in the 3rd century CE to observe the ritual whipping of Spartan
youths.[49][50]
References

1. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 91

2. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 174
3. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 192
4. Jump up^ Morris, Ian (December 2005), The growth of Greek cities in the first millennium BC.
v.1(PDF), Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics
5. Jump up^ Nielsen, Thomas Heine (29 December 2017). "Once Again: Studies in the Ancient Greek
Polis". Franz Steiner Verlag – via Google Books.
6. Jump up^ Wilson, Nigel Guy, ed. (2006). Encyclopedia Of Ancient Greece. Routledge (UK). pp. 214–
15. ISBN 0-415-97334-1.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b Hodkinson, Stephen "The Imaginary Spartan Politeria" pp. 22–81 from The Imaginary
Polis: Symposium, January 7–10, 2004 edited by Mogens Herman Hansen, Copenhagen: Danske
Videnskabernes Selskab, 2005 p. 222.
8. Jump up^ "The Linear B word ra-ke-da-mi-ni-jo". Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of Ancient
languages.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b c "TH 229 Fq (305)". "TH Fq 258 (305)". "TH 275 Fq (305)". "TH 253 Fq (305)". "TH
284 Fq (305)". "TH 325 Fq (305)". "TH 339 Fq (305)". "TH 382 Fq (305)". "TH 227 Gp (306)". "MY 603
Ge + frr. (58a)". "MY 604 Ge (58a)". DĀMOS Database of Mycenaean at Oslo. University of Oslo.
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15. Jump up^ Lacedaemonius, s.v. Lacedaemon. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin
Dictionary on Perseus Project.
16. Jump up^ LIddell & Scott 1940, Σπάρτη.
17. Jump up^ Liddell & Scott 1940, Λακεδαίμων.
18. Jump up^ MacBean, Alexander; Johnson, Samuel (1773). "Lacedaemon". A Dictionary of Ancient
Geography [etc.] London: G. Robinson [etc.].
19. Jump up^ Autenrieth 1891, Λακεδαίμων.
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23. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 4
24. ^ Jump up to:a b Pausanias 1918, Description of Greece, ΙΙΙ.1.2.
25. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a
publication now in the public domain: Tod, Marcus Niebuhr (1911). "Sparta". In Chisholm,
Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 609–614.
26. Jump up^ Thucydides, i. 10
27. Jump up^ The British School at Athens, Home.
28. Jump up^ "The Mycenaean presence in the southeastern Eurotas valley: Vouno Panagias and Ayios
Georgios", by Emilia Banou.
29. ^ Jump up to:a b Herodot, Book I, 56.3
30. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 28
31. ^ Jump up to:a b Ehrenberg 2004, p. 31
32. Jump up^ Ehrenberg 2004, p. 36
33. Jump up^ Ehrenberg 2004, p. 33
34. Jump up^ "A Historical Commentary on Thucydides"—David Cartwright, p. 176
35. Jump up^ Green 1998, p. 10
36. Jump up^ Britannica ed. 2006, "Sparta"
37. Jump up^ "Dictionary of Ancient&Medieval Warfare"—Matthew Bennett, p. 86
38. ^ Jump up to:a b "The Oxford Illustrated History of Greece and the Hellenistic World" p. 141, John
Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray
39. Jump up^ Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 556–59
40. Jump up^ Davies 1998, pp. 133.
41. Jump up^ Plutarch 1874, De garrulitate, 17.
42. Jump up^ Plutarch 1891, De garrulitate, 17; in Greek.
43. Jump up^ "Agis III – Livius". www.livius.org.
44. Jump up^ Badian, E. (29 December 1967). "Agis III". Hermes. 95 (2): 170–192. JSTOR 4475455.
45. Jump up^ Diodorus, World History
46. Jump up^ Diodorus, World History, 17.62.1–63.4;tr. C.B. Welles
47. Jump up^ Alexander the Great and his time By Agnes Savill Page 44 ISBN 0-88029-591-0
48. Jump up^ Cartledge & Spawforth 2001, p. 82
49. Jump up^ Cicero (1918). "II.34". In Pohlenz, M. Tusculanae Disputationes (in Latin). Leipzig:
Teubner. At the Perseus Project.
50. Jump up^ Michell, Humfrey (1964). Sparta. Cambridge University Press. p. 175.
51. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 89
52. Jump up^ The Greeks at War By Philip De Souza, Waldemar Heckel, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Victor
Davis Hanson
53. Jump up^ The Politics By Aristotle, Thomas Alan Sinclair, Trevor J. Saunders
54. Jump up^ A companion to Greek studies By Leonard Whibley
55. Jump up^ σύντροφος in Liddell and Scott.
56. Jump up^ The Greek World By Anton Powell
57. Jump up^ Ancient Greece By Sarah B. Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer
Tolbert Roberts
58. Jump up^ Herodotus (IX, 28–29)
59. Jump up^ Xenophon, Hellenica, III, 3, 5
60. Jump up^ West 1999, p. 24
61. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 141
62. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 140
63. Jump up^ Ehrenberg 2004, p. 159
64. Jump up^ Thucydides (IV, 80); the Greek is ambiguous
65. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, p. 211
66. Jump up^ Thucydides (VII, 27)
67. Jump up^ Talbert, p. 26.
68. Jump up^ Apud Athenaeus, 14, 647d = FGH 106 F 2. Trans. by Cartledge, p. 305.
69. Jump up^ Life of Lycurgus 28, 8–10. See also, Life of Demetrios, 1, 5; Constitution of the
Lacedemonians 30; De Cohibenda Ira 6; De Commmunibus Notitiis 19.
70. Jump up^ (Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 28, 7)
71. Jump up^ Powell 2001, p. 254
72. Jump up^ Thucydides (Book IV 80.4).
73. Jump up^ Classical historian Anton Powell has recorded a similar story from 1980s El Salvador. Cf.
Powell, 2001, p. 256
74. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, pp. 153–55
75. Jump up^ Cartledge 2002, pp. 158, 178
76. Jump up^ "Population Patterns in Late Archaic and Classical Sparta" by Thomas Figueira,
Transactions of the American Philological Association 116 (1986), pp. 165–213
77. Jump up^ Paul Cartledge, "Sparta and Lakonia," Routledge, London, 1979, pp. 154–59
78. Jump up^ Conrad Stibbe, "Das Andere Sparta," Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 1996, pp. 111–27
79. Jump up^ Excel HSC Ancient History By Peter Roberts, ISBN 1-74125-178-8, ISBN 978-1-74125-
178-4
80. Jump up^ Greene, Robert (2000), The 48 Laws of Power, Penguin Books, p. 420, ISBN 0-14-
028019-7
81. Jump up^ Hodkinson, Stephen (2000), Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, p. 154
82. Jump up^ Conrad Stibbe, Das Andere Sparta, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 1996
83. Jump up^ A.H.M. Jones, "Sparta," Basel Blackwell and Mott Ltd.,1967, pp. 40–43
84. Jump up^ Stephen Hodkinson, Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta, The Classical Press of
Wales, Swansea, 2000. See also Paul Cartledge's discussion of property in Sparta in "Sparta and
Lakonia," pp. 142–44.
85. Jump up^ Social Conflict in Ancient Greece By Alexander Fuks, ISBN 965-223-466-4, ISBN 978-965-
223-466-7
86. ^ Jump up to:a b Cartledge 2001, p. 84
87. Jump up^ Plutarch 2005, p. 20
88. Jump up^ Buxton 2001, p. 201
89. Jump up^ Ancient Sparta – Research Program of Keadas Cavern Theodoros K. Pitsios
90. Jump up^ Plutarch, Lycurgus 27.2–3. However this may be conflating later practice with that of the
classical period. See Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art
ed. Beth Cohen, p. 263, note 33, 2000, Brill.
91. ^ Jump up to:a b c Xenophon, Spartan Society, 2
92. Jump up^ Kagan, Donald; Ozment, Steven; Frank, Turner; Frank, Alison (2013). "The Rise of Greek
Civilization". Western Heritage. Pearson. pp. 44, Spartan Society.
93. Jump up^ Cartledge 2001, p. 85
94. Jump up^ Cartledge 2001, pp. 91–105
95. Jump up^ Cartledge 2001, p. 88
96. Jump up^ Cartledge 2001, pp. 83–84
97. Jump up^ E. David (1984). Aristophanes and Athenian Society of the Early Fourth Century B.C. Brill
Archive. ISBN 9004070621.
98. Jump up^ Scanlon, Thomas F. (2005). "The Dispersion of Pederasty and the Athletic Revolution in
Sixth-Century BC Greece". J Homosex. 49 (3–4): 63–
85. doi:10.1300/j082v49n03_03. PMID 16338890. Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman
Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West, pp. 64–70.
99. Jump up^ Erich Bethe,Die Dorische Knabenliebe: ihre Ethik und ihre Ideen (The Doric pederasty:
their ethics and their ideas), Sauerländer, 1907, 441, 444. ISBN 978-3921495773
100. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Life of Lycurgus, 18
101. Jump up^ Readers Companion Military Hist p. 438—Cowley
102. Jump up^ Adcock 1957, pp. 8–9
103. Jump up^ Plutarch 2004, p. 465
104. ^ Jump up to:a b Helena P. Schrader (2011). "Sons and Mothers". ΣPARTA: Journal of Ancient
Spartan and Greek History. Markoulakis Publications. 7 (4). ISSN 1751-0007. Retrieved September
14, 2013. (subscription required)
105. Jump up^ Forrest 1968, p. 53
 106. Jump up^ W. Lindsay Wheeler (2007). "Doric Crete and Sparta, the Home of Greek
Philosophy". ΣPARTA: Journal of Ancient Spartan and Greek History. Markoulakis
Publications. 3 (2). ISSN 1751-0007. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
107. Jump up^ Sarah B. Pomeroy (2002). Spartan Women. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-
8030002.[page needed]
108. Jump up^ The Greeks, H. D. F. Kitto, ISBN 0-202-30910-X, ISBN 9780202309101
109. Jump up^ Langridge-Noti, Elizabeth (2015). "Unchanging Tastes: First Steps Towards
Correlation of the Evidence for Food Preparation and Consumption in Ancient Laconia". In Spataro,
Michela; Villing, Alexandra. Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture. United Kingdom: Oxbow Books. pp. 148–
55. ISBN 978-1-78297-947-0.
110. Jump up^ Figueira, Thomas (1984). "Mess Contributions and Subsistence at
Sparta". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 114: 87–109.
111. Jump up^ Plutarch, The Life of Lycurgus
112. Jump up^ Pomeroy 2002, p. 42
113. ^ Jump up to:a b Xenophon, Spartan Society, 1
114. Jump up^ Susan Blundell, "Women in Ancient Greece," British Museum Press, London, 1999
115. Jump up^ Guttentag and Secord, 1983; Finley, 1982; Pomeroy, 1975
116. Jump up^ Pomeroy 2002, p. 34
117. Jump up^ Powell 2001, p. 248
118. Jump up^ Blundell 1995, p. 154
119. Jump up^ Powell 2001, p. 246
120. Jump up^ Maria Dettenhofer, "Die Frauen von Sparta," Reine Männer Sache, Munich,
Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994, p. 25.
121. Jump up^ Pomeroy, Sarah (2002). Spartan Women. Oxford University Press. p. 9.
122. Jump up^ Pomeroy, 1975
123. Jump up^ Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddess, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical
Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books, 1995 pp. 60–62
124. Jump up^ Ancient History Sourcebook: Aristotle: Spartan Women Archived 2015-04-18 at
the Wayback Machine.
125. Jump up^ "Gorgo and Spartan Women". Web.archive.org. 2009-10-27. Archived from the
original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
126. Jump up^ Helena Schrader (2010-07-11). "Sparta Reconsidered—Spartan Women".
Elysiumgates.com. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
127. Jump up^ Plutarch 2004, p. 457
128. Jump up^ Mueller: Dorians II, 192
129. Jump up^ Žižek, Slavoj. "The True Hollywood Left". www.lacan.com.
130. Jump up^ The Making of Israeli Militarism, By Uri Ben-Eliezer, Indiana University Press,
1998, p. 63
131. Jump up^ Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881–1948, By Anita Shapira,
Stanford University Press 1999, 300
132. Jump up^ "Professor Ben Kiernan, ''Hitler, Pol Pot, and Hutu Power: Distinguishing Themes
of Genocidal Ideology'', Holocaust and the United Nations Discussion Paper". Un.org. Retrieved 2011-
08-10.
133. Jump up^ Webster Dictionary http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/Spartan%5B2%5Dhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Spartan[permanent
dead link]

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External links
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the 1911 Encyclopædia
Britannica article Sparta.

 Sparta on In Our Time at the BBC

 GTP – Sparta
 GTP – Ancient Sparta
  Schrader, Helena P. (2001–2010). "Sparta Reconsidered: An Introduction". The Spartans:
Warrior Philosophers of the Ancient World. Elysium Gates. Archived from the original on 2002-
10-05.
 Papakyriakou-Anagnostou, Ellen (2000–2011). "History of Sparta". Ancient Greek Cities.

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Ancient Greece

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00628643

252090229
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