Modern Spartans. History of ancient Sparta
We all know about the rivalry between the two great Greek cities - Athens and Sparta, we know about the feat of the 300 Spartans, but have you heard about the modern city of Sparta? Athens is the capital. And the Acropolis is in the center of it. Where are the ruins of Sparta and what remains of them? Now I will show them to you.
Sparta still exists today; it is a small, completely unpopular city with tourists in the south of the Peloponnese with the same name. You can only get here by car. However, if you look at a map of a modern city, it will be very difficult to find remnants of its former greatness there.
Remains of Roman fortifications
The ruins of Ancient Sparta are located in the north outside the city limits in the area of the local stadium. The excavation site itself is a huge olive grove. Here are the main objects of antiquity.
In ancient times, the name “Sparta” did not exist; the city-polis known to us was called Lacedaemon. If Athens was famous for its democracy - the power of the people, then Sparta (we will call the city as it is more familiar to us) was a militarized aristocratic state with a large layer of slaves. He easily managed to subjugate his neighbors on the peninsula to his will.
Layout of the ruins of Sparta
But in the 4th century BC, a series of defeats weakened the power of Sparta, and then came the Macedonians, whose strength of arms exceeded that of the Spartans. In the 2nd century BC, the Greek city-states became dependent on Rome and could no longer make grandiose plans against each other. From this time on, little is known about Sparta, the city lost its importance, and by the Middle Ages it virtually did not exist. The modern city appeared only in 1834.
Entrance to the excavation site of Ancient Sparta is currently free, which is very rare for Greece. The fact is that the ruins do not look like a tourist attraction; everything is quite abandoned and is not of particular interest. There is simply nothing to pay for here. But in parallel, work is underway to reconstruct and restore the remaining ruins so that they get their outlines, and then they will take money.
Road to the ruins
The main attraction is the theater, as always, with a wonderful view of the mountains and the entire valley. It is not very well preserved, but has not lost its outlines; you can wander around here and take a look. The theater was built in the 5th century BC, during the heyday of the polis, and accommodated 17 thousand spectators.
Scene
The walls of the stands praise the heroes
On the hill above the theater the foundations of a number of buildings have been preserved - a sanctuary, a basilica and an unknown building
Sanctuary of Athena Halkikos
Remains of a house with two niches, its purpose unknown
Remains of the basilica
Mountain View
To the east of these places you can find the remains of Roman fortifications, as well as the center of the Roman city, even further east, through a residential neighborhood you can find the foundation of the Temple of Artemis.
Round building. It is a three-stage base around a hill
Remains of the Roman Stoa
Agora of the 3rd-4th century BC
Sanctuary
In the west, Sparta is adjacent to the complex of Byzantine monasteries of Mystras, as well as a very beautiful nature reserve in the mountains. In the southeast the road leads to the fortified city
In the southeast of the largest Greek peninsula - the Peloponnese - the powerful Sparta was once located. This state was located in the region of Laconia, in the picturesque valley of the Eurotas River. Its official name, which was most often mentioned in international treaties, is Lacedaemon. It was from this state that such concepts as “Spartan” and “Spartan” came. Everyone has also heard about the cruel custom that has developed in this ancient polis: killing weak newborns in order to maintain the gene pool of their nation.
History of origin
Officially, Sparta, which was called Lacedaemon (from this word also came the name of the nome - Laconia), arose in the eleventh century BC. After some time, the entire area on which this city-state was located was captured by the Dorian tribes. Those, having assimilated with the local Achaeans, became Spartakiates in the sense known today, and the former inhabitants were turned into slaves called helots.
The most Doric of all the states that Ancient Greece once knew, Sparta, was located on the western bank of Eurotas, on the site of the modern city of the same name. Its name can be translated as “scattered.” It consisted of estates and estates that were scattered throughout Laconia. And the center was a low hill, which later became known as the acropolis. Sparta originally had no walls and remained true to this principle until the second century BC.
State system of Sparta
It was based on the principle of the unity of all full-fledged citizens of the polis. For this purpose, the state and law of Sparta strictly regulated the life and life of its subjects, restraining their property stratification. The foundations of such a social system were laid by the treaty of the legendary Lycurgus. According to him, the duties of the Spartans were only sports or the art of war, and crafts, agriculture and trade were the work of the helots and perioecs.
As a result, the system established by Lycurgus transformed the Spartiate military democracy into an oligarchic-slave-owning republic, which still retained some signs of a tribal system. Here, land was not allowed, which was divided into equal plots, considered the property of the community and not subject to sale. Helot slaves also, historians suggest, belonged to the state rather than to wealthy citizens.
Sparta is one of the few states that was simultaneously headed by two kings, who were called archagets. Their power was inherited. The powers that each king of Sparta had were limited not only to military power, but also to the organization of sacrifices, as well as to participation in the council of elders.
The latter was called gerusia and consisted of two archagets and twenty-eight geronts. The elders were elected by the people's assembly for life only from the Spartan nobility who had reached the age of sixty. Gerusia in Sparta performed the functions of a certain government body. She prepared issues that needed to be discussed at public assemblies, and also directed foreign policy. In addition, the Council of Elders considered criminal cases, as well as state crimes, including those directed against the archaget.
Court
The legal proceedings and law of ancient Sparta were regulated by the college of ephors. This organ first appeared in the eighth century BC. It consisted of the five most worthy citizens of the state, who were elected by the people's assembly for only one year. At first, the powers of the ephors were limited only to the legal proceedings of property disputes. But already in the sixth century BC their power and powers were growing. Gradually they begin to displace gerusia. The ephors were given the right to convene a national assembly and gerousia, regulate foreign policy, and carry out internal governance of Sparta and its legal proceedings. This body was so important in the social structure of the state that its powers included the control of officials, including the archaget.
People's Assembly
Sparta is an example of an aristocratic state. In order to suppress the forced population, whose representatives were called helots, the development of private property was artificially restrained in order to maintain equality among the Spartiates themselves.
The Apella, or popular assembly, in Sparta was characterized by passivity. Only full-fledged male citizens who had reached the age of thirty had the right to participate in this body. At first, the people's assembly was convened by the archaget, but subsequently its leadership also passed to the college of ephors. Apella could not discuss the issues put forward, she only rejected or accepted the solution she proposed. Members of the national assembly voted in a very primitive way: by shouting or dividing participants into different sides, after which the majority was determined by eye.
Population
The inhabitants of the Lacedaemonian state have always been class-unequal. This situation was created by the social system of Sparta, which included three classes: the elite, the perieki - free residents from nearby cities who did not have the right to vote, as well as state slaves - helots.
The Spartans, who were in privileged conditions, were exclusively engaged in war. They were far from trade, crafts and agriculture; all this was given over to the Perieks as a right. At the same time, the estates of the elite Spartans were cultivated by helots, whom the latter rented from the state. During the heyday of the state, there were five times fewer nobility than perieks, and ten times fewer helots.
All periods of the existence of this one of the most ancient states can be divided into prehistoric, ancient, classical, Roman and Each of them left its mark not only in the formation of the ancient state of Sparta. Greece borrowed a lot from this history in the process of its formation.
Prehistoric era
The Leleges initially lived on the Laconian lands, but after the capture of the Peloponnese by the Dorians, this region, which was always considered the most infertile and generally insignificant, as a result of deception, went to two minor sons of the legendary king Aristodemus - Eurysthenes and Proclus.
Soon Sparta became the main city of Lacedaemon, whose system for a long time did not stand out among the other Doric states. She waged constant external wars with neighboring Argive or Arcadian cities. The most significant rise occurred during the reign of Lycurgus, the ancient Spartan legislator, to whom ancient historians unanimously attribute the political structure that subsequently dominated Sparta for several centuries.
Antique era
After victory in the wars lasting from 743 to 723 and from 685 to 668. BC, Sparta was able to finally defeat and capture Messenia. As a result, its ancient inhabitants were deprived of their lands and turned into helots. Six years later, Sparta, at the cost of incredible efforts, defeated the Arcadians, and in 660 BC. e. forced Tegea to recognize her hegemony. According to the agreement stored on the column placed near Althea, she forced her to enter into a military alliance. It was from this time that Sparta in the eyes of the people began to be considered the first state of Greece.
The history of Sparta at this stage is that its inhabitants began to make attempts to overthrow the tyrants that had been appearing since the seventh millennium BC. e. in almost all Greek states. It was the Spartans who helped expel the Cypselids from Corinth, the Pisistrati from Athens, they contributed to the liberation of Sikyon and Phocis, as well as several islands in the Aegean Sea, thereby acquiring grateful supporters in different states.
History of Sparta in the classical era
Having concluded an alliance with Tegea and Elis, the Spartans began to attract the rest of the cities of Laconia and neighboring regions to their side. As a result, the Peloponnesian League was formed, in which Sparta assumed hegemony. These were wonderful times for her: she provided leadership in wars, was the center of meetings and all meetings of the Union, without encroaching on the independence of individual states that maintained autonomy.
Sparta never tried to extend its own power to the Peloponnese, but the threat of danger prompted all other states, with the exception of Argos, to come under its protection during the Greco-Persian wars. Having eliminated the immediate danger, the Spartans, realizing that they were unable to wage war with the Persians far from their own borders, did not object when Athens took further leadership in the war, limiting itself only to the peninsula.
From that time on, signs of rivalry between these two states began to appear, which subsequently resulted in the First, which ended with the Thirty Years' Peace. The fighting not only broke the power of Athens and established the hegemony of Sparta, but also led to a gradual violation of its foundations - the legislation of Lycurgus.
As a result, in 397 before our chronology, the uprising of Kinadon took place, which, however, was not crowned with success. However, after certain setbacks, especially the defeat at the Battle of Cnidus in 394 BC. e, Sparta ceded Asia Minor, but became a judge and mediator in Greek affairs, thus motivating its policy with the freedom of all states, and was able to secure primacy in an alliance with Persia. And only Thebes did not submit to the conditions set, thereby depriving Sparta of the benefits of such a shameful peace for her.
Hellenistic and Roman era
Starting from these years, the state began to decline quite quickly. Impoverished and burdened with the debts of its citizens, Sparta, whose system was based on the legislation of Lycurgus, turned into an empty form of government. An alliance was concluded with the Phocians. And although the Spartans sent them help, they did not provide real support. In the absence of King Agis, with the help of money received from Darius, an attempt was made to get rid of the Macedonian yoke. But he, having failed in the battles of Megapolis, was killed. The spirit that Sparta was so famous for, which had become a household name, gradually began to disappear.
Rise of an Empire
Sparta is a state that for three centuries was the envy of all of Ancient Greece. Between the eighth and fifth centuries BC, it was a collection of hundreds of cities, often at war with each other. One of the key figures for the establishment of Sparta as a powerful and strong state was Lycurgus. Before his appearance, it was not much different from the rest of the ancient Greek city-states. But with the arrival of Lycurgus, the situation changed, and priorities in development were given to the art of war. From that moment on, Lacedaemon began to transform. And it was during this period that it flourished.
Since the eighth century BC. e. Sparta began to wage wars of conquest, conquering one after another its neighbors in the Peloponnese. After a series of successful military operations, Sparta moved on to establishing diplomatic ties with its most powerful opponents. Having concluded several treaties, Lacedaemon stood at the head of the union of the Peloponnesian states, which was considered one of the powerful formations of Ancient Greece. The creation of this alliance by Sparta was supposed to serve to repel the Persian invasion.
The state of Sparta has been a mystery to historians. The Greeks not only admired its citizens, but feared them. One type of bronze shields and scarlet cloaks worn by the warriors of Sparta put their opponents to flight, forcing them to capitulate.
Not only the enemies, but also the Greeks themselves did not really like it when an army, even a small one, was located next to them. Everything was explained very simply: the warriors of Sparta had a reputation of being invincible. The sight of their phalanxes brought even the most seasoned into a state of panic. And although only a small number of fighters took part in the battles in those days, they never lasted long.
The beginning of the decline of the empire
But at the beginning of the fifth century BC. e. a massive invasion from the East marked the beginning of the decline of Sparta's power. The huge Persian empire, which always dreamed of expanding its territories, sent a large army to Greece. Two hundred thousand people stood at the borders of Hellas. But the Greeks, led by the Spartans, accepted the challenge.
Tsar Leonidas
Being the son of Anaxandrides, this king belonged to the Agiad dynasty. After the death of his older brothers, Dorieus and Clemen the First, it was Leonidas who took over the reign. Sparta in 480 years before our chronology was in a state of war with Persia. And the name of Leonidas is associated with the immortal feat of the Spartans, when a battle took place in the Thermopylae Gorge, which remained in history for centuries.
This happened in 480 BC. e., when the hordes of the Persian king Xerxes tried to capture the narrow passage connecting Central Greece with Thessaly. At the head of the troops, including the allied ones, was Tsar Leonid. Sparta at that time occupied a leading position among friendly states. But Xerxes, taking advantage of the betrayal of the dissatisfied, bypassed the Thermopylae Gorge and went behind the rear of the Greeks.
Having learned about this, Leonidas, who fought along with his soldiers, disbanded the allied troops, sending them home. And he himself, with a handful of warriors, whose number was only three hundred people, stood in the way of the twenty-thousand-strong Persian army. The Thermopylae Gorge was strategic for the Greeks. In case of defeat, they would be cut off from Central Greece, and their fate would be sealed.
For four days, the Persians were unable to break the incomparably smaller enemy forces. The heroes of Sparta fought like lions. But the forces were unequal.
The fearless warriors of Sparta died every single one. Their king Leonidas fought with them to the end, who did not want to abandon his comrades.
The name Leonid will forever go down in history. Chroniclers, including Herodotus, wrote: “Many kings have died and have long been forgotten. But everyone knows and respects Leonid. His name will always be remembered in Sparta, Greece. And not because he was a king, but because he fulfilled his duty to his homeland to the end and died as a hero. Films have been made and books have been written about this episode in the life of the heroic Hellenes.
Feat of the Spartans
The Persian king Xerxes, who was haunted by the dream of capturing Hellas, invaded Greece in 480 BC. At this time, the Hellenes held the Olympic Games. The Spartans were preparing to celebrate Carnei.
Both of these holidays obliged the Greeks to observe a sacred truce. This was precisely one of the main reasons why only a small detachment resisted the Persians in the Thermopylae Gorge.
A detachment of three hundred Spartans led by King Leonidas headed towards Xerxes’ army of thousands. Warriors were selected based on whether they had children. On the way, Leonid's militia was joined by a thousand people each from Tegeans, Arcadians and Mantineans, as well as one hundred and twenty from Orkhomenes. Four hundred soldiers were sent from Corinth, three hundred from Phlius and Mycenae.
When this small army approached the Thermopylae Pass and saw the number of Persians, many soldiers became afraid and began to talk about retreat. Some of the allies proposed withdrawing to the peninsula to guard the Isthmus. However, others were outraged by this decision. Leonidas, ordering the army to remain in place, sent messengers to all cities asking for help, since they had too few soldiers to successfully repel the Persian attack.
For four whole days, King Xerxes, hoping that the Greeks would take flight, did not begin hostilities. But seeing that this was not happening, he sent the Cassians and Medes against them with the order to take Leonidas alive and bring him to him. They quickly attacked the Hellenes. Each onslaught of the Medes ended in huge losses, but others took the place of the fallen. It was then that it became clear to both the Spartans and Persians that Xerxes had many people, but few warriors among them. The battle lasted the whole day.
Having received a decisive rebuff, the Medes were forced to retreat. But they were replaced by the Persians, led by Hydarnes. Xerxes called them an “immortal” squad and hoped that they would easily finish off the Spartans. But in hand-to-hand combat, they, like the Medes, failed to achieve great success.
The Persians had to fight in close quarters, and with shorter spears, while the Hellenes had longer spears, which gave a certain advantage in this fight.
At night, the Spartans again attacked the Persian camp. They managed to kill many enemies, but their main goal was the defeat of Xerxes himself in the general turmoil. And only when it was dawn did the Persians see the small number of King Leonidas’s detachment. They pelted the Spartans with spears and finished them off with arrows.
The road to Central Greece was open for the Persians. Xerxes personally inspected the battlefield. Having found the dead Spartan king, he ordered him to cut off his head and put it on a stake.
There is a legend that King Leonidas, going to Thermopylae, clearly understood that he would die, so when his wife asked him during farewell what his orders would be, he ordered him to find a good husband and give birth to sons. This was the life position of the Spartans, who were ready to die for their Motherland on the battlefield in order to receive a crown of glory.
Beginning of the Peloponnesian War
After some time, the Greek city-states at war with each other united and were able to repel Xerxes. But, despite the joint victory over the Persians, the alliance between Sparta and Athens did not last long. In 431 BC. e. The Peloponnesian War broke out. And only several decades later was the Spartan state able to win.
But not everyone in Ancient Greece liked the supremacy of Lacedaemon. Therefore, half a century later, new hostilities broke out. This time his rivals were Thebes, who and their allies managed to inflict a serious defeat on Sparta. As a result, the power of the state was lost.
Conclusion
This is exactly what ancient Sparta was like. She was one of the main contenders for primacy and supremacy in the ancient Greek picture of the world. Some milestones of Spartan history are sung in the works of the great Homer. The outstanding “Iliad” occupies a special place among them.
And now all that remains of this glorious polis are the ruins of some of its buildings and unfading glory. Legends about the heroism of its warriors, as well as a small town of the same name in the south of the Peloponnese peninsula, reached contemporaries.
In the photo, the theater of Ancient Sparta is located on the southwestern slope of the Acropolis, below the Temple of Athena.
Sparta is one of the most famous cities in Greece. These days it is a fairly small settlement on the peninsula. But during the times of Ancient Greece, there was a city-state here that went down in history for the courage of its warriors. Ancient authors sometimes called it Lacedaemon, and its inhabitants - Lacedaemonians. Laconia is the abbreviated name for the region.
Story
Ancient Sparta reached the peak of its prosperity and power in 404 BC. e. after the victory over Athens in the Second Peloponnesian War.
Laconia played a vital role in the history of Ancient Greece. From the south and east it is washed by the sea, and was protected from enemies on land by mountain ranges. The fertile valley of Laconia's largest river, Evrotas, has turned Laconia into a thriving area of crop production and livestock breeding. The general picture of prosperity was spoiled only by periodic earthquakes. Sparta was the largest city in Laconia, the rest were far from it in all respects.
In 2 thousand BC. BC, during the period of the Mycenaean civilization, Laconia was inhabited by the Greek tribal group of the Achaeans. At the end of 2 thousand BC. e. Another ancient Greek tribe, the Dorians, invaded Laconia from the north and subjugated it. They were the ones who founded Sparta. The Dorians became the main population of Laconia, forming a class group of Spartiates who had all civil rights, turning everyone else into state slaves-helots or free, but not citizens - perieci from other cities of Laconia.
In fact, the entire country was a military camp, turning into an unusually militarized state. The introduction of this way of life is usually attributed to Lycurgus, although whether he was a god, a mythical hero, or a historical figure is never clear.
Many historians believe that Sparta arose relatively late, after the Dorian invasion, which supposedly occurred between 1150 and 1100. BC e. The invaders initially settled in or near the cities they had conquered and often destroyed, but a century later they established their own capital at the Eurotas River.
Starting from this period, the history of Laconia completely coincides with the history of its capital - the city-state of Sparta - founded around the 10th century. BC e. Sparta, whose name may mean "scattered" (other interpretations have been suggested), consisted of estates scattered over an area centered on a low hill that later became the Acropolis.
Sparta was a city unique in the ancient world. It is enough to mention at least the fact that the Spartans did not build walls to protect their city, relying more on the strength of their warriors and the talent of their commanders. The walls appeared only in the 2nd century. BC e. under the tyrant Nabid.
Ancient Sparta was built up most intensively in the 6th century. BC e. At that time, the temple of Athena Polyouchos, or Copperhouse, mentioned by the ancient Greek geographer Pausanias, the sanctuary of King Leonidas I, the hero of the Greco-Persian wars, the throne of Apollo and many other architectural monuments were erected on the Spartan Acropolis.
However, Sparta was still far behind other Greek city-states in architectural terms: it was more of a typical provincial city than a luxurious capital. The reason for such deliberate modesty should be sought in the “laws of Lycurgus,” created by the Spartan legislator himself or attributed to him and primarily directed against luxury.
The development of the city, obviously, was carried out without any specific plan; for particularly significant structures, places were selected higher up, on the hills.
The remains of Ancient Sparta are located north of modern Sparta, in the area of the local stadium. The area itself is a huge olive grove: trees have grown right through the ruins.
In the Greco-Persian wars 499-449. BC e. Sparta played one of the key roles. She further strengthened her position after her victory over Athens in the Peloponnesian War of 431-404. BC, becoming the most influential polis in Greece.
However, by the V-IV centuries. BC e. Sparta began to decline: in order to maintain its leading position, it had to fight many wars, the nobility was corrupted by luxury, the birth rate fell catastrophically due to late marriages and the isolation of the Spartan class. The decline of Sparta began with defeat at the Battle of Thebes at Leuctra in 371 BC. The Lacedaemonians lost their reputation as invincible, and the authority of Sparta fell.
Sparta was never able to recover and regain its former influence, and in 146 BC. e., like all of Greece, the legendary city became part of the Roman Empire. In 396 the city was destroyed by the Visigoths of Alaric. Since the 13th century. Neighboring Mystras became the political and cultural center of Laconia.
Due to the peculiarities of the development of its history, Laconia is not one of the regions of Greece rich in historical monuments. The ruins of ancient Sparta alone are best known.
The British School's excavations at Athens, carried out from 1906-1910 and 1924-1929, uncovered the remains of several buildings, including the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, the temple of Athena of Copper and a theater.
The central structure is, of course, the Acropolis, which was the center of both military and cultural life of the local residents. Without it, it was considered impossible to erect other buildings. The Spartan Acropolis consists of an agora (a combination of a market square, an exchange, a place for negotiations and the announcement of the decisions of the authorities, invented by the ancients), built already in the era of Ancient Rome.
The Temple of Artemis Orthia, Orthosia the Lady, as she was called in Sparta - Lygodesma, or Bound with Willows - was built in the 10th century. BC. shortly after the rise of Sparta. This is one of the few buildings from the original Spartan period. The image of Artemis Orthia has been preserved in the temple, and in a vertical, not overthrown position. The temple was apparently destroyed by flood. Today it has been restored.
Sparta also had its own theater, built on the highest of the Spartan hills, and it was very large: it was designed for 16 thousand spectators. The original structure was built of wood, later the walls were built of limestone and the stage was made of white marble. To this day, only the choirs, stage and a few other fragments have survived from the theater.
A long arched gallery, where artisans' shops were located, has also been preserved.
The pride of the Archaeological Museum of Sparta is the collection of Roman mosaics. There are also finds made during archaeological work on the ruins of Sparta: a marble head of a warrior from the Acropolis, bas-reliefs with images of snakes from the sanctuary of Apollo, ceramic masks - an attribute of ritual dances in the sanctuary of Artemis.
Not far from the city there was a sanctuary of Menelaus and Helen, whose ruins have survived to this day.
The city of Sparta, which stands next to the ruins of the ancient city, has practically no traces of its former greatness. Completely rebuilt in the first half of the 19th century, today it is the administrative center of the nome of Laconia, the center of the agricultural region of the Evrotas River valley and the residence of the Orthodox bishop.
general information
Location : southern Greece.Administrative location : nome Laconia, periphery of the Peloponnese, decentralized administration of the Peloponnese, Western Greece and Ionia.
Based: XI-X centuries. BC e.
Language: Greek.
Ethnic composition : Greeks.
Religion: Orthodoxy.
Numbers
Square: 84.5 km 2 .Population: 16,239 people (2011).
Population density : 192.2 people/km 2 .
Height above sea level : 210 m.
Remoteness: 213 km southwest of Athens.
Climate and weather
Mediterranean.
Winters are mild and cool, summers are hot and dry.
Average January temperature : +9.6°C.
Average temperature in July : +28.5°C.
Average annual precipitation : 700 mm.
Average annual relative humidity : 65%.
Attractions
Archaeological complex of the ruins of Ancient Sparta
Statue of King Leonidas
Temple of Artemis Orthia (X century BC)
Leonidaion - burial of King Leonidas I (5th century BC)
Acropolis with the temple of Athena Polyouchos, or Copperhouse (VI century BC)
Theater (I-II centuries)
Altar of Lycurgus
North and South gates
Modern Sparta
Museums Archaeological (1876)
Museum of Olives and Olive Oil
John Koumantarios Art Gallery
Outside of Sparta
Byzantine church with the monastery of St. Nicholas (X century)
Churches of St. Sophia Evangelistria, St. Chrysostom and St. Athanasius (XI-XIV centuries)
Castle of Baron de Nivelet (XIII century)
Perivleptou Monastery (XIV century)
Sanctuaries of Apollo, Menelaus and Helen
Diros Caves
Curious facts
Already in ancient times, Sparta was a tourist attraction: people from Rome came here to study Spartan customs and government structure, unusual for the era of the Roman conquest of Greece.
The laws of Lycurgus turned Sparta into an exemplary example of an oppressive totalitarian militaristic state that controlled the lives of citizens from birth to death. At the birth of a child, the state determined whether the child would grow up to be a healthy citizen or whether he should be thrown off the mountain. The boy spent the first years of his life at home. From the age of seven, the state took over the upbringing, and children devoted almost all their time to physical exercise and military drill. At the age of 20, the young Spartiate joined the fidity, a society of fifteen people, continuing his military training with them. He had the right to marry, but could only visit his wife in secret. At the age of 30, a Spartiate became a full citizen and could participate in the national assembly, but spent almost all his time in the gymnasium (gymnasium), leskha (club) and fiditiya (dining room). On the Spartan's tombstone only his name was carved; if he died in battle, the words “in war” were added.
Many modern historians believe that the state structure of Sparta, attributed to Lycurgus alone, was actually formed through a gradual modification of the patriarchal system. Lycurgus the legislator, most likely, was not a real historical person, but a fictional organizer of Spartan life.
Ancient Greek writer and geographer of the 2nd century. Pausanias was the author of probably the first guidebook in history. His work “Description of Hellas” is divided into 10 chapters based on the names of Greek regions, including Laconia. It is a directory of the sights of Ancient Greece, equipped with accompanying legends. Geographically, “Description of Hellas” can still serve as a guidebook today.
One of the attractions of Sparta is supposedly the same rock from which children were thrown, “rejected” by a commission that decided which children were strong and could live, and which were weak and should be disposed of immediately. However, archaeologists have not found reliable evidence that the Sparta gorge is filled with the bones of infants. It is now believed that this is most likely a myth.
Since Sparta had not yet emerged during the period in which most historians place the Trojan War (about 1200 BC), the myth of Paris' abduction of Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, was probably attributed to Sparta. In neighboring Terapna, where there was a large city of the Mycenaean era, there was a sanctuary of Menelaion, where the cult of Menelaus and Helen was celebrated for quite a long time.
The first recorded victory of the Spartans at Olympia was the first place of a certain Acanthus in running at the 15th Olympiad in 720 BC. e. For more than a century, Spartan athletes dominated the Olympic Games, achieving 46 out of 81 victories during this time.
On the last Saturday-Sunday of September, the traditional sports competition Spartaflon is held in Sparta, which usually attracts a lot of spectators.
Sparta was the most brutal civilization in human history. Around the dawn of Greek history, while it was still going through its classical period, Sparta was already experiencing radical social and political revolutions. As a result, the Spartans came to the idea of complete equality. Literally. It was they who developed the key concepts that we partially use to this day.
It was in Sparta that the ideas of self-sacrifice in the name of the common good, the high value of duty and the rights of citizens were first voiced. In short, the goal of the Spartans was to become as ideal people as possible for a mere mortal. Believe it or not, every utopian idea that we still think about today has its origins in Spartan times.
The biggest problem with studying the history of this amazing civilization is that the Spartans left very few records and did not leave behind monumental structures that could be studied and analyzed.
However, scholars know that Spartan women enjoyed freedom, education, and equality to a degree unmatched by women in any other civilization at the time. Each member of society, woman or man, master or slave, played his own special valuable role in the life of Sparta.
That is why it is impossible to talk about the famous Spartan warriors without mentioning this civilization as a whole. Anyone could become a warrior; it was not a privilege or obligation for certain social classes. A very serious selection took place for the role of a soldier among all citizens of Sparta, without exception. Carefully selected applicants were trained to become ideal warriors. The process of hardening the Spartans was sometimes associated with very harsh methods of training and went to extremely extreme measures.
10. Spartan children were raised from an early age to participate in wars
Almost every aspect of Spartan life was under the control of the city-state. This also applied to children. Each Spartan infant was brought before a board of inspectors who checked the child for physical defects. If something seemed to them to be outside the norm, the child was removed from society and sent to his death outside the city walls, thrown from the nearby hills.
In some fortunate cases, these abandoned children found their salvation among random wanderers passing by, or they were taken in by “gelots” (lower class, Spartan slaves) working in the nearby fields.
In early childhood, those who survived the first qualifying stage bathed in baths with wine instead. The Spartans believed that this strengthened their strength. In addition, it was customary among parents to ignore the crying of their children so that they would get used to the “Spartan” lifestyle from infancy. Such educational techniques delighted foreigners so much that Spartan women were often invited to neighboring lands as nannies and nurses for their iron nerves.
Up until the age of 7, Spartan boys lived with their families, but after that the state itself took them away. The children were moved to public barracks, and a training period called “agoge” began in their lives. The goal of this program was to train young men into ideal warriors. The new regime included physical exercise, training in various tricks, unconditional loyalty, martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, developing pain tolerance, hunting, survival skills, communication skills and moral lessons. They were also taught to read, write, compose poetry and speak.
At the age of 12, all boys were stripped of their clothing and all other personal belongings except for a single red cloak. They were taught to sleep outside and make their own beds from reed branches. In addition, boys were encouraged to rummage through garbage or steal their own food. But if the thieves were caught, the children faced severe punishment in the form of flogging.
Spartan girls lived with their families even after the age of 7, but they also received the famous Spartan education, which included dancing lessons, gymnastics, throwing darts and discus. It was believed that these skills helped them best prepare for motherhood.
9. Hazing and fights among children
One of the key ways to mold boys into ideal soldiers and develop a truly stern disposition in them was to provoke them into fights with each other. Older boys and teachers often started quarrels among their students and encouraged them to get into fights.
The main goal of agoge was to instill in children resistance to all the hardships that would await them in war - cold, hunger or pain. And if someone showed even the slightest weakness, cowardice or embarrassment, they immediately became objects of cruel ridicule and punishment from their own comrades and teachers. Imagine that someone is bullying you at school, and the teacher comes up and joins the bullies. It was very unpleasant. And in order to “finish off”, the girls sang all sorts of offensive chants about the guilty students right during ceremonial meetings in front of high-ranking dignitaries.
Even grown men did not avoid abuse. The Spartans hated fat people. That is why all citizens, including even kings, participated daily in joint meals, “sissitia,” which were distinguished by their deliberate meagerness and insipidity. Together with daily physical activity, this allowed Spartan men and women to keep themselves in good shape throughout their lives. Those who stood out from the mainstream were subject to public censure and even risked being expelled from the city if they did not rush to cope with their inconsistency with the system.
8. Endurance competition
An integral part of Ancient Sparta and at the same time one of its most disgusting practices was the Endurance Competition - Diamastigosis. This tradition was intended to honor the memory of the incident when residents from neighboring settlements killed each other in front of the altar of Artemis as a sign of veneration of the goddess. Since then, human sacrifices have been performed here every year.
During the reign of the semi-mythical Spartan king Lycurgus, who lived in the 7th century BC, the rituals of worship at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia were relaxed and included only the flogging of boys undergoing agoge. The ceremony continued until they completely covered all the steps of the altar with their blood. During the ritual, the altar was strewn with pine cones, which the children had to reach and collect.
The older children were waiting for the younger ones with sticks in their hands, beating the children without any compassion for their pain. The tradition at its core was the initiation of little boys into the ranks of full-fledged warriors and citizens of Sparta. The last child standing received great honors for his manhood. Children often died during such initiation.
During the occupation of Sparta by the Roman Empire, the tradition of Diamastigosis did not disappear, but lost its main ceremonial significance. Instead, it became simply a spectacular sporting event. People from all over the empire flocked to Sparta to watch the brutal flogging of young boys. By the 3rd century AD, the sanctuary had been converted into a regular theater with stands from which spectators could comfortably watch the beatings.
7. Crypteria
When the Spartans reached the age of 20 or so, those who were tagged as potential leaders were given the opportunity to participate in the Krypteria. It was a kind of secret police. Although, to a greater extent, it was about partisan detachments that periodically terrorized and occupied neighboring Gelot settlements. The best years of this unit came in the 5th century BC, when Sparta had approximately 10,000 men capable of fighting, and the civilian Gelot population outnumbered them by a few.
On the other hand, the Spartans were constantly under threat of rebellion from the Gelotes. This constant threat was one of the reasons why Sparta developed such a militarized society and prioritized the belligerence of its citizens. Every man in Sparta was required by law to be raised as a soldier from childhood.
Each fall, young warriors were given the chance to test their skills during an unofficial declaration of war against enemy Gelot settlements. Members of Crypteria went out on missions at night, armed only with knives, and their goal was always to kill any Geloth they encountered along the way. The larger and stronger the enemy, the better.
This annual massacre was carried out to train neighbors to obey and reduce their numbers to a safe level. Only those boys and men who participated in such raids could expect to receive higher rank and privileged status in society. The rest of the year, the "secret police" patrolled the area, still executing any potentially dangerous Gelot without any proceedings.
6. Forced marriage
And although it can hardly be called something frankly terrifying, forced marriages by the age of 30 today would be considered unacceptable and even frightening by many. Until the age of 30, all Spartans lived in public barracks and served in the state army. Upon reaching the age of 30, they were released from military duty and transferred to the reserve until the age of 60. In any case, if by the age of 30 one of the men did not have time to find a wife, they were forced to marry.
The Spartans considered marriage important, but not the only way to conceive new soldiers, so girls were not married off until they were 19 years old. Applicants had to first carefully assess the health and physical fitness of their future life partners. And although it was often decided between the future husband and father-in-law, the girl also had the right to vote. After all, according to the law, Spartan women had equal rights with men, and even much greater than in some modern countries to this day.
If Spartan men married before their 30th birthday and while still in military service, they continued to live separately from their wives. But if a man went into the reserves while still single, it was considered that he was not fulfilling his duty to the state. The bachelor faced public ridicule for any reason, especially during official meetings.
And if for some reason the Spartan could not have children, he had to find a suitable partner for his wife. It even happened that one woman had several sexual partners, and together they raised common children.
5. Spartan weapons
The bulk of any ancient Greek army, including the Spartans, were “hoplites”. These were soldiers in bulky armor, citizens whose armament was spent at considerable expense so that they could participate in wars. And while the warriors of most Greek city-states lacked sufficient military and physical training and equipment, Spartan soldiers knew how to fight all their lives and were always ready to go to the battlefield. While all the Greek city-states built protective walls around their settlements, Sparta did not care about fortifications, considering its main defense to be hardened hoplites.
The main weapon of a hoplite, regardless of its origin, was a spear for the right hand. The length of the copies reached about 2.5 meters. The tip of this weapon was made of bronze or iron, and the handle was made of dogwood. This particular tree was used because it had the necessary density and strength. By the way, dogwood wood is so dense and heavy that it even sinks in water.
In his left hand the warrior held his round shield, the famous “hoplon”. The 13-kilogram shields were used primarily for defense, but were sometimes used in close combat strike techniques. Shields were made of wood and leather, and covered with a layer of bronze on top. The Spartans marked their shields with the letter "lambda", which symbolized Laconia, a region of Sparta.
If a spear broke or the battle became too close, the hoplites from the front would take up their "xipos", short swords. They were 43 centimeters long and were intended for close combat. But the Spartans preferred their “kopis” to such xipos. This type of sword inflicted particularly painful slashing wounds on the enemy due to its specific one-sided sharpening along the inner edge of the blade. The kopis was used more like an axe. Greek artists often depicted Spartans with copis in their hands.
For additional protection, soldiers wore bronze helmets that covered not only the head, but also the back of the neck and face. Also among the armor were chest and back shields made of bronze or leather. The soldiers' shins were protected by special bronze plates. The forearms were covered in the same way.
4. Phalanx
There are certain signs of what stage of development a civilization is at, and among them is how peoples fight. Tribal societies tend to fight chaotically and haphazardly, with each warrior swinging his ax or sword as he pleases and seeking personal glory.
But more advanced civilizations fight according to thoughtful tactics. Each soldier plays a specific role in his squad and is subordinate to the overall strategy. This is how the Romans fought, and the ancient Greeks, who included the Spartans, fought this way. By and large, the famous Roman legions were formed precisely according to the example of the Greek “phalanxes”.
Hoplites gathered into regiments, “lokhoi,” consisting of several hundred citizens, and lined up in columns of 8 or more rows. This formation was called a phalanx. The men stood shoulder to shoulder in close groups, protected on all sides by comrade shields. In the gaps between the shields and helmets there was literally a forest of spears sticking outward with their peaks.
The phalanxes were characterized by highly organized movement thanks to rhythmic accompaniments and chants, which the Spartans learned intensively at a young age during training. It happened that Greek cities fought among themselves, and then in battle one could see spectacular clashes of several phalanxes at once. The battle continued until one of the troops stabbed the other to death. It could be compared to a bloody skirmish during a rugby match, but in ancient armor.
3. Nobody gives up
The Spartans were raised to be extremely loyal and despised cowardice above all other human shortcomings. Soldiers were expected to be fearless in all circumstances. Even if we are talking about the last straw and until the last survivor. For this reason, the act of surrender was equivalent to the most intolerable cowardice.
If, under some unimaginable circumstances, a Spartan hoplite had to surrender, he would then commit suicide. The ancient historian Herodotus recalled two unknown Spartans who missed an important battle and committed suicide out of shame. One hanged himself, the other went to certain expiatory death during the next battle in the name of Sparta.
Spartan mothers were famous for often telling their sons before battle: “Come back with your shield, or don’t come back at all.” This meant that they were either waiting for victory or dead. Moreover, if a warrior lost his own shield, he also left his comrade without protection, which jeopardized the entire mission and was unacceptable.
Sparta believed that a soldier had fully fulfilled his duty only when he died for his state. The man had to die on the battlefield, and the woman had to give birth to children. Only those who fulfilled this duty were entitled to be buried in a grave with their name engraved on the headstone.
2. Thirty Tyrants
Sparta was famous for the fact that it always sought to extend its utopian views to neighboring city-states. At first these were the Messenians from the west, whom the Spartans conquered in the 7th - 8th centuries BC, turning them into their slaves, the Gelots. Later, Sparta's gaze turned even to Athens. During the Peloponnesian War of 431–404 BC, the Spartans not only subjugated the Athenians, but also inherited their naval supremacy in the Aegean region. This has never happened before. The Spartans did not raze the glorious city to the ground, as the Corinthians advised them, but instead decided to mold the conquered society in their own image.
To do this, they established a “pro-Spartan” oligarchy in Athens, infamously known as the regime of the “Thirty Tyrants”. The main goal of this system was the reformation, and in most cases the complete destruction of the fundamental Athenian laws and orders in exchange for the proclamation of the Spartan version of democracy. They carried out reforms in the field of power structures and reduced the rights of most social classes.
500 councilors were appointed to perform judicial duties that had previously belonged to all citizens. The Spartans also elected 3,000 Athenians to "share power with them." In fact, these local managers simply had slightly more privileges than other residents. During the 13-month regime of Sparta, 5% of the population of Athens died or simply fled from the city, many other people's property was confiscated, and crowds of supporters of the old system of government of Athens were sent into exile.
The former student of Socrates, Critias, leader of the Thirty, was recognized as a cruel and completely inhumane ruler who set out to turn the conquered city into a reflection of Sparta at any cost. Critias acted as if he were still on duty in the Spartan Cryptea, and executed all Athenians whom he considered dangerous to the establishment of the new order of things.
300 standard bearers were hired to patrol the city, who ended up intimidating and terrorizing the local population. About 1,500 of the most prominent Athenians who did not support the new government forcibly took poison - hemlock. Interestingly, the more cruel the tyrants were, the more resistance they encountered from local residents.
As a result, after 13 months of the brutal regime, a successful coup took place, led by Thrasybulus, one of the few citizens who escaped from exile. During the Athenian Restoration, the 3,000 aforementioned traitors were granted amnesty, but the remaining defectors, including those same 30 tyrants, were executed. Kritias died in one of the first battles.
Mired in corruption, betrayal and violence, the short reign of the tyrants led to strong distrust of the Athenians towards each other even for the next few years after the fall of the dictatorship.
1. The famous Battle of Thermopylae
Best known today from the 1998 comic book series and the 2006 film 300, the Battle of Thermopylae, which took place in 480 BC, was an epic massacre between the Greek army led by the Spartan king Leonidas I and the Persians led by King Xerxes.
Initially, the conflict arose between these two peoples even before the accession of the mentioned military leaders, during the reign of Darius I, the predecessor of Xerxes. He greatly expanded the boundaries of his lands deep into the European continent and at some point turned his hungry gaze to Greece. After the death of Darius, Xerxes almost immediately after assuming his rights as king began preparations for the invasion. This was the greatest threat Greece had ever faced.
After much negotiation between the Greek city-states, a combined force of approximately 7,000 hoplites was sent to defend the Thermopylae Pass, through which the Persians planned to advance into all of Hellas. For some reason, in the film adaptations and comics, those same several thousand hoplites were not mentioned, including the legendary Athenian fleet.
Among the several thousand Greek warriors were the celebrated 300 Spartans, whom Leonidas personally led into battle. Xerxes assembled an army of 80,000 soldiers for his invasion. The relatively small Greek defense was due to the fact that they did not want to send too many warriors too far to the north of the country. Another reason was a more religious motive. In those days, the sacred Olympic Games and the most important ritual festival of Sparta, Carneia, were taking place, during which bloodshed was prohibited. In any case, Leonidas realized the danger facing his army and called together 300 of his most devoted Spartans, who had already given birth to male heirs.
Located 153 kilometers north of Athens, the Thermopylae Gorge provided an excellent defensive position. Only 15 meters wide, sandwiched between almost vertical cliffs and the sea, this gorge created a great inconvenience for the numerically superior Persian army. Such limited space did not allow the Persians to properly deploy their full power.
This gave the Greeks a significant advantage along with the defensive wall already built here. When Xerxes finally arrived, he had to wait 4 days in the hope that the Greeks would surrender. That did not happen. Then he sent his envoys one last time to call on the enemy to lay down their arms, to which Leonidas replied “come and take it yourself.”
Over the next 2 days, the Greeks repelled numerous Persian attacks, including a battle with an elite detachment of “Immortals” from the personal guard of the Persian king. But betrayed by a local shepherd, who showed Xerxes about a secret bypass route through the mountains, on the second day the Greeks still found themselves surrounded by the enemy.
Faced with such an unpleasant situation, the Greek commander disbanded most of the hoplites, except for 300 Spartans and a few other selected soldiers, to make a last stand. During the last attack of the Persians, the glorious Leonidas and 300 Spartans fell, honorably fulfilling their duty to Sparta and its people.
To this day, in Thermopylae there is a sign with the inscription “Traveler, go tell our citizens in Lacedaemon that, keeping their covenants, here we died in bones.” And although Leonidas and his people died, their joint feat inspired the Spartans to gather their courage and overthrow the evil invaders during the subsequent Greco-Persian wars.
The Battle of Thermopylae forever secured Sparta's reputation as the most unique and powerful civilization.
The Spartan kings considered themselves Heraclides - descendants of the hero Hercules. Their bellicosity became a household word, and with good reason: the Spartans’ fighting formation was the direct predecessor of the phalanx of Alexander the Great.
The Spartans were attentive to signs and prophecies and listened very much to the opinion of the Delphic oracle. The cultural heritage of Sparta is not as well known as that of Athens, largely due to the warlike people's wariness towards writing: for example, their laws were transmitted orally, and the names of the dead were forbidden to be written on non-military tombstones.
However, if not for Sparta, the culture of Greece could have been assimilated by foreigners who were constantly invading the territory of Hellas. The fact is that Sparta was in fact the only polis that not only had a combat-ready army, but whose entire life was subject to army order and took place according to a strict schedule designed to discipline the soldiers. The Spartans owed the emergence of such a militarized society to unique historical circumstances.
Beginning of the 10th century BC e. It is considered to be the time of the first large-scale settlement of the territory of Laconia, that is, the future Sparta and the adjacent lands. In the 8th century, the Spartans undertook expansion into the nearby lands of Messenia. During the occupation, they decided not to destroy the local inhabitants, but to make them their slaves, who were known as helots - literally “captives”. But the creation of a colossal slave complex led to inevitable uprisings: in the 7th century, the helots fought against their enslavers for several years, and this became a lesson for Sparta.
The laws established, according to legend, by the Spartan king-legislator named Lycurgus (translated as “working wolf”) back in the 9th century, served to regulate the internal political situation after the conquest of Messenia. The Spartans distributed the lands of the helots among all citizens, and all full-fledged citizens formed the backbone of the army (about 9,000 people in the 7th century - 10 times more than in any other Greek city) and had hoplite weapons. The strengthening of the army, perhaps dictated by the fear that another slave uprising would break out, contributed to an extraordinary increase in the influence of the Spartans in the region and the formation of a special system of life, characteristic only of Sparta.
In order to optimally train the soldiers of Sparta, from the age of seven they were sent to centralized government structures, where they spent time in intensive training until the age of 18. This was a kind of initiation stage: in order to become a full-fledged citizen, it was necessary not only to successfully pass all the tests of 11 years of training, but also, as proof of one’s skills and fearlessness, to kill a helot with a dagger alone. It is not surprising that the helots constantly had a reason for their next performances. The widespread legend about the execution of handicapped Spartan boys or even babies most likely has no real historical basis, since in the polis there was even a certain social stratum of hypomeions - physically or mentally handicapped “citizens”.