Sparta

Sparta was one of the most important city-states of Ancient Greece and was marked by having a hierarchical society with little social mobility. Within this social structure, the Spartans were the privileged class, enjoying wealth from their lands, and were the only ones with political rights. Sparta played a leading role in the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War.

Origins of Sparta

Sparta was one of the great cities of Ancient Greece and was famous for its warriors. This city was located in a region called Laconia or Lacedaemon , on the Peloponnese Peninsula, currently south of Greek territory. This area already had a human presence since the Neolithic period , but the city of Sparta, in fact, emerged sometime in the Homeric period .

Greek mythology tells that the emergence of the city is related to Lacedemon , a mythological personality who married Sparta , daughter of a local king named Eurotas . Lacedemon would have succeeded to the throne of Eurotas and given his own name to the region and his wife’s name to the city.

Historically, Sparta is believed to have been founded around the 10th century BC , with the Dorians responsible for creating the city. The Dorians were an Indo-European people who arrived in the region of Greece around 1200 BC Over time, the Spartans expanded their territorial domain by conquering Messinia.

Spartan society

Sparta developed as an aristocratic polis and was guided by values ​​such as discipline and order. Militarism was a very strong feature in Spartan society, and hierarchization was also a striking feature. There was little social mobility, and violence was a practice used to keep the population under the control of the elites. This social structure in Sparta is said to have been established in the 8th century BC by a mythical lawgiver known as Lycurgus .

Spartan society (including the territories under its rule) had the helots , the class of servants, as the largest social group. There is divergence about the origin of these people, it is not known if they were from Messenia or Laconia, but, in any case, they were responsible for the work on the lands of the group that formed the Spartan elite.

The Spartan aristocracy, formed by the so-called Spartans, feared any kind of revolt from the helots, since they were numerically much superior to the ruling class. Thus, it was common for violence to be routinely used against these workers so that fear could keep this class in check.

The Spartans were the only ones who held political rights . They called themselves homoioi , which means “equals”, and only they, in that society, had the right to own land. The only activities that the Spartiates dedicated themselves to were politics and war .

The dedication to the war of the Spartans was responsible for raising the name of Sparta, making it famous for its excellent soldiers. The elite corps of the Spartan army was entirely made up of Spartans, and their training began in childhood and continued for the rest of their lives.

The last group that made up Spartan society were the periecos , a group of free men who occupied an intermediate position: they were not serfs like the helots, but they did not have the rights of the Spartans. The periecos dedicated themselves to trades that the Spartans could not assume, such as commerce, for example.

How did politics work in Sparta?

We have already seen that politics in Sparta was a privilege of the Spartans and only this class could hold public office and participate in the decisions taken in the assembly. This condition that hierarchized the city and politics made Sparta an aristocratic polis and, therefore, a different model from the one that existed in Athens .

First, we can point out that Sparta had a diarchy , that is, a government of two kings from a family lineage that traditionally occupied this position in the politics of the polis. Each king was from a different dynasty, with the Agidas and Euripontidas , they had certain military, religious and legal influence.

Spartan politics also had the Apela , an assembly in which decisions on matters important to the city took place. Only Spartans over 30 years old had the right to give their opinion in the Appeal. The issues debated in the Appeal were proposals sent by another institution of Spartan politics: the Gerusia.

The Gerúsia , in turn, was a kind of senate and only had the participation of Spartans over 60 years of age. This institution was composed of 28 Spartans who held their position for the rest of their lives.

Sparta’s last political institution was the Council of Ephors , a council formed by five Spartans who held office in that institution for one year. The Ephors were considered the most powerful men in Sparta and their role was to monitor the actions of the two kings .

Main Events in Sparta

Spartan history is marked by great events and, perhaps, the most important of them happened during the Classical period of Ancient Greek history. During this period, there was the height of Spartan power with the city being a true power in the region and often disputing the supremacy of Greece with the Athenians.

In the Peloponnese region , the city of Sparta was the great force, but historically it had to deal with the rivalry of the city of Argos. The way Sparta found to guarantee its power in the Peloponnese was to create the Peloponnesian League , in the middle of the 6th century BC This league only served to reinforce Spartan power and to make troops available in case of helot revolts, for example. example. This happened thanks to a defensive pact, in which all the cities of the league would go to aid if a Peloponnese city was attacked.

Two defining moments of Sparta in the Classic Period occurred during the Persian Wars and, later, in the Peloponnesian War . The first was a conflict between Persia and the Greek polis, in the fifth century BC. The reason for this war was Athenian support for a revolt of cities in Ionia against Persian rule.

The Persians undertook a punitive expedition that would annex Greece to the Persian Empire. A large part of the polis united to stop the Persian advance and it took two wars to put an end to the ambition of these peoples. Spartan resistance at the Battle of Thermopylae, during the Second Medical War, was marked as a major event.

In that battle, 300 Spartans fought against 80,000 Persians. The Spartans’ objective in this battle was only to delay the Persians to allow the defenses in Greece to organize themselves. The Greeks won in the Medical Wars, but soon after that conflict, the dispute of interests divided Greece between the two great local powers: Athens and Sparta.

This rivalry between the two cities resulted in the Peloponnesian War , a conflict in which Athenians and Spartans, plus the allies of each city, disputed, between 431 BC and 404 BC, the supremacy of the region. The Spartans won, but in 371 BC they were defeated by Thebes and lost their supremacy in Greece.