Sparta

This article is about the ancient Greek city-state. For Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system
modern-day Sparta, see Sparta (modern). For other uses, and constitution, which completely focused on military
see Sparta (disambiguation).
training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classied
as Spartiates (Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full rights),
mothakes (non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans),
Coordinates: 37455N 222525E / 37.08194N
perioikoi (freedmen), and helots (state-owned serfs, en22.42361E
slaved 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 world.
Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day,
as well as in the West 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 free residents, plus numerous helots and perioikoi
(dwellers around). At 40,000 50,000 it was one of the
largest Greek cities;[4][5] however, according to ThucyHollow Lacedaemon. Site of the Menelaion, the ancient shrine dides, the population of Athens in 431 BC was 360,000
to Helen and Menelaus constructed in the Bronze Age city that
610,000, making it unlikely that Athens was smaller than
stood on the hill of Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas
Sparta in 5th century BC.[n 2]
River overlooking the future site of Dorian Sparta. Across the
valley the successive ridges of Mount Taygetus are in evidence.

1 Names

Sparta (Doric Greek: , Sprt; Attic Greek:

, Sprt) or Lacedaemon (/lsdimn/;
, Lakedamn) was a prominent city-state
in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the Eurotas
River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese.[1] It
emerged as a political entity around the 10th century
BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local,
non-Dorian population. Around 650 BC, it rose to
become the dominant military land-power in ancient
Greece.

The earliest attested term referring to Lacedaemon

is the Mycenaean Greek
, ra-ke-da-mi-nijo, Lacedaimonian, written in Linear B syllabic
script,[7][n 3] being the equivalent of the written in the
Greek alphabet, latter Greek, , Lakedaimonios (Latin: Lacedaemonius).[12][13]

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 great cost of lives lost. Spartas defeat by
Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartas
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 proEurotas River
cessing of goods such as citrus and olives.
1

2
The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the
home location of the Spartans. The rst refers primarily to the main cluster of settlements in the valley of the
Eurotas River: Sparta.[14] The second word was Lacedaemon ();[15] this was also used sometimes
as an adjective and is the name commonly used in the
works of Homer and the Athenian 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.[16] In Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside: wide,
lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken (full
of ravines).[17] 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:
; 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 (, 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) denes Agiadae
as a place in Lacedaemonia named after Agis.[18] 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 denes Sparta to be Lacedaemonia Civitas but
Isidore denes Lacedaemonia as founded by Lacedaemon, son of Semele, relying on Eusebius.[19] There is
a rare use, perhaps the earliest of Lacedaemonia, in
Diodorus Siculus,[20] but probably with (country) suppressed.

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

2 Geography
Sparta is located in the region of Laconia, in the southeastern Peloponnese. Ancient Sparta was built on the
banks of the Evrotas River, the main river of Laconia,
which provided it with a source of fresh water. The valley of the Evrotas is a natural fortress, bounded to the
west by Mt. Taygetus (2407 m) and to the east by Mt.
Parnon (1935 m). To the north, Laconia is separated
from Arcadia by hilly uplands reaching 1000 m in altitude. These natural defenses worked to Spartas advantage and contributed to Sparta never having been sacked.
Though landlocked, Sparta had a harbor, Gytheio, on the
Laconian Gulf.

3 Mythology
Lacedaemon (Greek: ) was a mythical king
of Laconia.[22] 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.[22] 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.

4 Archaeology of the classical period

The immediate area around the town of Sparta, the

plateau east of the Taygetos mountains, was generally re- The theater of ancient Sparta with Mt. Taygetus in the backferred as Laconice ().[21] This term was some- ground.
times used to refer to all the regions under direct Spartan
Thucydides wrote:
control, including Messenia.
Lacedaemon is now the name of a province in the modern
Greek prefecture of Laconia.

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

4.1

Menelaion
city is not built continuously, and has no splendid temples or other edices; it rather resembles a group of villages, like the ancient towns
of Hellas, and would therefore make a poor
show.[23]

3
altar and in front of the temple of Artemis Orthia. Here
musical and gymnastic contests took place as well as
the famous ogging 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 oerings 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.

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 anIn 1907, the sanctuary of Athena of the Brazen House
cient bridge over the Eurotas; the ruins of a circular struc(Chalkioikos) was located on the acropolis immediately
ture; some remains of late Roman fortications; several
above the theatre, and though the actual temple is almost
brick buildings and mosaic pavements.
completely destroyed, the site has produced the longest
The remaining archaeological wealth consisted of in- extant archaic inscription of Laconia, numerous bronze
scriptions, sculptures, and other objects collected in the nails and plates, and a considerable number of votive oflocal museum, founded by Stamatakis in 1872 and en- ferings. The Greek city-wall, built in successive stages
larged in 1907. Partial excavation of the round build- from the 4th to the 2nd century, was traced for a great
ing was undertaken in 1892 and 1893 by the American part of its circuit, which measured 48 stades or nearly 10
School at Athens. The structure has been since found to km (6 miles) (Polyb. 1X. 21). The late Roman wall enbe a semicircular retaining wall of Hellenic origin that closing the acropolis, part of which probably dates from
was partly restored during the Roman period.
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.

4.1 Menelaion

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.
A small circus described by Leake proved to be a theatrelike building constructed soon after AD 200 around the

The Menelaion is a shrine associated with Menelaus, located east of Sparta, by the river Eurotas, on the hill
Protis Ilias (Coordinates: 370357N 222713E /
37.065853N 22.453629E). 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 ndings, they uncovered the remains of two Mycenaean mansions and
found the rst oerings dedicated to Helen and Menelaus.
These mansions were destroyed, by an earthquake and by
re, and archaeologists consider as the possible palace
of Menelaus himself.[24] 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.
[25]
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.

History

Main article: History of Sparta

5.1

HISTORY

Nothing distinctive in the archaeology of the Eurotas

River Valley identies 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.

Prehistory, Dark Age and Archaic The legendary period of Spartan history is believed to
fall into the Dark Age. It treats the mythic heroes such
period

The prehistory of Sparta is dicult to reconstruct because the literary evidence is far removed in time from
the events it describes and is also distorted by oral
tradition.[26] 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.[27] These are the earliest traces of the original Mycenaean Spartan civilisation,
as represented in Homers Iliad.

as the Heraclids and the Perseids, oering 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, oers the rst 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.[29] As a result,
they carried out a series of political and social reforms of
their own society which they later attributed to a semimythical lawgiver, Lycurgus.[30] These reforms mark the
This civilization seems to have fallen into decline by the beginning of the history of Classical Sparta.
late Bronze Age, when, according to Herodotus, Macedonian tribes from the north marched into Peloponnese,
where they were called Dorians and subjugating the lo- 5.2 Classical Sparta
cal tribes, settled there.[26] The Dorians seem to have
set about expanding the frontiers of Spartan territory al- In the Second Messenian War, Sparta established itself
most before they had established their own state.[28] They as a local power in Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece.
fought against the Argive Dorians to the east and south- During the following centuries, Spartas reputation as a
[31]
east, and also the Arcadian Achaeans to the northwest. land-ghting force was unequalled. In 480 BC a small
The evidence suggests that Sparta, relatively inaccessible force of Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans led by King
because of the topography of the Taygetan plain, was se- Leonidas (approximately 300 were full Spartiates, 700
were Thespians, and 400 were Thebans although these
cure from early on: it was never fortied.[28]
numbers do not reect casualties incurred prior to the nal battle), made a legendary last stand at the Battle of
Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, inicting
very high casualties on the Persian forces before nally
being encircled.[32] The superior weaponry, strategy, and
bronze armour 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.[33]

Lycurgus

In later Classical times, Sparta along with Athens,

Thebes, and Persia had been the main powers ghting
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

5.3

Hellenistic and Roman Sparta

5.3 Hellenistic and Roman Sparta

Sparta never fully recovered from the losses that the Spartans suered 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.

Leonidas I of Sparta

During Alexanders 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.[37] 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.[38] More than 5,300 of the Spartans
and their allies were killed in battle, and 3,500 of Antipaters troops.[39] 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 nally killed by a javelin.[40]
Alexander was merciful, and he only forced the Spartans
to join the League of Corinth, which they had previously
refused to join.[41]

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
Spartan Hegemony.
Spartans responded with the single, terse reply: ,
During the Corinthian War Sparta faced a coalition of if.[42][43][44]
the leading Greek states: Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and
When Philip created the league of the Greeks on the preArgos. The alliance was initially backed by Persia, whose
text of unifying Greece against Persia, the Spartans chose
lands in Anatolia had been invaded by Sparta and which
not to join, since they had no interest in joining a panfeared further Spartan expansion into Asia.[34] Sparta
Greek expedition unless it were under Spartan leaderachieved a series of land victories, but many of her
ship. Thus, upon the conquest of Persia, Alexander the
ships were destroyed at the battle of Cnidus by a GreekGreat sent to Athens 300 suits of Persian armour with the
Phoenician mercenary eet that Persia had provided to
following inscription: Alexander, son of Philip, and all
Athens. The event severely damaged Spartas naval power
the Greeks except the Spartans, give these oerings taken
but did not end its aspirations of invading further into Perfrom the foreigners who live in Asia [emphasis added].
sia, until Conon the Athenian ravaged the Spartan coastline and provoked the old Spartan fear of a helot revolt.[35] During the Punic Wars Sparta was an ally of the Roman
Republic. Spartan political independence was put to
After a few more years of ghting, in 387 BC the Peace of
an end when it was eventually forced into the Achaean
Antalcidas was established, according to which all Greek
League. In 146 BC Greece was conquered by the Rocities of Ionia would return to Persian control, and Perman general Lucius Mummius. Following the Roman
sias Asian border would be free of the Spartan threat.[35]
conquest, the Spartans continued their way of life, and
The eects of the war were to rearm Persias ability
the city became a tourist attraction for the Roman elite
to interfere successfully in Greek politics and to arm
who came to observe exotic Spartan customs.[n 4]
Spartas weakened hegemonic position in the Greek political system.[36] Sparta entered its long-term decline after
a severe military defeat to Epaminondas of Thebes at the
5.4 Medieval and modern Sparta
Battle of Leuctra. This was the rst time that a Spartan
army lost a land battle at full strength.
According to Byzantine sources, some parts of the LaAs 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.

conian 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

STRUCTURE OF CLASSICAL SPARTAN SOCIETY

of Mystras. Modern Sparti was re-founded in 1834, by a power was transferred to the ephors and to the gerousia.
decree of King Otto of Greece.
The origins of the powers exercised by the assembly of
the citizens are virtually unknown because of the lack of
historical documentation and Spartan state secrecy.

6.1

Structure of Classical Spartan

society

6.2 Citizenship

Constitution

Not all inhabitants of the Spartan state were considered

to be citizens. Only those who had undertaken the SparMain article: Spartan Constitution
tan education process known as the agoge were eligible.
Sparta was an oligarchy. The state was ruled by two 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[53] 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.[54]

Structure of the Spartan Constitution

hereditary kings of the Agiad and Eurypontid families,[47]

both supposedly descendants of Heracles and equal in authority, so that one could not act against the power and
political enactments of his colleague.

Others in the state were the perioikoi, who were free inhabitants of Spartan territory but were non-citizens, and
the helots,[55] the state-owned serfs. Descendants of nonSpartan citizens were not able to follow the agoge and
Spartans who could not aord 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.

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 ju6.3 Helots and Perioikoi
dicial functions had been restricted to cases dealing with
heiresses, adoptions and the public roads. Aristotle de6.3.1 Helots
scribes the kingship at Sparta as a kind of unlimited
and perpetual generalship (Pol. iii. I285a),[48] while
Isocrates refers to the Spartans as subject to an oligarchy Main article: Helots
at home, to a kingship on campaign (iii. 24).[49]
The Spartans were a minority of the Lakonian populaCivil and criminal cases were decided by a group of ofwere the helots (in
cials known as the ephors, as well as a council of elders tion. The largest class of inhabitants[56][57]
Classical
Greek

/
Heltes).
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.[50] 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.[51][52]

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
The royal prerogatives were curtailed over time. Dating slaves. Instead, the helots were given a subordinate pofrom the period of the Persian wars, the king lost the right sition in society more comparable to serfs in medieval
to declare war and was accompanied in the eld by two Europe than chattel slaves in the rest of Greece.
ephors. He was supplanted also by the ephors in the con- Helots did not have voting rights, although compared to
trol of foreign policy. Over time, the kings became mere non-Greek chattel slaves in other parts of Greece they
gureheads except in their capacity as generals. Real were relatively privileged. The Spartan poet Tyrtaios

6.4

Economy

refers to Helots being allowed to marry and retaining

50% of the fruits of their labor.[58] They also seem to
have been allowed to practice religious rites and, according to Thucydides, own a limited amount of personal
property.[59] 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.[60] 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.[61]
Relations between the helots and their Spartan masters
were sometimes strained. There was at least one helot
revolt (ca. 465460 BC), and Thucydides remarked that
Spartan policy is always mainly governed by the necessity of taking precautions against the helots.[62][63] 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.[64] What made Spartas 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 eective kinship groups
that could be used to organize rebellion.

7
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).[67]
Each year when the Ephors took oce they ritually declared war on the helots, thereby allowing Spartans to kill
them without the risk of ritual pollution.[68] This seems
to have been done by kryptes (sing. ), graduates
of the Agoge who took part in the mysterious institution
known as the Krypteia.[69] 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 rst 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.[70][71]
6.3.2 Perioikoi
Main article: Perioeci

The Perioikoi came from similar origins as the helots but

occupied a signicantly dierent position in Spartan society. Although they did not enjoy full citizen-rights, they
were free and not subjected to the same restrictions as the
As the Spartiate population declined and the helot popuhelots. The exact nature of their subjection to the Sparlation continued to grow, the imbalance of power caused
tans is not clear, but they seem to have served partly as a
[65]
increasing tension. According to Myron of Priene
of
kind of military reserve, partly as skilled craftsmen and
the middle 3rd century BC:
partly as agents of foreign trade.[72] Perioikoic hoplites
served increasingly with the Spartan army, explicitly at
They assign to the Helots every shamethe Battle of Plataea, and although they may also have fulful task leading to disgrace. For they ordained
lled functions such as the manufacture and repair of arthat each one of them must wear a dogskin
mour and weapons,[73] they were increasingly integrated
cap ( / kun ) and wrap himself in skins
into the combat units of the Spartan army as the Spartiate
( / diphthra) and receive a stipulated
population declined.[74]
number of beatings every year regardless of
any wrongdoing, so that they would never forget they were slaves. Moreover, if any ex6.4 Economy
ceeded the vigour proper to a slaves condition,
they made death the penalty; and they allotSpartan citizens were debarred by law from trade or manted a punishment to those controlling them if
ufacture, which consequently rested in the hands of the
they failed to rebuke those who were growing
Perioikoi. The Periokoi monopoly on trade and manufacfat.[66]
turing in one of the richest territories of Greece explains
in large part the loyalty of the perioikoi to the Spartan
Plutarch also states that Spartans treated the Helots state. Lacedaemon was rich in natural resources, fertile
harshly and cruelly": they compelled them to drink pure and blessed with a number of good natural harbors. The
wine (which was considered dangerous wine usually be- periokoi could exploit these resources for their own ening cut with water) "...and to lead them in that condition richment, and did.[75]

7 LIFE IN CLASSICAL SPARTA

all Spartan citizens being equals had become a farce.
By Aristotles day (384322 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.
These laws, however, came too late and were ineective
in reversing the trend.

7 Life in Classical Sparta

7.1 Birth and death

Name vase of the Spartan artist known as the Rider Painter

(black-gured kylix, ca. 550530 BC)

Spartiates, on the other hand, were forbidden (in theory)

from engaging in menial labor or trade, although there
is evidence of Spartan sculptors,[76] 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.[77][78] In fact, archeology has not produced
evidence of this currency, and it is more likely that Sparta
simply used currencies minted elsewhere.
The conspicuous display of wealth appears to have been
discouraged, although this did not preclude the production of very ne, 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.[79]
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.[80]
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.[81] What is clear is that from early on
there were marked dierences 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.[82] By the mid-5th century, land had become concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, and the notion of

Sparta was above all a militarist state, and emphasis on

military tness 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 childs father. The
Gerousia then decided whether it was to be reared or not.
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.,
, Deposits).[83][84] This was, in eect, a primitive form of eugenics.[83] 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.[85] There
is controversy about the matter in Sparta, since excavations in the chasm only uncovered adult remains, likely
belonging to criminals.[86]
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
oce or in childbirth.[87]

7.2 Education
Main article: Agoge
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 emphasise 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.[88] Besides physical and weapons
training, boys studied reading, writing, music and dancing. Special punishments were imposed if boys failed to
answer questions suciently 'laconically' (i.e. briey and
wittily).[89]
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,

7.3

Military life

Bronze appliqu of Spartan manufacture, possibly depicting

Orestes, 550-525 BC (Getty Villa)

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).[90] It is notable,
however, that the only contemporary source with direct
experience of the agoge, Xenophon, explicitly denies the
sexual nature of the relationship.[88]

Marble statue of a helmed hoplite (5th century BC),

Archaeological Museum of Sparta, Greece

how to bond and rely on one another. The Spartans were

not eligible for election for public oce 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 nancially to
one of the syssitia.[93]

Sparta is thought to be the rst city to practice athletic nudity, and some scholars claim that it was also the rst to
formalize pederasty.[94] 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
Less information is available about the education of Sparruling class, was, they claim, founded on pederastic retan girls, but they seem to have gone through a fairly exlationships required of each citizen,[95] with the lover retensive formal educational cycle, broadly similar to that
sponsible for the boys training.
of the boys but with less emphasis on military training.
In this respect, classical Sparta was unique in ancient However, other scholars question this interpretation.
Greece. In no other city-state did women receive any kind Xenophon explicitly denies it,[88] but not Plutarch.[96]
of formal education.[92]
Athenaeus claims[97] the Spartans sacriced to Eros bePost 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.[91]

fore every battle, but Eros had many roles and meanings
in Ancient Greece, not least of which was as the God of
7.3 Military life
procreation - not something appropriate for homosexual
love. Thus the practice neither proves nor disproves the
Main articles: Spartan army and Spartiate
At age 20, the Spartan citizen began his membership in role of pederasty in Spartan society.
one of the syssitia (dining messes or clubs), composed Spartan men remained in the active reserve until age 60.
of about fteen members each, of which every citizen Men were encouraged to marry at age 20 but could not
was required to be a member. Here each group learned live with their families until they left their active mili-

10

ROLE OF WOMEN

tary service at age 30. They called themselves "homoioi" 7.4 Marriage
(equals), pointing to their common lifestyle and the discipline of the phalanx, which demanded that no soldier be Plutarch reports the peculiar customs associated with the
superior to his comrades.[98] Insofar as hoplite warfare Spartan wedding night:
could be perfected, the Spartans did so.[99]
Thucydides reports that when a Spartan man went to war,
his wife (or another woman of some signicance) would
customarily present him with his hoplon (shield) and say:
With this, or upon this ( , i tn i
p ts), meaning that true Spartans could only return to
Sparta either victorious (with their shield in hand) or dead
(carried upon it).[100] Unfortunately, poignant as this image may be, it is almost certainly propaganda. Spartans
buried their battle dead on or near the battle eld; corpses
were not brought back on their hoplons.[101] 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 soldiers
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.

The custom was to capture women for

marriage(...) The so-called 'bridesmaid' took
charge of the captured girl. She rst shaved her
head to the scalp, then dressed her in a mans
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 rst had dinner in the messes,
then would slip in, undo her belt, lift her and
carry her to the bed.[106]

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 womens looks at
the time of their rst intercourse. The abduction may
According to Aristotle, the Spartan military culture was have served to ward o the evil eye, and the cutting of
the wifes hair was perhaps part of a rite of passage that
actually short-sighted and ineective. He observed:
signaled her entrance into a new life.[107]
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 citys life, end up making
them inferior even in that.[102]

Aristotle, of course, 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.[103]

8 Role of women
Main article: Women in ancient Sparta

8.1 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.[108] Nor were they
conned to their fathers house and prevented from exercising or getting fresh air as in Athens, but exercised and
even competed in sports.[108] Most important, rather than
being married o 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 eect was to
spare Spartan women the hazards and lasting health damage associated with pregnancy among adolescents. Spartan women, better fed from childhood and t 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.[109]

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 o-spring and helped enforce a
militaristic lifestyle on their sons and husbands.[104][105]
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 ospring 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 undeserv- Unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing
clothes and were rarely seen outside the house, Spartan
ing of pity.[101]

11
women wore dresses (peplos) slit up the side to allow freer 9 Laconophilia
movement and moved freely about the city, either walking or driving chariots. Girls as well as boys exercised, Main article: Laconophilia
possibly in the nude, and young women as well as young
men may have participated in the Gymnopaedia (FestiLaconophilia is love or admiration of Sparta and of
val of Nude Youths).[110][111]
the Spartan culture or constitution. Sparta was subject
Another practice that was mentioned by many visitors of considerable admiration in its day, even in its rival,
to Sparta was the practice of wife-sharing. In accor- Athens. In ancient times Many of the noblest and best of
dance with the Spartan belief that breeding should be be- the Athenians always considered the Spartan state nearly
tween the most physically t parents, many older men al- as an ideal theory realised in practice.[121] Many Greek
lowed younger, more t men, to impregnate their wives. philosophers, especially Platonists, would often describe
Other unmarried or childless men might even request an- Sparta as an ideal state, strong, brave, and free from the
other mans wife to bear his children if she had previously corruptions of commerce and money.
been a strong child bearer.[112] For this reason many considered Spartan women polygamous or polyandrous.[113]
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.[114]
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.[115]
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.[116] 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.[117]

8.2

Historic women

Many women played a signicant role in the history

of Sparta.[118] Queen Gorgo, heiress to the throne and
the wife of Leonidas I, was an inuential and welldocumented gure. 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.[119] Plutarchs Moralia contains 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.[120]

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.[122]
Certain early Zionists, and particularly the founders of
Kibbutz movement in Israel, had been inuenced by
Spartan ideals, particularly as a model for education.
Tabenkin, for example, a founding father of the Kibbutz and the Palmach, was inuenced 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.[123][124]
A new element of Laconophilia by Karl Otfried Mller,
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

12

12

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
rst racialist state.[125]
In the modern times, the adjective spartan is used to
imply simplicity, frugality, or avoidance of luxury and
comfort.[126] 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).

10

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 (5th4th 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

11

See also

List of Kings of Sparta

12

Notes and references

Notes
[1] For the nature of this development, see the article on Laconophilia.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

[2] 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] 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.[8] There are also words like
, ra-ke-da-mo-ni-jo-u-jo - found on the TH
Gp 227 tablet[8] - that could perhaps mean son of the
Spartan.[9] Moreover, the attested words
, ra-keda-no and
, 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-keda-no and ra-ke-da-no-re correspond to the anthroponym
, Lakedanor, though the latter is thought to
be related etymologically to Lacedaemon.[8][10][11]
[4] Especially the Diamastigosis at the Sanctury of Artemis
Orthia, Limnai outside Sparta. There an amphitheatre
was built in the 3rd century CE to observe the ritual whipping of Spartan youths.[45][46]

References
[1] Cartledge 2002, p. 91
[2] Cartledge 2002, p. 174
[3] Cartledge 2002, p. 192
[4] Morris, Ian (December 2005), The growth of Greek cities
in the rst millennium BC. v.1 (PDF), Princeton/Stanford
Working Papers in Classics
[5] http://books.google.dk/books?id=oafCBYBbMRgC&
pg=PA22&dq=ancient+sparta+population+of+50,000&
hl=da&sa=X&ei=CiiCU_j0L8avOd2HgcgL&ved=
0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ancient%20sparta%
20population%20of%2050%2C000&f=false
[6] Wilson, Nigel Guy, ed. (2006). Encyclopedia Of Ancient
Greece. Routledge (UK). pp. 214215. ISBN 0-41597334-1.
[7] The Linear B word ra-ke-da-mi-ni-jo. Palaeolexicon.
Word study tool of Ancient languages.
[8] 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)". DMOS Database of Mycenaean at Oslo.
University of Oslo.
[9] Thompson, Rupert (2010). Mycenaean Greek. In
Bakker, Egbert J. A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World.
Wiley-Blackwell. p. 223. ISBN 978-1-4051-5326-3.
[10] Raymoure, K.A. ra-ke-da-no. Minoan Linear A &
Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean.

13

[11] Jasano, Jay H.; Nussbaum, Alan (1996). Lefkowitz,

Mary R.; Rogers Maclean, Guy, eds. Black Athena Revisited. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 193.
ISBN 0807845558.
[12] LIddell & Scott 1940, , s.v. .

[38] Agis III, by E. Badian 1967 - Jstor

[39] Diodorus, World History
[40] Diodorus, World History, 17.62.1-63.4;tr. C.B. Welles
[41] Alexander the Great and his time By Agnes Savill Page 44
ISBN 0-88029-591-0

[13] Lacedaemonius, s.v. Lacedaemon. Charlton T. Lewis and

Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.

[42] Davies 1998, pp. 133.

[14] LIddell & Scott 1940, .

[43] Plutarch 1874, De garrulitate, 17.

[15] Liddell & Scott 1940, .

[44] Plutarch 1891, De garrulitate, 17; in Greek.

[16] MacBean, Alexander; Johnson, Samuel (1773).

Lacedaemon. A Dictionary of Ancient Geography [etc.]
London: G. Robinson [etc.].

[45] Cicero (1918). II.34. In Pohlenz, M. Tusculanae Disputationes (in Latin). Leipzig: Teubner. At the Perseus
Project.

[17] Autenrieth 1891, .

[46] Michell, Humfrey (1964). Sparta. Cambridge University

Press. p. 175.

[18] Schmidt, Maurice, ed. (1863). s.v. ". Hesychii

Alexandrini Lexicon (in Greek). Jena: Frederick Mauk..
At the Internet Archive
[19] Wiener, Leo (1920). Contributions toward a History of
Arabico-Gothic Culture. V. III: Tacitus Germania &
Other Forgeries. Philadelphia: Innes & Sones. p. 20.
[20] Diodorus Siculus, Library, 19.70.2.
[21] Cartledge 2002, p. 4
[22] Pausanias 1918, Description of Greece, .1.2.
[23] Thucydides, i. 10
[24] The British School at Athens, Home.

[47] Cartledge 2002, p. 89

[48] The Encyclopdia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and ... - Page 611. primary and secondary source
[49] The Encyclopdia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and ... - Page 611. primary secondary
source
[50] The Greeks at War By Philip De Souza, Waldemar
Heckel, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Victor Davis Hanson
[51] The Politics By Aristotle, Thomas Alan Sinclair, Trevor
J. Saunders

[25] The Mycenaean presence in the southeastern Eurotas valley: Vouno Panagias and Ayios Georgios, by Emilia
Banou.

[52] A companion to Greek studies By Leonard Whibley

[26] Herodot, Book I, 56.3

[54] The Greek World By Anton Powell

[27] Cartledge 2002, p. 28

[55] Ancient Greece By Sarah B. Pomeroy, Stanley M.

Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts

[28] Ehrenberg 2004, p. 31

[29] Ehrenberg 2004, p. 36
[30] Ehrenberg 2004, p. 33

[53] in Liddell and Scott.

[56] Herodotus (IX, 2829)

[57] Xenophon, Hellenica, III, 3, 5
[58] West 1999, p. 24

[31] A Historical Commentary on ThucydidesDavid

Cartwright, p. 176

[59] Cartledge 2002, p. 141

[32] Green 1998, p. 10

[60] Cartledge 2002, p. 140

[33] Britannica ed. 2006, Sparta

[61] Ehrenberg 2004, p. 159

[34] Dictionary of Ancient&Medieval WarfareMatthew

Bennett, p. 86

[62] Thucydides (IV, 80); the Greek is ambiguous

[63] Cartledge 2002, p. 211

[35] The Oxford Illustrated History of Greece and the Hellenistic World p. 141, John Boardman, Jasper Grin,
Oswyn Murray
[36] Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 556-9
[37] Agis III

[64] Thucydides (VII, 27)

[65] Talbert, p.26.
[66] Apud Athenaeus, 14, 647d = FGH 106 F 2. Trans. by
Cartledge, p.305.

14

12

NOTES AND REFERENCES

[67] 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.

[93] E. David (1984). Aristophanes and Athenian Society

of the Early Fourth Century B.C. Brill Archive. ISBN
9004070621.

[68] (Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 28, 7)

[94] Thomas F. Scanlon "The Dispersion of Pederasty and the

Athletic Revolution in Sixth-Century BC Greece", SameSex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in
the Classical Tradition of the West, pp. 64-70. PMID
16338890

[69] Powell 2001, p. 254

[70] Thucydides (Book IV 80.4).
[71] Classical historian Anton Powell has recorded a similar
story from 1980s El Salvador. Cf. Powell, 2001, p. 256
[72] Cartledge 2002, pp. 153155

[95] Erich Bethe,Die Dorische Knabenliebe: ihre Ethik und ihre

Ideen (The Doric pederasty: their ethics and their ideas),
Sauerlnder, 1907, 441, 444. ISBN 978-3921495773

[73] Cartledge 2002, p. 158,178

[96] Plutarch, The Life of Lycurgus, 18

[74] Population Patterns in Late Archaic and Classical Sparta

by Thomas Figueira, Transactions of the American Philological Association 116 (1986), p.165-213

[97] Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists, XIII: Concerning Women

[75] Paul Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, Routledge, London, 1979, pp.154-159

[98] Readers Companion Military Hist p. 438Cowley

[99] Adcock 1957, pp. 89

[76] Conrad Stibbe, Das Andere Sparta, Verlag Philipp von [100] Plutarch 2004, p. 465
Zabern, Mainz, 1996, pp. 111-127
[101] Helena P. Schrader (2011).
Sons and Mothers.
PARTA: Journal of Ancient Spartan and Greek History
[77] Excel HSC Ancient History By Peter Roberts, ISBN 1(Markoulakis Publications) 7 (4). ISSN 1751-0007. Re74125-178-8, ISBN 978-1-74125-178-4
trieved September 14, 2013. (subscription required)
[78] Greene, Robert (2000), The 48 Laws of Power, Penguin
[102] Forrest 1968, p. 53
Books, p. 420, ISBN 0-14-028019-7
[79] Conrad Stibbe, Das Andere Sparta, Verlag Philipp von [103] W. Lindsay Wheeler (2007). Doric Crete and Sparta,
the Home of Greek Philosophy. PARTA: Journal of
Zabern, Mainz, 1996
Ancient Spartan and Greek History (Markoulakis Publica[80] A.H.M. Jones, Sparta, Basel Blackwell and Mott
tions) 3 (2). ISSN 1751-0007. Retrieved September 14,
Ltd.,1967,pp.40-43
2013.
[81] Stephen Hodkinson, Property and Wealth in Classical [104] Sarah B. Pomeroy (2002). Spartan Women. Oxford UniSparta, The Classical Press of Wales, Swansea, 2000. See
versity Press. ISBN 0-19-8030002. Retrieved September
also Paul Cartledges discussion of property in Sparta in
14, 2013.
Sparta and Lakonia, pp. 142-144.
[105] The Greeks, H. D. F. Kitto, ISBN 0-202-30910-X,
[82] Social Conict in Ancient Greece By Alexander Fuks,
9780202309101
ISBN 965-223-466-4, ISBN 978-965-223-466-7
[106] Plutarch, The Life of Lycurgus
[83] Cartledge 2001, p. 84
[107] Pomeroy 2002, p. 42
[84] Plutarch 2005, p. 20
[108] Xenophon, Spartan Society, 1
[85] Buxton 2001, p. 201
[109] Susan Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece, British Mu[86] Ancient Sparta Research Program of Keadas Cavern
seum Press, London, 1999
Theodoros K. Pitsios
[110] Guttentag and Secord, 1983; Finley, 1982; Pomeroy,
[87] Plutarch, Lycurgus 27.2-3. However this may be conat1975
ing later practice with that of the classical period. See
Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of [111] Pomeroy 2002, p. 34
the Other in Greek Art ed. Beth Cohen, p.263, note 33,
[112] Powell 2001, p. 248
2000, Brill.
[88] Xenophon, Spartan Society, 2

[113] Blundell 1995, p. 154

[89] Cartledge 2001, p. 85

[114] Powell 2001, p. 246

[90] Cartledge 2001, pp. 91105

[91] Cartledge 2001, p. 88

[115] Maria Dettenhofer, Die Frauen von Sparta, Reine Mnner Sache, Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994,
p.25.

[92] Cartledge 2001, pp. 8384

[116] Pomeroy, 1975

15

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This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

14

External links

Sparta on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)

GTPSparta
GTPAncient Sparta
Schrader, Helena P. (20012010). Sparta Reconsidered: An Introduction. The Spartans: Warrior
Philosophers of the Ancient World. Elysium Gates.
Halsall, Paul (January 1999). 11th Britannica:
Sparta. Ancient History Sourcebook. Fordham University.
Papakyriakou-Anagnostou, Ellen (20002011).
History of Sparta. Ancient Greek Cities.

EXTERNAL LINKS

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File:SpartaGreatRhetra.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/SpartaGreatRhetra.png License: CC BY
3.0 Contributors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SpartaGreatRhetra.png Original artist: Putinovac
File:Sparta_ruins.PNG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Sparta_ruins.PNG License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
Contributors: Eigene Aufnahme vom 08. Juni 1999. Original artist: Thomas Ihle at German Wikipedia
File:Sparta_territory.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Sparta_territory.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
Contributors: Own work Original artist: Marsyas
File:Spartan_swordman.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Spartan_swordman.jpg License: CC BY
2.0 Contributors: originally posted to Flickr as SNC10125 Original artist: davide ferro
File:Spqrstone.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Spqrstone.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:
Originally from sv.wikipedia; description page is (was) here Original artist: User Lamr on sv.wikipedia
File:Young_Spartans_National_Gallery_NG3860.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Young_
Spartans_National_Gallery_NG3860.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: National Potrait Gallery Original artist: Edgar Degas

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