Sparta

Sparta[1] was a prominent city-state in Laconia in

ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known Sparta
as Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων, Lakedaímōn), while the Λακεδαίμων (Ancient Greek)
name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the 900s–192 BC
valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern
Peloponnese.[2] Around 650 BC, it rose to become the
dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.

Sparta was recognized as the leading force of the

unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars,
in rivalry with the rising naval power of Athens.[3]
Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the
Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC),[4] from which it
emerged victorious after the Battle of Aegospotami.
The decisive Battle of Leuctra against Thebes in
371 BC ended the Spartan hegemony, although the
city-state maintained its political independence until its
forced integration into the Achaean League in 192 BC.
The city nevertheless recovered much autonomy after
the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC and
Territory of ancient Sparta before 371 BC, with
prospered during the Roman Empire, as its antiquarian Perioecic cities in blue
customs attracted many Roman tourists. However,
Capital Sparta
Sparta was sacked in 396 AD by the Visigothic king 37°4′55″N
Alaric, and underwent a long period of decline, 22°25′25″E
especially in the Middle Ages, when many of its
Common languages Doric Greek
citizens moved to Mystras. Modern Sparta is the
capital of the southern Greek region of Laconia and a Religion Greek polytheism
center for processing citrus and olives. Government Diarchic monarchy
King
Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social
• c. 930–900 BC Agis I
system and constitution, which were supposedly
• 207–192 BC Nabis
introduced by the semi-mythical legislator Lycurgus.
Legislature Ephors
His laws configured the Spartan society to maximize
military proficiency at all costs, focusing all social Gerousia
institutions on military training and physical Historical era Classical antiquity
development. The inhabitants of Sparta were stratified • Foundation 900s BC
as Spartiates (citizens with full rights), mothakes (free • Messenian War 685–668 BC
non-Spartiate people descended from Spartans), • Battle of 480 BC
perioikoi (free non-Spartiates), and helots (state-owned Thermopylae
enslaved non-Spartan locals), with helots making up • Peloponnesian War 431–404 BC
the majority of the population. Spartiate men • Battle of Mantinea 362 BC
underwent the rigorous agoge training regimen, and • Annexed by Achaea 192 BC
Spartan phalanx brigades were widely considered to be
Preceded by Succeeded by
among the best in battle. Free Spartan women enjoyed
considerably more rights than elsewhere in classical Greek Dark Achaean
Ages League
antiquity, though helots suffered harsh treatment at the
hands of the Spartiates, causing them to repeatedly
revolt against their overlords. Sparta was frequently
a subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in
Western culture following the revival of classical
learning. The admiration of Sparta is known as
Laconophilia.

Names

Hollow Lacedaemon. Site of the Menelaion, the

ancient shrine to Helen and Menelaus constructed
in the Bronze Age city that stood on the hill of
Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas River
overlooking the future site of Dorian Sparta. Across
the valley the successive ridges of Mount Taygetus
are in evidence.

The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the

Eurotas River Spartan city-state and its location. First, "Sparta" refers
primarily to the main cluster of settlements in the valley of
the Eurotas River.[5] The second word, "Lacedaemon"
(Λακεδαίμων),[6] was often used as an adjective and is the name referenced in the works of Homer and
the historians Herodotus and Thucydides. The third term, "Laconice" (Λακωνική), referred to the
immediate area around the town of Sparta, the plateau east of the Taygetos mountains,[7] and sometimes
to all the regions under direct Spartan control, including Messenia.

The earliest attested term referring to Lacedaemon is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀨𐀐𐀅𐀖𐀛𐀍, ra-ke-da-mi-ni-
jo, "Lakedaimonian", written in Linear B syllabic script,[8][n 1] the equivalent of the later Greek
Λακεδαιμόνιος, Lakedaimonios (Latin: Lacedaemonius).[14][15]

Herodotus seems to use "Lacedaemon" for the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne, in contrast to the
lower town of Sparta. This term could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it denoted the
terrain in which the city was located.[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] suggesting the
Eurotas Valley. "Sparta" on the other hand is described as "the country of lovely women", an epithet for
people.

The residents of Sparta were often called Lacedaemonians. This epithet utilized the plural of the adjective
Lacedaemonius (Greek: Λακεδαιμόνιοι; Latin: Lacedaemonii, but also Lacedaemones). The ancients
sometimes used a back-formation, referring to the land of Lacedaemon as Lacedaemonian country. As
most words for "country" were feminine, the adjective was in the feminine: Lacedaemonia
(Λακεδαιμονία, Lakedaimonia). Eventually, the adjective came to be used alone.

"Lacedaemonia" was not in general use during the classical period and before. It does occur in Greek as
an equivalent of Laconia and Messenia during the Roman and early Byzantine periods, mostly in
ethnographers and lexica of place names. For example, Hesychius of Alexandria's Lexicon (5th century
AD) defines 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. Isidore relied
heavily on Orosius' Historiarum Adversum Paganos (5th century AD) and Eusebius of Caesarea's
Chronicon (early 5th century AD), as did Orosius. The latter defines Sparta to be Lacedaemonia
Civitas,[19] but Isidore defines Lacedaemonia as founded by Lacedaemon, son of Semele, which is
consistent with Eusebius' explanation.[20] There is a rare use, perhaps the earliest of "Lacedaemonia", in
Diodorus Siculus' The Library of History,[21] but probably with Χώρα (chōra, "country") suppressed.

Lakedaimona was until 2006 the name of a province in the modern Greek prefecture of Laconia.

Geography
Sparta is located in the region of Laconia, in the south-eastern
Peloponnese. Ancient Sparta was built on the banks of the
Eurotas, the largest river of Laconia, which provided it with a
source of fresh water. The Eurotas valley was a natural
fortress, bounded to the west by Mt. Taygetus (2,407 m) and
to the east by Mt. Parnon (1,935 m). To the north, Laconia is
separated from Arcadia by hilly uplands reaching 1000 m in
altitude. These natural defenses worked to Sparta's advantage
and protected it from sacking and invasion. Though
landlocked, Sparta had a vassal harbor, Gytheio, on the
Laconian Gulf.
Antique map of classical city of Sparta
(based on ancient sources and not
Mythology archaeology).

Lacedaemon (Greek: Λακεδαίμων) 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. As king, he named his 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.

Tyrtaeus, an archaic era Spartan writer, is the earliest source to connect the origin myth of the Spartans to
the lineage of the hero Heracles; later authors, such as Diodorus Siculus, Herodotus, and Apollodorus,
also made mention of Spartans understanding themselves to be descendants of Heracles.[23][24][25][26]
Archaeology of the classical period
Thucydides wrote:

Suppose the city of Sparta to be deserted, and

nothing left but the temples and the ground-plan,
distant ages would be very unwilling to believe
that the power of the Lacedaemonians was at all
equal to their fame. Their city is not built
continuously, and has no splendid temples or
other edifices; it rather resembles a group of
The theater of ancient Sparta with Mt.
villages, like the ancient towns of Hellas, and Taygetus in the background.
would therefore make a poor show.[27][28]

Until the early 20th century, the chief ancient buildings at Sparta were the theatre, of which, however,
little showed above ground except portions of the retaining walls; the so-called Tomb of Leonidas, a
quadrangular building, perhaps a temple, constructed of immense blocks of stone and containing two
chambers; the foundation of an ancient bridge over the Eurotas; the ruins of a circular structure; some
remains of late Roman fortifications; several brick buildings and mosaic pavements.[27]

The remaining archaeological wealth consisted of inscriptions, sculptures, and other objects collected in
the local museum, founded by Stamatakis in 1872 and enlarged in 1907. Partial excavation of the round
building was undertaken in 1892 and 1893 by the American School at Athens. The structure has been
since found to be a semicircular retaining wall of Hellenic origin that was partly restored during the
Roman period.[27]

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 itself.[27]

A "small circus" (as described by Leake) proved to be a

theatre-like building constructed soon after 200 AD around
the altar and in front of the Temple of Artemis Orthia. It is
believed that musical and gymnastic contests took place here,
Ruins of the Temple of Artemis Orthia
as well as the famous flogging ordeal administered to Spartan
boys (diamastigosis). The temple, which can be dated to the
2nd century BC, rests on the foundation of an older temple of the 6th century, and close beside it were
found the remains of a yet earlier temple, dating from the 9th or even the 10th century. The votive
offerings in clay, amber, bronze, ivory and lead dating from the 9th to the 4th centuries BC, which were
found in great profusion within the precinct range, supply invaluable information about early Spartan
art.[27]

In 1907, the location of the sanctuary of Athena "of the Brazen House" (Χαλκίοικος, Chalkioikos) was
determined to be on the acropolis immediately above the theatre. Though the actual temple is almost
completely destroyed, the site has produced the longest extant archaic inscription in Laconia, numerous
bronze nails and plates, and a considerable number of votive
offerings. The city-wall, built in successive stages from the
4th to the 2nd century, was traced for a great part of its
circuit, which measured 48 stades or nearly 10 km (6 miles)
(Polyb. 1X. 21). The late Roman wall enclosing the acropolis,
part of which probably dates from the years following the
Gothic raid of 262 AD, was also investigated. Besides the
actual buildings discovered, a number of points were situated
and mapped in a general study of Spartan topography, based
Remaining section of wall that
upon the description of Pausanias.[27] surrounded ancient Sparta

In terms of domestic archaeology, little is known about

Spartan houses and villages before the Archaic period, but the best evidence comes from excavations at
Nichoria in Messenia where postholes have been found. These villages were open and consisted of small
and simple houses built with stone foundations and clay walls.[29]

Menelaion
The Menelaion is a shrine associated with Menelaus, located
east of Sparta, by the river Eurotas, on the hill Profitis Ilias
(Coordinates: 37.0659°N 22.4536°E). Built around the early
8th century BC, the Spartans believed it had been the former
residence of Menelaus. In 1970, the British School in Athens
started excavations around the Menelaion in an attempt to
locate Mycenaean remains in the area. Among other findings,
they uncovered the remains of two Mycenaean mansions and
The Menelaion found the first offerings dedicated to Helen and Menelaus.
These mansions were destroyed by earthquake and fire, and
archaeologists consider them the possible palace of Menelaus
himself.[30]

Excavations made from the early 1990s to the present suggest that the area around the Menelaion in the
southern part of the Eurotas valley seems to have been the center of Mycenaean Laconia.[31] 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 of its original structures save for ruined foundations and broken
potsherds.[27]

History

Prehistory, "dark age" and archaic period

The prehistory of Sparta is difficult to reconstruct because the literary evidence was written far later than
the events it describes and is distorted by oral tradition.[32] 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.[33]
This civilization seems to have fallen into decline by the late Bronze Age, when, according to Herodotus,
Macedonian tribes from the north (called Dorians by those they conquered) marched into the Peloponnese
and, subjugating the local tribes, settled there.[32] The Dorians seem to have set about expanding the
frontiers of Spartan territory almost before they had established their own state.[34] They fought against
the Argive Dorians to the east and southeast, and also the Arcadian Achaeans to the northwest. The
evidence suggests that Sparta, relatively inaccessible because of the topography of the Taygetan plain,
was secure from early on: it was never fortified.[34]

Nothing distinctive in the archaeology of the Eurotas River Valley

identifies the Dorians or the Dorian Spartan state. The prehistory of the
Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the Dark Age (the Early Iron Age) at this
moment must be treated apart from the stream of Dorian Spartan history.

The legendary period of Spartan history is believed to fall into the Dark
Age. It treats the mythic heroes such as the Heraclids and the Perseids,
offering a view of the occupation of the Peloponnesus that contains both
fantastic and possibly historical elements. The subsequent proto-historic
period, combining both legend and historical fragments, offers the first
credible history.
Lycurgus
Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC the Spartans experienced a period of
lawlessness and civil strife, later attested by both Herodotus and
Thucydides.[35] As a result, they carried out a series of political and social reforms of their own society
which they later attributed to a semi-mythical lawgiver, Lycurgus.[36] Several writers throughout
antiquity, including Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plutarch have attempted to explain Spartan
exceptionalism as a result of the so-called Lycurgan Reforms.[37][38][39][40]

Classical Sparta
In the Second Messenian War, Sparta established itself as a local power in the Peloponnesus and the rest
of Greece. During the following centuries, Sparta's reputation as a land-fighting force was
unequalled.[41] At its peak around 500 BC, Sparta had some 20,000–35,000 citizens, plus numerous
helots and perioikoi. The likely total of 40,000–50,000 made Sparta one of the larger Greek city-
states;[42][43] however, according to Thucydides, the population of Athens in 431 BC was 360,000–
610,000, making it much larger.[n 2]

In 480 BC, a small force led by King Leonidas (about 300 full Spartiates, 700 Thespians, and 400
Thebans, although these numbers were lessened by earlier casualties[45]) made a legendary last stand at
the Battle of Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, led by Xerxes.[46] The Spartans received
advance warning of the Persian invasion from their deposed king Demaratus, which prompted them to
consult the Delphic oracle. According to Herodotus, the Pythia proclaimed that either one of the kings of
Sparta had to die or Sparta would be destroyed.[47] This prophecy was fulfilled after king Leonidas died
in the battle. The superior weaponry, strategy, and bronze armour of the Greek hoplites and their phalanx
fighting formation again proved their worth one year later when Sparta assembled its full strength and led
a Greek alliance against the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.
The decisive Greek victory at Plataea put an end to the Greco-
Persian War along with Persian ambitions to expand into
Europe. Even though this war was won by a pan-Greek army,
credit was given to Sparta, who besides providing the leading
forces at Thermopylae and Plataea, had been the de facto
leader of the entire Greek expedition.[48]

In 464 BC, a violent earthquake occurred along the Sparta

faultline destroying much of what was Sparta and many other
Ancient Sparta.
city-states in ancient Greece. This earthquake is marked by
scholars as one of the key events that led to the First
Peloponnesian War.

In later Classical times, Sparta along with Athens, Thebes, and Persia were the main powers fighting for
supremacy in the northeastern Mediterranean. In the course of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta, a
traditional land power, acquired a navy which managed to overpower the previously dominant flotilla of
Athens, ending the Athenian Empire. At the peak of its power in the early 4th century BC, Sparta had
subdued many of the main Greek states and even invaded the Persian provinces in Anatolia (modern day
Turkey), a period known as the Spartan hegemony.

During the Corinthian War, Sparta faced a coalition of the leading Greek states: Thebes, Athens, Corinth,
and Argos. The alliance was initially backed by Persia, which feared further Spartan expansion into
Asia.[49] Sparta achieved a series of land victories, but many of her ships were destroyed at the Battle of
Cnidus by a Greek-Phoenician mercenary fleet that Persia had provided to Athens. The event severely
damaged Sparta's naval power but did not end its aspirations of invading further into Persia, until Conon
the Athenian ravaged the Spartan coastline and provoked the old Spartan fear of a helot revolt.[50]

After a few more years of fighting, in 387 BC the Peace of Antalcidas was established, according to
which all Greek cities of Ionia would return to Persian control, and Persia's Asian border would be free of
the Spartan threat.[50] The effects of the war were to reaffirm Persia's ability to interfere successfully in
Greek politics and to affirm Sparta's weakened hegemonic position in the Greek political system.[51]
Sparta entered its long-term decline after a severe military defeat to Epaminondas of Thebes at the Battle
of Leuctra. This was the first time that a full strength Spartan army lost a land battle.

As Spartan citizenship was inherited by blood, Sparta increasingly faced a helot population that vastly
outnumbered its citizens. The alarming decline of Spartan citizens was commented on by Aristotle.

Hellenistic and Roman Sparta

Sparta never fully recovered from its losses at Leuctra in 371 BC and the subsequent helot revolts. In 338,
Philip II invaded and devastated much of Laconia, turning the Spartans out, though he did not seize
Sparta itself.[52] 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 invade
Laconia, I shall turn you out.",[53] the Spartans responded with the single, terse reply: αἴκα,
"if".[54][55][56] When Philip created the League of Corinth on the pretext of unifying Greece against
Persia, the Spartans chose not to join, since they had no interest in joining a pan-Greek expedition unless
it were under Spartan leadership. Thus, upon defeating the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus,
Alexander the Great sent to Athens 300 suits of Persian
armour with the following inscription: "Alexander, son of
Philip, and all the Greeks except the Spartans, give these
offerings taken from the foreigners who live in Asia".

Sparta continued to be one of the Peloponesian powers until

its eventual loss of independence in 192 BC. During
Alexander's campaigns in the east, the Spartan king Agis III
sent a force to Crete in 333 BC to secure the island for the
Medieval depiction of Sparta from the
Persian interest.[57][58] Agis next took command of allied Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
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.[59] More than 5,300 of the Spartans and their allies were killed in battle, and 3,500 of
Antipater's troops.[60] Agis, now wounded and unable to stand, ordered his men to leave him behind to
face the advancing Macedonian army so that he could buy them time to retreat. On his knees, the Spartan
king slew several enemy soldiers before being finally killed by a javelin.[61] Alexander was merciful, and
he only forced the Spartans to join the League of Corinth, which they had previously refused.[62]

During the Punic Wars, Sparta was an ally of the Roman Republic. Spartan political independence was
put to an end when it was eventually forced into the Achaean League after its defeat in the decisive
Laconian War by a coalition of other Greek city-states and Rome, and the resultant overthrow of its final
king Nabis, in 192 BC. Sparta played no active part in the Achaean War in 146 BC when the Achaean
League was defeated by the Roman general Lucius Mummius. Subsequently, Sparta became a free city
under Roman rule, some of the institutions of Lycurgus were restored,[63] and the city became a tourist
attraction for the Roman elite who came to observe exotic Spartan customs.[n 3]

In 214 AD, Roman emperor Caracalla, in his preparation for his campaign against Parthia, recruited a
500-man Spartan cohort (lokhos). Herodian described this unit as a phalanx, implying it fought like the
old Spartans as hoplites, or even as a Macedonian phalanx. Despite this, a gravestone of a fallen legionary
named Marcus Aurelius Alexys shows him lightly armed, with a pilos-like cap and a wooden club. The
unit was presumably discharged in 217 after Caracalla was assassinated.[68]

An exchange of letters in the deutero-canonical First Book of Maccabees expresses a Jewish claim to
kinship with the Spartans:

Areus king of the Lacedemonians to Onias the high priest, greeting: It is found in writing, that
the Lacedemonians and Jews are brethren, and that they are of the stock of Abraham: Now
therefore, since this is come to our knowledge, ye shall do well to write unto us of your
prosperity. We do write back again to you, that your cattle and goods are ours, and ours are
yours.

—Authorized King James Version 1 Maccabees 12.20

The letters are reproduced in a variant form by Josephus.[69] Jewish historian Uriel Rappaport notes that
the relationship between the Jews and the Spartans expressed in this correspondence has "intrigued many
scholars, and various explanations have been suggested for the problems raised ... including the
historicity of the Jewish leader and high priest Jonathan's letter to the Spartans, the authenticity of the
letter of Arius to Onias, cited in Jonathan's letter, and the supposed 'brotherhood' of the Jews and the
Spartans." Rappaport is clear that "the authenticity of [the reply] letter of Arius is based on even less firm
foundations than the letter of Jonathan".[70]

Spartans long spurned the idea of building a defensive wall around their city, believing they made the
city's men soft in terms of their warrior abilities. A wall was finally erected after 184 BCE, after the peak
of the city-state's power had come and gone.[71]

Post-classical and modern Sparta

In 396 AD, Sparta was sacked by Visigoths under Alaric I.[72][73] According to Byzantine sources, some
parts of the Laconian region remained pagan until well into the 10th century. The Tsakonian language still
spoken in Tsakonia is the only surviving descendant of the ancient Doric language.[74] In the Middle
Ages, the political and cultural center of Laconia shifted to the nearby settlement of Mystras, and Sparta
fell further in even local importance. Modern Sparta was re-founded in 1834, by a decree of King Otto of
Greece. Today it is a provincial town and the capital of the Laconia administrative region.

Structure of Classical Spartan society

Constitution

Structure of the Spartan Constitution

Sparta was an oligarchy. The state was ruled by two hereditary kings of the Agiad and Eurypontid
families,[75] both supposedly descendants of Heracles and equal in authority, so that one could not act
against the power and political enactments of his colleague.[27]

The duties of the kings were primarily religious, judicial, and military. As chief priests of the state, they
maintained communication with the Delphian sanctuary, whose pronouncements exercised great authority
in Spartan politics. In the time of Herodotus c. 450 BC, their judicial functions had been restricted to
cases dealing with heiresses (epikleroi), adoptions and the public roads (the meaning of the last term is
unclear in Herodotus' text and has been interpreted in a number of ways). Aristotle describes the kingship
at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship" (Pol. iii. 1285a), while Isocrates refers to the
Spartans as "subject to an oligarchy at home, to a kingship on campaign" (iii. 24).[27]

Civil and criminal cases were decided by a group of officials known as the ephors, as well as a council of
elders known as the Gerousia. The Gerousia consisted of 28 elders over the age of 60, elected for life and
usually part of the royal households, and the two kings.[76] High state decisions were discussed by this
council, who could then propose policies to the damos, the collective body of Spartan citizenry, who
would select one of the alternatives by vote.[77][78]

Royal prerogatives were curtailed over time. From the period of the Persian wars, the king lost the right
to declare war and was accompanied in the field by two ephors. He was supplanted by the ephors also in
the control of foreign policy. Over time, the kings became mere figureheads except in their capacity as
generals. Political power was transferred to the ephors and Gerousia.[27]

An assembly of citizens called the Ekklesia was responsible for electing men to the Gerousia for life.

Citizenship
The Spartan education process known as the agoge was essential for full citizenship. However, usually
the only boys eligible for the agoge were Spartiates, those 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. Also, the son of a
helot could be enrolled as a syntrophos[79] if a Spartiate formally adopted him and paid his way; if he did
exceptionally well in training, he might be sponsored to become a Spartiate.[80] Spartans who could not
afford to pay the expenses of the agoge could lose their citizenship.

These laws meant that Sparta could not readily replace citizens lost in battle or otherwise, which
eventually proved near fatal as citizens became greatly outnumbered by non-citizens, and even more
dangerously by helots.

Non citizens
The other classes were the perioikoi, free inhabitants who were non-citizens, and the helots,[81] state-
owned serfs. Descendants of non-Spartan citizens were forbidden the agoge.

Helots
The Spartans were a minority of the Lakonian population. The largest class of inhabitants were the helots
(in Classical Greek Εἵλωτες / Heílôtes).[82][83]

The helots were originally free Greeks from the areas of Messenia and Lakonia whom the Spartans had
defeated in battle and subsequently enslaved.[84] In contrast to populations conquered by other Greek
cities (e.g. the Athenian treatment of Melos), the male population was not exterminated and the women
and children turned into chattel slaves. Instead, the helots were given a subordinate position in society
more comparable to serfs in medieval Europe than chattel slaves in the rest of Greece. The Spartan helots
were not only agricultural workers, but were also household servants, both male and female would be
assigned domestic duties, such as wool-working.[85] However, the helots were not the private property of
individual Spartan citizens, regardless of their household duties, and were instead owned by the state
through the kleros system.[86]

Helots did not have voting or political rights. The Spartan poet Tyrtaios refers to Helots being allowed to
marry and retaining 50% of the fruits of their labor.[87] They also seem to have been allowed to practice
religious rites and, according to Thucydides, own a limited amount of personal property.[88] Initially,
helots couldn't be freed but during the middle Hellenistic period, 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.[89]
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.[90]

There was at least one helot revolt (c. 465–460 BC) that led to prolonged conflict. By the tenth year of
this war the Spartans and Messenians had reached an agreement in which Messenian rebels were allowed
to leave the Peloponnese.[91] They were given safe passage under the terms that they would be re-
enslaved if they tried to return. This agreement ended the most serious incursion into Spartan territory
since their expansion in the seventh and eighth centuries BC.[92] Thucydides remarked that "Spartan
policy is always mainly governed by the necessity of taking precautions against the helots."[93][94] 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.[95] What made Sparta's relations with her slave population
unique was that the helots, precisely because they enjoyed privileges such as family and property,
retained their identity as a conquered people (the Messenians) and also had effective kinship groups that
could be used to organize rebellion.

As the Spartiate population declined and the helot population continued to grow, the imbalance of power
caused increasing tension. According to Myron of Priene[96] of the middle 3rd century BC:

They assign to the Helots every shameful task leading to disgrace. For they ordained that each
one of them must wear a dogskin cap (κυνῆ / kunễ) and wrap himself in skins (διφθέρα /
diphthéra) and receive a stipulated number of beatings every year regardless of any
wrongdoing, so that they would never forget they were slaves. Moreover, if any exceeded the
vigour proper to a slave's condition, they made death the penalty; and they allotted a
punishment to those controlling them if they failed to rebuke those who were growing fat.[97]

Plutarch also states that Spartans treated the helots "harshly and cruelly": they compelled them to drink
pure wine (which was considered dangerous – wine usually being cut with water) "...and to lead them in
that condition into their public halls, that the children might see what a sight a drunken man is; they made
them to dance low dances, and sing ridiculous songs..." during syssitia (obligatory banquets).[98]
Each year when the Ephors took office, they ritually declared war on the helots, allowing Spartans to kill
them without risk of ritual pollution.[99] This fight seems to have been carried out by kryptai (sing.
κρύπτης kryptēs), graduates of the agoge who took part in the mysterious institution known as the
Krypteia.[100] Thucydides states:

The helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to
have most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their
freedom; the object being to test them, as it was thought that the first to claim their freedom
would be the most high spirited and the most apt to rebel. As many as two thousand were
selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their
new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever
knew how each of them perished.[101][102]

Perioikoi
The Perioikoi came from similar origins as the helots but occupied a significantly different position in
Spartan society. Although they did not enjoy full citizen-rights, they were free and not subjected to the
same restrictions as the helots. The exact nature of their subjection to the Spartans is not clear, but they
seem to have served partly as a kind of military reserve, partly as skilled craftsmen and partly as agents of
foreign trade.[103] Perioikoic hoplites served increasingly with the Spartan army, explicitly at the Battle of
Plataea, and although they may also have fulfilled functions such as the manufacture and repair of armour
and weapons,[104] they were increasingly integrated into the combat units of the Spartan army as the
Spartiate population declined.[105]

Economy
Full citizen Spartiates were barred by law from trade or
manufacture, which consequently rested in the hands of the
Perioikoi.[27] This lucrative monopoly, in a fertile territory
with a good harbors, ensured the loyalty of the perioikoi.[106]
Despite the prohibition on menial labor or trade, there is
evidence of Spartan sculptors,[107] 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.[108] Though the
Name vase of the Spartan artist known conspicuous display of wealth appears to have been
as the Rider Painter (Laconian black- discouraged, this did not preclude the production of very fine
figured kylix, c. 550–530 BC) decorated bronze, ivory and wooden works of art as well as
exquisite jewellery, attested in archaeology.[109]

Allegedly as part of the Lycurgan Reforms in the mid-8th century BC, a massive land reform had divided
property into 9,000 equal portions. Each citizen received one estate, a kleros, which was expected to
provide his living.[110] The land 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,
nothing is known of matters of wealth such as how land was bought, sold, and inherited, or whether
daughters received dowries.[111] However, from early on there were marked differences of wealth within
the state, and these became more serious after the law of Epitadeus some time after the Peloponnesian
War, which removed the legal prohibition on the gift or bequest of land.[27][112] By the mid-5th century,
land had become concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, and the notion that all Spartan citizens were
equals had become an empty pretence. By Aristotle's day (384–322 BC) citizenship had been reduced
from 9,000 to less than 1,000, then further decreased to 700 at the accession of Agis IV in 244 BC.
Attempts were made to remedy this by imposing legal penalties upon bachelors,[27] but this could not
reverse the trend.

Life in Classical Sparta

Birth and death

Sparta was above all a militarist state, and emphasis on
military fitness began virtually at birth. According to
Plutarch after birth, a mother would bathe her child in
wine to see whether the child was strong. If the child
survived it was brought before the Gerousia by the
child's father. The Gerousia then decided whether it was
Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, The Selection of
to be reared or not.[27] It is commonly stated that if they
Children in Sparta, 1785. A Neoclassical
considered it "puny and deformed", the baby was imaging of what Plutarch describes.
thrown into a chasm on Mount Taygetos known
euphemistically as the Apothetae (Gr., ἀποθέται,
"Deposits").[113][114] This was, in effect, a primitive form of eugenics.[113] Plutarch is the sole historical
source for the Spartan practice of systemic infanticide motivated by eugenics.[115] Sparta is often viewed
as being unique in this regard, however, anthropologist Laila Williamson notes: "Infanticide has been
practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to
high civilizations. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule."[116] There is controversy
about the matter in Sparta, since excavations in the chasm only uncovered adult remains, likely belonging
to criminals[117] and Greek sources contemporary to Sparta does not mention systemic infanticide
motivated solely by eugenics.[118]

Spartan burial customs changed over time. The Archaic Spartan poet Tyrtaeus spoke of the Spartan war-
dead as follows:

Never do his [the war-dead's] name and good fame perish,

But even though he is beneath the earth he is immortal,
Young and old alike mourn him,
All the city is distressed by the painful loss,
and his tomb and children are pointed out among the people,
and his children's children and his line after them.[119]
When Spartans died, marked headstones would only be granted to soldiers who died in combat during a
victorious campaign or women who died either in service of a divine office or in childbirth.[120] These
headstones likely acted as memorials, rather than as grave markers. Evidence of Spartan burials is
provided by the Tomb of the Lacedaimonians in Athens. Excavations at the cemetery of classical Sparta,
uncovered ritually pierced kantharoid-like ceramic vessels, the ritual slaughter of horses, and specific
burial enclosures alongside individual 'plots'. Some of the graves were reused over time.[121][122]

In the Hellenistic Period, grander, two-storey monumental tombs are found at Sparta. Ten of these have
been found for this period.[122]

Education
When male Spartans began military training at age seven, they would
enter the agoge system. The agoge was designed to encourage
discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of
the Spartan state. Boys lived in communal messes and, according to
Xenophon, whose sons attended the agoge, the boys were fed "just
the right amount for them never to become sluggish through being
too full, while also giving them a taste of what it is not to have
enough."[123] In addition, they were trained to survive in times of
privation, even if it meant stealing.[124] Besides physical and
weapons training, boys studied reading, writing, music and dancing.
Special punishments were imposed if boys failed to answer questions
sufficiently "laconically" (i.e. briefly and wittily).[125]

Spartan boys were expected to take an older male mentor, usually an

unmarried young man. 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
Bronze appliqué of Spartan
that they had sexual relations (the exact nature of Spartan pederasty is
manufacture, possibly depicting
Orestes, 550–525 BC (Getty
not entirely clear). Xenophon, an admirer of the Spartan educational
Villa) system whose sons attended the agoge, explicitly denies the sexual
nature of the relationship.[126][123]

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.[127]

Less information is available about the education of Spartan girls, but they seem to have gone through a
fairly extensive formal educational cycle, broadly similar to that of the boys but with less emphasis on
military training. Spartan girls received an education known as mousikē. This included music, dancing,
singing and poetry. Choral dancing was taught so Spartan girls could participate in ritual activities,
including the cults of Helen and Artemis.[128] In this respect, classical Sparta was unique in ancient
Greece. In no other city-state did women receive any kind of formal education.[129]
Military life
At age 20, the Spartan citizen began his membership in one of the
syssitia (dining messes or clubs), composed of about fifteen members
each, of which every citizen was required to be a member.[27] Here
each group learned how to bond and rely on one another. The Spartans
were not eligible for election for public office until the age of 30. Only
native Spartans were considered full citizens and were obliged to
undergo the training as prescribed by law, as well as participate in and
contribute financially to one of the syssitia.[130]

Sparta is thought to be the first city to practice athletic nudity, and

some scholars claim that it was also the first to formalize
pederasty.[131] 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 so-called Leonidas
the ruling class, was, they claim, founded on pederastic relationships sculpture (5th century BC),
required of each citizen,[132] with the lover responsible for the boy's Archaeological Museum of
training. Sparta, Greece

However, other scholars question this interpretation. Xenophon

explicitly denies it,[123] but not Plutarch.[133]

Spartan men remained in the active reserve until age 60. Men were encouraged to marry at age 20 but
could not live with their families until they left their active military service at age 30. They called
themselves "homoioi" (equals), pointing to their common lifestyle and the discipline of the phalanx,
which demanded that no soldier be superior to his comrades.[134] Insofar as hoplite warfare could be
perfected, the Spartans did so.[135]

Thucydides reports that when a Spartan man went to war, his wife (or another woman of some
significance) would customarily present him with his aspis (shield) and say: "With this, or upon this" (Ἢ
τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς, Èi tàn èi èpì tàs), meaning that true Spartans could only return to Sparta either victorious
(with their shield in hand) or dead (carried upon it).[136] This is almost certainly propaganda. Spartans
buried their battle dead on or near the battle field; corpses were not brought back on their shield.[137]
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 shield, since the former were designed to protect one man, whereas the shield also
protected the man on his left. Thus, the shield was symbolic of the individual soldier's subordination to
his unit, his integral part in its success, and his solemn responsibility to his comrades in arms –
messmates and friends, often close blood relations.

According to Aristotle, the Spartan military culture was actually short-sighted and ineffective. He
observed:

It is the standards of civilized men not of beasts that must be kept in mind, for it is good men
not beasts who are capable of real courage. Those like the Spartans who concentrate on the
one and ignore the other in their education turn men into machines and in devoting
themselves to one single aspect of city's life, end up making them inferior even in that.[138]
One of the most persistent myths about Sparta that has no basis in fact is the notion that Spartan mothers
were without feelings toward their off-spring and helped enforce a militaristic lifestyle on their sons and
husbands.[139][140] The myth can be traced back to Plutarch, who includes no less than 17 "sayings" of
"Spartan women", all of which paraphrase or elaborate on the theme that Spartan mothers rejected their
own offspring if they showed any kind of cowardice. In some of these sayings, mothers revile their sons
in insulting language merely for surviving a battle. These sayings purporting to be from Spartan women
were far more likely to be of Athenian origin and designed to portray Spartan women as unnatural and so
undeserving of pity.[137]

Agriculture, food, and diet

Sparta's agriculture consisted mainly of barley, wine, cheese, grain, and figs. These items were grown
locally on each Spartan citizen's kleros and were tended to by helots. Spartan citizens were required to
donate a certain amount of what they yielded from their kleros to their syssitia, or mess. These donations
to the syssitia were a requirement for every Spartan citizen. All the donated food was then redistributed to
feed the Spartan population of that syssitia.[141] The helots who tended to the lands were fed using a
portion of what they harvested.[142]

Marriage
Plutarch reports the peculiar customs associated with the Spartan wedding night:

The custom was to capture women for marriage... The so-called 'bridesmaid' took charge of
the captured girl. She first shaved her head to the scalp, then dressed her in a man's cloak and
sandals, and laid her down alone on a mattress in the dark. The bridegroom – who was not
drunk and thus not impotent, but was sober as always – first had dinner in the messes, then
would slip in, undo her belt, lift her and carry her to the bed.[143]

The husband continued to visit his wife in secret for some time after the marriage. These customs, unique
to the Spartans, have been interpreted in various ways. One of them decidedly supports the need to
disguise the bride as a man in order to help the bridegroom consummate the marriage, so unaccustomed
were men to women's looks at the time of their first intercourse. The "abduction" may have served to
ward off the evil eye, and the cutting of the wife's hair was perhaps part of a rite of passage that signaled
her entrance into a new life.[144]

Role of women

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.[145] Nor were they confined to their father's house
and prevented from exercising or getting fresh air as in Athens, but exercised and even competed in
sports.[145] Most important, rather than being married off at the age of 12 or 13, Spartan law forbade the
marriage of a girl until she was in her late teens or early 20s. The reasons for delaying marriage were to
ensure the birth of healthy children, but the effect was to spare Spartan women the hazards and lasting
health damage associated with pregnancy among adolescents. Spartan women, better fed from childhood
and fit from exercise, stood a far better chance of reaching old age than their sisters in other Greek cities,
where the median age for death was 34.6 years or roughly 10 years below that of men.[146]

Unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the house,
Spartan women wore dresses (peplos) slit up the side to allow freer movement and moved freely about
the city, either walking or driving chariots. Girls as well as boys exercised, possibly in the nude, and
young women as well as young men may have participated in the Gymnopaedia ("Festival of Nude
Youths").[147][148]

Another practice that was mentioned by many visitors to Sparta was the practice of "wife-sharing". In
accordance with the Spartan belief that breeding should be between the most physically fit parents, many
older men allowed younger, more fit men, to impregnate their wives. Other unmarried or childless men
might even request another man's wife to bear his children if she had previously been a strong child
bearer.[149] For this reason many considered Spartan women polygamous or polyandrous.[150] 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.[151]

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.[152] Plato, in the middle of the fourth
century, described women's curriculum in Sparta as consisting of gymnastics and mousike (music and
arts). Plato praised Spartan women's ability when it came to philosophical discussion.[153]

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.[154] 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.[154]

Historic women
Many women played a significant role in the history of Sparta.[155] Queen Gorgo, heiress to the throne
and the wife of Leonidas I, was an influential and well-documented figure. Herodotus records that as a
small girl she advised her father Cleomenes to resist a bribe. She was later said to be responsible for
decoding a warning that the Persian forces were about to invade Greece; after Spartan generals could not
decode a wooden tablet covered in wax, she ordered them to clear the wax, revealing the warning.[156]
Plutarch's 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".[157] In 396, Cynisca, sister of the Eurypontid king Agesilaos II, became the first woman in Greece
to win an Olympic chariot race. She won again in 392, and dedicated two monuments to commemorate
her victory, these being an inscription in Sparta and a set of bronze equestrian statues at the Olympic
temple of Zeus.[158][159]
Laconophilia
Laconophilia is love or admiration of Sparta and its culture or
constitution. Sparta was subject of considerable admiration in
its day, even in rival Athens. In ancient times "Many of the
noblest and best of the Athenians always considered the
Spartan state nearly as an ideal theory realised in
practice."[160] Many Greek philosophers, especially
Platonists, would often describe Sparta as an ideal state,
strong, brave, and free from the corruptions of commerce and
money. The French classicist François Ollier in his 1933 book
Le mirage spartiate (The Spartan Mirage) warned that a Leonidas at Thermopylae, 1814 painting
major scholarly problem is that all surviving accounts of by Jacques-Louis David
Sparta were by non-Spartans who often excessively idealized
their subject.[161] The term "Spartan Mirage" has come to
refer to "idealized distortions and inventions regarding the character of Spartan society in the works of
non-Spartan writers," beginning in Greek and Roman antiquity and continuing through the medieval and
modern eras.[162] These accounts of Sparta are typically associated with the social or political concerns of
the writer.[162] No accounts survive by the Spartans themselves, if such were ever written.

With the revival of classical learning in Renaissance Europe,

Laconophilia re-appeared, for example 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 [was] the
noblest and best city governed that ever was". He commended
it as a model for England. The 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 sophisticated Young Spartans Exercising by Edgar
Athenian life. Sparta was also used as a model of austere Degas (1834–1917)
purity by Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.[163]

A German racist strain of Laconophilia was initiated by Karl Otfried Müller, who linked Spartan ideals to
the supposed racial superiority of the Dorians, the ethnic sub-group of the Greeks to which the Spartans
belonged. In the 20th century, this developed into Fascist admiration of Spartan ideals. Adolf Hitler
praised the Spartans, recommending in 1928 that Germany should imitate them by limiting "the number
allowed to live". He added that "The Spartans were once capable of such a wise measure... The
subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible because of the racial superiority of
the Spartans." The Spartans had created "the first racialist state".[164] Following the invasion of the
USSR, Hitler viewed citizens of the USSR as like the helots under the Spartans: "They [the Spartans]
came as conquerors, and they took everything", and so should the Germans. A Nazi officer specified that
"the Germans would have to assume the position of the Spartiates, while... the Russians were the
Helots."[164]
Certain early Zionists, and particularly the founders of Kibbutz movement in Israel, were influenced by
Spartan ideals, particularly in education. Tabenkin, a founding father of the Kibbutz movement and the
Palmach strikeforce, prescribed that education for warfare "should begin from the nursery", that children
should from kindergarten be taken to "spend nights in the mountains and valleys".[165][166]

In modern times, the adjective "Spartan" means simple, frugal, avoiding luxury and comfort.[167] The
term "laconic phrase" describes the very terse and direct speech characteristic of the Spartans.

Sparta also features prominently in modern popular culture, most famously the Battle of Thermopylae
(see Battle of Thermopylae in popular culture).

Notable ancient Spartans

Agesilaus II – king
Agis I – king
Agis II – king
Chilon – philosopher
Chionis (7th century BC) – athlete
Clearchus of Sparta – mercenary in the army of the Ten Thousand.
Cleomenes I – king
Cleomenes III – king and reformer
Cynisca (4th century BC) – princess and athlete
Gorgo – queen and politician
Helen – princess in the Trojan War
Leonidas I (c. 520–480 BC) – king, commander at the Battle of Thermopylae
Lycurgus (quasi-mythical, century unclear) — lawgiver
Lycurgus (king of Sparta) (3rd century BC) — abolished the diarchy
Lysander (5th–4th century BC) – general
Menelaus – king during the Trojan War
Nabis – king
Xanthippus of Carthage – Spartan mercenary in the First Punic War

See also
List of ancient Greek cities

Notes
1. Found on the following tablets: TH Fq 229, TH Fq 258, TH Fq 275, TH Fq 253, TH Fq 284,
TH Fq 325, TH Fq 339, TH Fq 382.[9] There are also words like 𐀨𐀐𐀅𐀖𐀛𐀍𐀄𐀍, ra-ke-da-mo-
ni-jo-u-jo – found on the TH Gp 227 tablet[9] – that could perhaps mean "son of the
Spartan".[10][11] Moreover, the attested words 𐀨𐀐𐀅𐀜 , ra-ke-da-no and 𐀐𐀅𐀜𐀩, ra-ke-da-
no-re could possibly be Linear B forms of Lacedaemon itself; the latter, found on the MY Ge
604 tablet, is considered to be the dative case form of the former which is found on the MY
Ge 603 tablet. It is considered much more probable though that ra-ke-da-no and ra-ke-da-
 no-re correspond to the anthroponym Λακεδάνωρ, Lakedanor, though the latter is thought to
be related etymologically to Lacedaemon.[9][12][13]
2. According to Thucydides, the Athenian citizens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War
(5th century BC) numbered 40,000, making a total of 140,000 people when including their
families. 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, while slaves were estimated at between 150,000 to
400,000.[44]
3. Especially the Diamastigosis at the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, Limnai outside Sparta.
There an amphitheatre was built in the 3rd century AD to observe the ritual whipping of
Spartan youths.[64][65] Visiting Romans came to see Sparta as having degraded to a
disgusting cult of fetish brutality.[66][67]

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2. Cartledge 2002, p. 91.
3. Cartledge 2002, p. 174.
4. Cartledge 2002, p. 192.
5. Liddell & Scott 1940. Σπάρτη (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:
1999.04.0057:entry=*spa/rth).
6. Liddell & Scott 1940. Λακεδαίμων (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:t
ext:1999.04.0057:entry=*lakedai/mwn).
7. Cartledge 2002, p. 4.
8. "The Linear B word ra-ke-da-mi-ni-jo" (http://www.palaeolexicon.com/ShowWord.aspx?Id=1
6881). Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of Ancient languages.
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258 (305)" (https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5254). "TH 275 Fq
(305)" (https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5260). "TH 253 Fq (305)"
(https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5251). "TH 284 Fq (305)" (https://
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hosen_item_id/5574). DĀMOS Database of Mycenaean at Oslo. University of Oslo.
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3DP3icC&pg=PA195). In Bakker, Egbert J. (ed.). A Companion to the Ancient Greek
Language. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 223. ISBN 978-
1-4051-5326-3.
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assistance of Lucien van Beek. Leiden, Boston: Brill. p. 1528. ISBN 9789004174184.
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deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/ra/ra-ke-da-no/). Minoan Linear A &
Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean. Archived from the original (http://minoan.deaditerrane
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23 March 2014.
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Black Athena Revisited (https://books.google.com/books?id=AClFWV6PE8wC&pg=PA193).
The University of North Carolina Press. p. 193. ISBN 0807845558.
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Further reading
Bradford, Ernle (2004), Thermopylae: The Battle for the West, New York: Da Capo Press,
ISBN 0-306-81360-2
Buxton, Richard (1999), From Myth to Reason?: Studies in the Development of Greek
Thought (https://archive.org/details/whatwillidowitho00grin_0), Oxford: Clarendon Press,
ISBN 0-7534-5110-7
Cartledge, Paul (2004), "What have the Spartans Done for us?: Sparta's Contribution to
Western Civilization", Greece & Rome, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 164–179
David, Ephraim. 1989. "Dress in Spartan Society" (https://www.academia.edu/40071959/Dre
ss_in_Spartan_Society). Ancient World 19:3–13.
Flower, Michael A. 2009. "Spartan 'Religion' and Greek 'Religion' ". In Sparta: Comparative
Approaches. Edited by Stephen Hodkinson, 193–229. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of
Wales.
Hodkinson, Stephen; Gallou, Chrysanthi, eds. (2021). Luxury and wealth in Sparta and the
Peloponnese. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales. ISBN 9781910589830.
Hodkinson, Stephen, and Ian MacGregor Morris, eds. 2010. Sparta in Modern Thought.
Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales.
Low, Polly. 2006. "Commemorating the Spartan War-Dead". In Sparta and War. Edited by
Stephen Hodkinson and Anton Powell, 85–109. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales.
Morris, Ian (1992), Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-37611-4
 Pavlides, Nicolette A. (2023). The hero cults of Sparta: local religion in a Greek city. London:
Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781788313001.
Rabinowitz, Adam. 2009. "Drinking from the Same Cup: Sparta and Late Archaic
Commensality". In Sparta: Comparative Approaches. Edited by Stephen Hodkinson, 113–
191. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Wales.
Thompson, F. Hugh (2002), The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Slavery, London:
Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-3195-0
Thucydides (1974), M.I. Finley, Rex Warner (ed.), History of the Peloponnesian War (https://
archive.org/details/historyofpelopo000thuc), London: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-044039-9

External links
Media related to Sparta at Wikimedia Commons
Sparta (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nvz72) on In Our Time at the BBC
Papakyriakou-Anagnostou, Ellen (2000–2011). "History of Sparta" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20010305205126/http://www.sikyon.com/Sparta/history_eg.html). Ancient Greek Cities.
Archived from the original (http://www.sikyon.com/sparta/history_eg.html) on 5 March 2001.
Retrieved 4 December 2007.

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