History of Sparte

Sparte (in Greek old Σπάρτη / Spártê , in Dorien Σπάρτα / Spárta ), or Lacédémone (in Greek Λακεδαίμων / Lakedaímôn ) is, with Athens and Thèbes, one of most powerful the city-States of ancient Greece.

Mythological origins

According to Pausanias (in book III of its Description of Greece ), the Laconie has for first named king a Lélex. His/her son (or grandson according to the authors) Eurotas drains the marshy plain and gives his name to the river which results from this. Not having a male heir, it leaves his kingdom to Lacédémon, wire of Zeus and Taygète (which gives its name to the mountain overhanging Sparte), husband of its daughter Sparta. While reaching the throne, Lacédémon gives its name to the area which it controls, and that of its wife at the city strictly speaking, from where the name of “Sparte”. According to its example, one of its sons, Amyclas, founds the town of Amyclées.

A grandson of Amyclas, Œbale, wife Gorgophoné, girl of Persée. His/her son, Tyndare, see his disputed throne. Obliged to flee in Messénie, it is given on the throne by Héraclès. The royalty passes then to its sons, then with Ménélas, his/her son-in-law. One joined here Iliade , where Sparte plays a big role, since it is Ménélas which is the husband ridiculed by Helene, his wife, and the Trojan prince Pâris. In the Catalog of the vessels , in song II of the poem, appears “Lacédémone and its deep valleys” (II, 581). Area are quoted nine villages: in the order, Pharis, Sparte strictly speaking, Brysées, Hodfuls, Mass, Amyclées, Hélos, Laas and Œtyle. Ménélas brings 60 naves, big number but less than the 100 of Agamemnon, the 90 of Nestor and the 80 of Diomède. With song IV, Sparte is quoted among the three cities which are “expensive between very” with Héra, with Argos and Mycènes.

Ménélas Oreste, his/her son-in-law succeeds. It is downward of Oreste, Aristodème, which has the two twins Eurysthénès and Proclès, at the origin of the royal families of Sparte following an oracle of the Pythie. Another tradition in fact of the Héraclides. Aristodème dies in Naupacte before the return of the Doriens in the Peloponnese (known as “return of Héraclides”).

antiquated Time

The city was founded after the conquest of the plain of Messénie (see Guerres of Messénie) by the inhabitants of the plain close to Laconie between 730 and 710 av. J. - C. After the Achaean period, Sparte becomes a quoted dorienne. According to the legend, there was only one great invasion dorienne, carried out by Aristodème, 80 years after the fall of Troy. Actually, there was undoubtedly a series of small successive incursions. Sparte dorienne immediately does not become the large city which one knows. It is undermined by the internal dissensions. The reforms of Lycurgue with are a true turning for the city: from now on, all is made to reinforce the military power of the city, and Sparte becomes the hoplitic city par excellence.

Sparte subjects the whole of Laconie: it starts by reducing all the plain of the Eurotas, then, it pushes back the Argiens and makes sure of all the area. The second stage consists of the annexation of Messénie. At this time, Sparte is the most powerful city of the area, only the Arcadie and Argos can hold head to him. As of the medium of, Sparte subjects the cities arcadiennes, then Argos. Alliances (unequal) are concluded with the close cities.

In 506, Cléomène I {{er}} uses these alliances to assemble a forwarding which joins together, according to Hérodote (V, 74), “all the Peloponnese”. On this occasion the first crisis takes place: Cleomene joined together the army without indicating its goal, neither geographical nor political. That has nothing of exceptional, but when, with Éleusis, the Corinthiens realize that it is a question of going on Athens and of reversing the Pisistratides, they make half-turn, followed by the other king, Démarate. It is famous “the divorce of Éleusis” (see below). To avoid renewing such a failure, Sparte joins together a congress of the allies then, probably in 505, to discuss a new intervention in Athens, this time to restore Hippias. In front of the opposition of the allies, Sparte gives up. One can go back to this congress the formal birth of the Ligue of the Peloponnese.

Strong of its league and its powerful army, Sparte is found without rival in the Peloponnese at the beginning of.

Medic wars

Peloponnesian War

See also: Peloponnesian War

As soon as the finished medic wars, Sparte worries about the increasing power of Athens, haloed its victories against Persians. Pushed by Égine and Corinth, it prohibits the city from rebuilding its walls, destroyed by Persians. That does not prevent Athens from leaving the panhellenic league to go to found the Ligue of Délos. Sparte is with two fingers to begin a war, but gives up finally. Some tensions take place, but the relations between the two cities remain good until in 462, when Sparte returns an Athenian quota directed by Cimon and come to assist it in full revolt of the Hilote S. It is then the rupture, sealed by the Ostracisme of the laconophile Cimon.

The hostilities strictly speaking begin in 457, with the call of Corinth. Follow a series of victories and defeats for the two cities, which ends in 451 in a 5 years peace, but the relations remain tended. In 446, the revolt of Mégare and Eubée revival the conflict: Sparte, with the head of united cities, devastation the Attic. The king Pleistoanax is even accused of corruption, not having continued his offensive, and one obliges it to exile oneself. In 433, finally, the business of Corcyre starts the Peloponnesian War.

In spite of fear to see Athens leaving its statute of brilliant second of Sparte, all the Spartans are enthusiastic with the idea of a war which is announced long, even if nobody at the time did not imagine that it would last 27 years. The éphore Sthénélaïdas is in favor of the immediate war, but the king Archidamos opposes him. The vote of the Assemblée is dubious: one must resort to the exceptional procedure of the vote by displacement (see below). It is certain that it would have been better, for Sparte, to make the war in 440, before the defection of Samos, which deprives it of powerful marine. The last negotiations between the two cities could probably have saved peace, in spite of what into known as Thucydide.

In fact, the war is long, Périclès having had the idea to give up the Attique with regular plunderings of Sparte, to accommodate its population in Athens even, protected by the Long Walls. In 425, it is even the humiliating defeat of Sphactérie: 120 Pars, pertaining for the majority to the Spartans big families, are made prisoners on a small island. Sparte must return its fleet to recover its hoplites. It is a great traumatism: for the first time, one sees the Equal ones going, without fighting until the end. In 421, the Paix of Nicias is the welcome.

Despite everything, the tensions remain present. Sparte and Athens even clash, in 418, with Mantinée, apart from the territory of the two cities. Athens concludes from it that Sparte broke the treaties, and the war takes again as of 415. Athens launches the Expédition of Sicily, which shows a disaster. The revolt of the cities Ionie of the league of Délos make it possible Sparte to be essential: in 404, besieged Athens capitulates.

Sparte the constrained one to shave the Long Walls, on ten Stage S on each side and to enter the league of the Peloponnese. The Spartans however hesitate as for the shape of government to give him. Does everyone agrees on the need for putting an end to the Démocratie, but need one a radical Oligarchie under supervision Spartan, or more moderated oligarchy, without garrison Spartan? The king Lysandre, large craftsman of the victory over Athens, imposes the tyranny of the Thirty, but the other king, Pausanias I {{er}}, lets then the Thirty fall and flee with their partisans, to support the moderate oligarchs remained in Athens. However, to its return to Sparte, it is subjected to judgment, and eight years after its payment, is condemned when Athens takes again the weapons against Sparte.

The imperialism Spartan of the 5th century

Sparte launched out in the Peloponnesian War under the banner of the freedom and the autonomy of the cities, threatened by the Athenian imperialism. But, after having overcome this one, it makes in the same way: it imposes a tribute, governments under its supervision, even of the garrisons. As of 413, Thucydide describes it as the power which “only exerts from now on its hegemony on all Greece” (VIII, 2,4).

Sparte changes consequently policy with respect to Persia, being made the cantor of the Panhellénisme. There is initially the forwarding of the Ten Thousand, told by Xénophon in the Anabase , which fails in 401. In 396, the king Agésilas II is sent with some Spartans, of the Néodamodes and several thousands of allies to drive out Tissapherne, the satrap of Carie, and to protect the Greek cities. The dreams of empire of Agésilas finish quickly, because he is recalled as of 394, because of the events in Greece: Athens, Thèbes, Argos and other cities are raised against Sparte - it is the beginning of the war of Corinth. The coalition is overcome into 394 in Coronée and Némée, but Sparte lost its maritime hegemony. During this time, Persians launch out in a counter-offensive and Athens rebuilds its Long Walls. Threatened, Sparte concludes in 386 peace from Antalcidas with all the Greeks and Persians.

This peace, protected by the Large King, allows them in fact to continue their policy imperialist, under cover of the protection of the autonomy of the smallest cities: Sparte obliges Argos to give to Corinthe its independence, or Olynthe to respect the autonomy of the cities of Chalcidique.

In 378, nevertheless, the conflict begins again following a raid Spartan on the Pirée. It leads in fact to a peace between Athens and Sparte in 371, worry both of progress of Thèbes. Sparte launches at once an attack against the city béotienne, which ends in the disaster of Leuctres: Épaminondas destroys the army Spartan carried out by Cléombrote, and carries out a powerful offensive against Sparte itself, which must enlist many Hilotes to push back the danger of its walls. It is the end of hegemony Spartan.

Decline of the power Spartan

Hegemony Spartan was clear of 404 with 371. After the battle of Leuctres, not only Sparte loses its hegemony, but also most of the Messénie, and the Ligue of the Peloponnese, which dissolves. The irruption of the Macedonia in the Greek political game hardly arranges the situation for it. In 330, the king Agis III attacks Antipater, lieutenant of Alexandre Large the, with the head of a coalition péloponnésienne, but is overcome and killed with the battles of Megalopolis. At the time of the lamiaque War, Sparte is too weak to take part. The second start takes place in -281, under the impulse of the king Aréus I {{er}}. Sparte temporarily manages to push back Pyrrhus Épire, in particular while joining Athens, but in 265, the king is killed and Macedonia takes again the top.

The weakness of Sparte allows the Achaean Ligue to take its rise, while a crisis of the institutions lacédémoniennes upsets the city. It is initially the revolution of Agis IV, then that of Cléomène III. This last tries to dam up the projection of the Achaens, at the beginning with a certain success, since the League proposes to him in 226 to take its head. But a disease prevents it from benefitting from this advantage. The war takes again in 225. Again, Cléomène obtains important success, but Aratos de Sicyone, become strategist of the League, ruins the plans of conciliation of the Spartan and fact call to the Macedonians, who cross the Isthme of Corinth in 224. Weaker financially and militarily, Cléomène is crushed with Sellasia by Antigone III Doson, king de Macédoine. Sparte is taken and Cléomène must flee in Egypt.

Important political disturbances follow in Sparte. In 207, Nabis, reaches the throne - or at least, becomes Tyran of Sparte. Under its reign, the war begins again against the Achaean League. In 205, Sparte becomes the allied one of Rome, fact which modifies the power struggles in the area: Sparte is opposed to the Achaens, who become them also the allies of Rome, which is opposed to Macedonia. All this leads so that Philippe V of Macedonia takes Argos to give it to Sparte. Nabis is made popular there while abolishing the debts and persecuting the rich person.

Rome prefers to let pass, but as of 197, it is combined with the Greek cities against Sparte. Dominated from all the points of view, the city is obliged to accept peace in 195. It loses there an important part of its territory, the right to recruit in the Périégèse, its port and most of its fleet.

In 192, Nabis is assassinated. Philopoemen, strategist of the Achaean League, obliges Sparte to adhere to it. He becomes the true Master of Sparte. He constrained the Spartans to cut down their walls, releases Hilotes which he returns under penalty of controlling them as slave-goods - what arrives, in fact, to 3.000 of them. The reforms of Nabis are repealed, the removed agôgè. A great confusion follows in Sparte, between the partisans of the former tyrants, the old ones exiled by Nabis, exiled moderated, etc the Roman legates, them, hardly have influence on the Achaens. The situation is regulated only in 180: all exiled are pointed out, Sparte can rebuild its walls and re-establish the agôgè.

But the dissensions with the League do not stop there. In 148, the Achaens attack Sparte, which is overcome. Rome must intervene, demanding that Sparte and Corinthe are separated from the Achaïe. Furious, the Achaens take again the weapons, but they are crushed by Rome in 146. Sparte theoretically forms part of the camp of the winners, but actually, it loses its périèques cities, which form on their side the koinon (alliance) of Lacédémoniens. Sparte is nothing any more from now on but one city second-rate, autonomous but isolated, well far from its splendor of antan.

Roman domination

The Roman domination relegates Sparte to the second rank. Without ambition military nor political, it concentrates then on what made its characteristic, the education Spartan. This one is done harder, attracting the “tourists”, avid ritual violent ones and strange. Thus, of the ritual combat disputed traditionally with the Sanctuaire of Artémis Orthia. Under the Roman domination, these engagements become the διαμαστίγωσις/ diamastígôsis : the young children are whipped sometimes with death. Cicéron brings back these facts in the Tusculanes (II, 34): the crowd which runs to the spectacle is so numerous that an amphitheater must be built in front of the temple to accommodate it. This ceremony attracts the tourists until the 4th century of the Christian era, as Libanios testifies some ( Discours , I, 23).

Sparte with the the Middle Ages

The city is plundered by the Hérules at the time of an incursion in 267 a. J. - C. then in 395. Alaric I {{er}}, king of the Visigoths, destroyed the city. Laconie is then devastated by tribes slavonnes, whose domination precedes that by the Byzantine . Those build the town of Lacédémone on the site of old Sparte. In 1249, the Croisés build the town of Mistra to a few kilometers, on a spur of the Taygète.

Sparte today

In 1864, after the war of independence ended in the release of Greece, the town of Sparte was rebuilt in a modern way on part of the old site according to the plan of the Baron Jochmus, and Mistra declined gradually, it east maintenent in ruin and almost deserted. Sparte is the chief town of the prefecture (nomos) of Laconie.

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