Sparta

Topics:


1.) Geography
Sparta was located in a fertile valley on the river Eurotas in the Peleponnesian peninsula. It is protected by 2 mountain ranges, to the East, the Parnon and to the west, the Taygetus. To the South there was a rugged and marshy coastline with very few natural harbours. The location was extremely useful because it provided them with;
a) A water supply
b) Fertile farming land
c) Forests with plenty of animals to hunt
d) Natural protection from the East, South and West.

2.) The History of the Sparta

Mycenaean Sparta

This is the first mention of Sparta, it is in this period that the Trojan War was fought. A great civilisation existed here between 1600-1100 BCE called the Mycenaean Civilisation. However this Mycanaean Civilisation collapsed all over Greeks due to multiple reasons but one of them is probably the Dorian Invasion which happend not soon after the believed collapse of the Mycaneans.

Dorian Sparta

The Dorians colonised most of the Pelopennese. The Spartans were descendants of these Dorians and the Acheaen (original inhabitants of Messenia) civilisation died out. So what we now know as Spartan history followed on this point onwards. The Acheans were then ensalved by the Spartans and make up what we now know as the Helots. To find out more on the Helots, read up on the Spartan Social System chapter.

3.) Lycurgus

The Man
Lycurgus is both one of the most mysterious figures in Spartan History yet he is one of the most influential aswell. Lycurgus's mystery is down to the fact that there are almost no Spartan literary sources documenting his important change to Spartan society, this lack of sources gets to such an extent that many even question whether he was a single person or multiple people.

Lycurguses Changes
His great change was to completely revolutionise Spartan society so that it was more akin to what we would see as a totalitarian society today. Before enacting his great changes, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi to make sure that his changes were the correct thing to do. The Oracle responded by telling Lycurgus that he must fulfil four rhêtra (Instructions) for his changes. He would have to:

1) Redistribute the land- Land distribution was very unequal among Spartan citizens so Lycurgus made sure everyone had around the same amount of land.

2) Money- Gold and Silver were banned so as to eliminate trade. The currency was swapped to a completely valueless coin which collapsed its economy (we must remember that the Spartans didn't have our modern system of fiat money, so there money was only as valuable as its metal)

3) Mess-halls- All citizens had to eat together in the halls. This was a great leveller as rich and poor ate the same food.

4) Houses - Houses had to remain plain and simple.

Important Vocab from Lycurgus

1) Homoioi- similiars (lit. equals) was the name given to all Spartans after Lycurguses changes.

2) Eunomia - loyalty and belief in Lycurguses laws.

3) Rhêtrai - (lit. instructions) laws given to Lycurgus by the Oracle.

4.) The Evidence

The Spartan Mirage
Sparta has a clear general lack of written sources. They left little archaelogical evidence and few if any form of written sources. So we generally know not that much about Spartan Society, Military, Culture. We really don't know much about Sparta at all. This was all caused by Sparta's distrust and lack of interest in Literature and the Arts (see Lycurgus and History of Sparta). As a result all of our sources are non-Spartans and due to its number of enemies, most of these sources are distorted and biased.

Reliable Sources
If you want more information, look of the Research Materials page.

These are the main reliable sources on Sparta:

1) Herodotus - Useful on Sparta's role in the Persian Wars.
                    - Useful on Kings, Women and Burial Rites.

2) Thucydides - Useful on the Peleponnesian war.
                     - Written from Athenian Perspective.

3) Xenophon - He liked Sparta.
                   - He gives the Spartan view on World Affairs.
                   -  Eventually, moved to Sparta.

4) Plutarch - Was writing in the Roman Period so writes about late Spartan era.
                 - Not writing from first-hand though.
                        - Useful on Lycurgus, Kings, Commanders, Women and Quotes.

5) Alistophanes and Olidipus - Athenian Playwrights who mocked Sparta constantly.

6) Plato and Aristotle - Useful on Political Systems. (Disliked Democracy)

5.) Social Structure

This is a diagram of the Spartan Social Structure.

Spartiates or Homioi (top)
                   |
        Perioeci (middle)
                   |
              Inferiors
                   |
         Helots (bottom)

Perioeci

The Perioeci were Dorians like the Spartans. There were around 80-100 Perioeci communities in Spartan territory. They lived and farmed in less fertile areas of Laconia than where the Helots worked the farms of Spartans. The Perioeci were not an overly oppressed people as they were allowed their own limited government and freedom from the hardships experienced by the Helots. Despite this, they weren't completely free citizens. As I've already said, they had to follow Spartan orders and a Spartan foreign policy.

The Perioeci were also auxiliaries in the Spartan army in times of war as it was their responisibility to take up arms when the Spartans told them. However, in some ways this was a perk as the Spartan barely ever went to war and so they often didn't have to fight and even fought less than citizens of Athens and Thebes.

Unsurprisingly with such a good lifestyle, there were very few if any Perioeci rebellions. So their general happiness meant they were willing to police the helots and try and stop any runaway helots.

The Helots

The Helots are one of the most brutally oppressed and segregated peoples/caste of the Ancient World. They had no political or legal rights and most of the time, their cries for help would be responded to by a sword in the back. Most helots were either farmers, household slaves, Skirmishers and baggage handlers in war. They weren't allowed to leave areas without the governments permission.

Helots Torture and Rebellions

The Spartans treated the helots as brutally as if they weren't even human. Here

are some examples of their oppression:

1)There were awful rituals of some sorts of torture-a-helot day after the election of a new magistrate in Sparta.

2) Helots were forced drunk Wine and made to dance and humiliate themselves in front of their Spartan onlookers.

3) Helots had to pretend to be animals as they dressed up in dogskins and were then beaten. There was no sexual reason or political reason for this but we presume it was just out-and-out sadism.

Despite this terrible oppresion, there were very few Helot rebellions which went large-scale as the Spartans were so paranoid, they eyed Helots with constant suspicion. Surprisingly enough, the oppression of Helots was seen as rather pathetically what someone of the same personality would call "not cricket" by some Greek states. This was because it was seen as very un-Greek for Greek to be a slave to another Greek as foreign slaves were more common. However, the other states made no attempt to help the Helots.

Nazi Sparta

Adolf Hitler openly admired the Spartan System for what he saw as the kind of society he wanted to make in Germany and he often compared what he dreamed the Aryian race should be like the Spartans.

Was there an upside for the Helots?

There were some slight lee-way where the Spartans allowed the helots some freedom over their rights. They obviously didn't make Helot life any easier but these made it a little less harder.

1) Only the State could authorise a helots murder.

2) Helots had freedom of religion and helots could live with their families.

Inferiors

Inferiors were neither slaves nor Spartans or Citizens. They were made up of:

1) Parthenai- illegitimate children of Spartan fathers and helot mothers.

2) Mothases- Sons of helots were adopted as playmates for Spartan boys.

3) Nedamodeis - Helots who won their freedom in battle. Despite this, Spartan paranoia resulted in the killing of all the strongest helots.

4) Tresantes (Trembelers) - Spartans who were denied citizenship for acts of cowardice.

 6.) Spartan Education

The Spartans were the first people/ civilisation to set up their own education system in the way in which we imagine one yet in some other elements of their education, their education was very different from our own.
It was designed and created by Lycurgus according to Spartan legend so as to fit in with his new social system. The system was run harshly and boys were constantly threatened with death as a consequence of disobedience.

The Education system effects started at birth. If the new baby was deemed weak by the Elders,  it would be left to die in the apothetae (see bottom). Of course, if it were deemed strong and healthy, it would live.
The babies strength was tested by bathing them in wine which would supposedly be harmful to epileptic and weak babies.

As they grew up, their harsh life continued as they would be commonly ignored by their parents so that they would learn that crying and tantrums were a sign of weakness.
As a boy reached the age of 7, he became under the control of the state until he died.

This process was called agôgê.

7.) The Life of a Spartan Citizen

Before the time of the Spartans, there were no other Greek states which employed and used a proffessional army. It's uniqueness ave it, its military might. However, this power was of course down to the ability of its soldiers. So in brief and to re-iterate, Spartan men dedicated their lives to the success of the Spartan military. Any Spartan who was under the age of 30 and hence in the Spartan military was called an eiren.

Despite their provenance and importance amongst Spartan society, there were many restrictions in place to control the Spartan men. They could neither shop nor go to the marketplace. These jobs were only to be performed by lesser members of the Spartan social system.

Aswell as the main body of the army being the main might of its capability, the Spartan army also included 300 elite soldiers who were chosen due to excellent or elite performance in combat/ combat training. The place in the 300 was highly prestigious and so there was much competition in being entered into the group. Their official job was to guard the Kings in battle.

Looking at the nuptial side to things, Spartan men could not get married until much later life. It was seen to be not a thing which should really occur under the age of perhaps, 30-40.

In marriage, the family could get special benefits according to how many children they had. This action was put in place so as to ensure the most amount of children going into the Spartan system. If a father had 3 sons (not daughters), then he would be exempt from fighting in any wars. If he had 4 sons, then he would now aswell be exempt from all taxes.

Spartan citizens would often enjoy something which was typically Spartan; a culture based around military music. However, we know that clearly the Spartans were not interested in any love songs but the military songs which spoke of great bravery and courage to Sparta. Women would often join the party by singing and dancing. This would often be perfromed in the Spartan ceremony Gymnopaediae. In this batallions of Spartans would sing of Spartan courage and glory.

If you were a bachelor in Spartan times, you would commonly be ridiculed by men and women for being  supposedly ugly and infertile. Their punishement would be to walk through a marketplace starknaked

8.) Spartan Women

9.) The Spartan Army

10.) Spartan Government

11.) Sparta and the Wider Greek World

12.) The Legacy of Sparta


This page will be updated as we complete the various topics in this unit.