Sparta: History of Ancient World

In the Ancient world there were many powerful empires and nations, but none like that of Greece. In the Greek world you had the creation of democracy, the innovation of new war strategy, and much more. The two main cities that usually come to mind when speaking of Ancient Greece is Athens and Sparta. The Athenians had their long walls and navy, whereas the Spartans had their militaristic society and loyalty to the state. However, even though Sparta was among the greatest powerhouses in the ancient world, their pros worked hand in hand with their cons. And sadly, that eventually led to the downfall of this city-state, but their legacy is one that will always be remembered. Sparta, also known as Lacedaemon in antiquity, began in the ninth century B.C., right after the fall of the Mycenaean Civilization, and was founded by Dorian Greeks. It was founded as an oligarchy society which had two kings, a council called the Gerousia, and an assembly called the Apella. Although, we don’t know much about the history prior to 700 B.C. other than the first Messenian War, as there are not many sources we’ve found yet.

The history we really know of starts during the First Messenian War, which was between Sparta and Messenia, it began in 743 B.C. and ended in 724 B.C. As Sparta was gaining strength, there seemed to be more and more tension between the two city states, and then the perfect spark happened. Messenians harassed maidens at a temple while they were performing a ritual during a festival which was made such a problem because this temple in particular was considered a sanctuary, and this started the almost twenty year-long war. The war escalated even more because at one-point Sparta ruled over the Messenians, so in a way Sparta may have believed that they still belonged to them. But in the end, it came down to the might of each side scaring the other into war, and the differentiating cultures clashing in the process. The Spartans ending up claiming victory, adding Messenia once again to its territory.

The Second Messenian War was only thirty-nine years after the first war and took place in 685 B.C., and lasting until 668 B.C. It was started as a revolt of the helots in Messenia, but soon turned into another chance for freedom from the Spartans. They invaded Laconia and the first battles of the war happened before aid from the allies could arrive. They won the first few battles and it looked as they might win. But, as soon as victory seemed ahead it was taken away from them, as the Spartans wanted to play unfairly and bribed Messenian allies into retreating when the Spartan forces got the upper hand in battle. The Messenians knew defeat was close so they hid in their fortified city on Mt. Eira (Ira) for over ten years before Sparta made one last stand that finally brought the city down. The Spartans then again won the war, showing off their military strength and made the majority of Messenians (excluding women and children) into slaves known as helots.

These wars began to show off how strong Sparta was and how their way of life made them that way. This was because in their society everyone was raised to either be a great fighter or to raise one. This started very early, only eight days after birth the baby would be assessed on a cliff and be thrown off if any physical deformities are found. So, no matter your gender or class you were expected to meet certain standards. Women had different standards than men, but more freedom then any other Greek women. They were trained daily to stay fit, and be able to bear great warriors. They even competed in sports and couldn’t marry until their late teens or early 20’s to ensure the birth of healthy children, but to also spare women from the hazards and damage that may occur if you have a child too young.

In Sparta only few had power, making it an oligarchy, the people that had power started with the Spartiates. Spartiates were males of Sparta who had full citizenship, and to achieve this they had to be born into a spartan family, complete the Agoge (which was Sparta’s form of education by training male youths for the military), and then serve in the military for 10 years. Then they would be a full citizen in the Apella and be able to vote yes or no, but with no open debates, so they had the least power in the political system. Then farther up in power from them were those in the Gerousia, and this a council of 28 citizens who were over the age of 60 and were elected. There also were 2 kings which ruled Sparta that were a part of this council, but they shared the power with 5 ephors who were elected to rule along-side the kings, and this provided balance.

Even with all this in place a majority of the population of Sparta were non-citizens with at one point even having one Spartan citizen for every seven helots, and that’s not even including women, children, and anyone else who wasn’t a citizen. The actual population of Sparta has never been found, only estimates are available cause they only counted citizens when keeping track of population. This already made a problem, because it made their military limited, and those born of certain status unable to ever speak for themselves or have rights that citizens had.

Although if any battle was remembered that Sparta was involved in it was the battle of Thermopylae, and this was because of the odds (and the American movie 300). The Battle of Thermopylae was in 480 B.C. and was one of the most important battles of the Persian War and despite possible belief there was more than just the 300 Spartans that showed up for the battle. The Spartans were joined by over a thousand allies, but King Leonidas declared the odds were against them and that he and the Spartans will stay, but everyone else can retreat, except for the Thebans who he didn’t trust (for good reason as they joined the Persians when it came down to it). The battle was a brave one, when the Spartans were so outnumbered, but because of their militaristic society and war tactics they put up the best fight they could have as Spartan hoplites. They purposely picked this exact spot to fight in because the terrain only allowed few Persians to pass at a time so those 300 Spartans held back thousands of them for two days.

This was the prime time of Sparta along with the very long Peloponnesian war. The first part of this war lasted from 460 B.C. to 445 B.C. (however, it was more of a cold war for the first half) and then they had Thirty Years’ Peace, but then war broke out again in 431 B.C. What led up to this war was the same reason Sparta fought against Messenia, because Sparta and their allies were scared Athens was getting too powerful. And with Sparta being built on military values, they wanted no one to surpass them. The fighting raged on and off the duration of the war with the biggest failure being when Athens attacked Sicily, but more specifically the city-state of Syracuse while under the leadership of Nicias and Alcibiades. The expedition lasted from 415 B.C to 413 B.C., and Athens lost very badly after this short period of fighting, and since Alcibiades died early on now Nicias was the primary general. This was bad because Nicias was urged to retreat and to go back to Athens, but because of his pride and fear of persecution for leading a failed expedition he stayed. The decision he made then caused not only for Athens to lose to Syracuse (and their allies and one of which was Sparta), but they lost half their military. And that’s not all Athens had to suffer at the hands of Sparta and their allies, as Athens was still recovering from the huge blow of the Sicilian Expedition another blow finally took them down from their pedestal. In 405 B.C. the Athenian navy was destroyed when both Sparta and Athens went to face each other at the Hellespont, and for four days there was no battle. However, on the fifth day the Spartan commander Lysander used the element of surprise to get the Athenians while they were off guard while anchored right next to Aegospotami. The Athenian commander Conon fled with only 20 of his 180 ships, and he left over 3,000 Athenians to be put to death by the Spartans. Athens surrendered in 404 B.C., and Sparta did not destroy them, but instead made them have a limit of 12 triremes and force them to take down their walls. This made Sparta the strongest city-state in Greece for now.

For years afterward, Sparta was in control of Athens and seen as the main city-state. Lysander was the commander that saved Athens from the total destruction that Thebes and Corinth wanted, and just asked for heavy tribute, the long walls to be taken down, and most their naval fleet been handed over. And because of this decision Sparta had backlash, and that backlash came back to bite them in the form of Argos, Boeotia, Thebes, and Athens forming an alliance to fight them. This ignited fast then Lysander attacked Boeotia and made Thebes start war with them in turn, so this then created the nine-year long Corinthian Wars. And during the attack on the walls of Hallartos in central Boeotia Lysander was killed by the Thebans in 395 B.C.

Although they had some weaknesses that they could have been better without. Spartans did not like being away from home long, and in fact if they were gone at war for more than a few months for war they would return. They believed they shouldn’t be away from home for long, they also did not have a navy for the majority of their existence as a city-state. Not only that, but the Athenians were naturally better seafarers and already had the largest navy of all the Greeks. And the Spartans were quite bad at strategy other that hoplite warfare and the phalanx formation, so they never really thought ahead as much as their rivals. But since the Spartans limited them to 12 and took the rest of the triremes for themselves now they can try to make their fleet stronger.

Their way of life continued as it usually did, but because they didn’t change anything the population started dwindling. They had rules that ultimately helped lead to this decline, an example being that if you are a male you are going to go through a very long and strenuous survival training program called the Agoge. In the Agoge there are three stages, and the first stage is when they’re between the ages of 7 and 17 called the Paídes, and then the Paidískoi which was when they were between 17 and 19, and finally the Hēbōntes which was between 20 and 29. Although the last two stages were technically just part of the Spartan military, and then it just gets worse. If you’re younger than 30 as a male, and you were married then you could not sleep with your wife. You were required to stay with your mess (the military cavalry you ate with and were assigned to at 18) and to sleep with them every night, and to even sleep with your wife you had to bribe helots to cover for you, so you can scurry off to be with your wife and then would have to return to your mess in the morning before they woke up.

Sparta as an empire was one of a kind, from their style of fighting, to the way they raised their children, they were a powerhouse that we still actively talk and read about today. Even in the present we still learn new things from them, but sadly all good things must come to an end and Sparta was no exception. Sparta went to battle July 6th 371 B.C. in the Battle of Lectura against Thebes, but this time was different because Thebes had the Theban Sacred Band. This elite force was made up of 150 homosexual couples, and the thought behind it was is that you’d fight to the death for someone you love, and they did. The Thebans commander Epaminondas Sparta had lost this pivotal battle of which made them go from a primary power of Greece to a secondary power, and they never came back from that. In fact, things only got worse for the Spartans as there is no known date at which Sparta came to an end, but 362 B.C. is regarded as the official start of the decline of Sparta.

The structure in which Sparta was built was on the military and if you were a man who was not in the military you were nothing, and women had more rights but still not many, and helots were respected, but that’s about it. And the oligarchy didn’t help as many people still felt powerless, so there was definitely flaws, but sadly these flaws led to the spiral downward of this once great society. Throwing babies off cliffs, having boys die during the Agoge, husbands not being able to sleep with their wives (unless it’s in secret) until they’re 30, boys starving to learn strength, and so much more. This way of life was very harsh and was the reason for their ultimate downfall, and not before long a big part of this downfall was the surplus of females vs. males and the fact that simply the amount of Spartiates was far too small compared to the rest of the population.

Throughout its time in power the city-state of Sparta almost never knew lows, they only grew, they were a society built on strength, loyalty, and courage. It wasn’t in their blood to ever lose like they eventually did. In the words of the Spartan queen Gorgo (wife of Leonidas) when asked “Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?” she responded, “Because we are the only ones who give birth to men”.