The History Of Sparta

THE HISTORY OF SPARTA

Sparta is widely known for being a staple city in Greek history. it's one of those cities that ended up being of major importance and its renowned even today this city is found in Laconia, and during the ancient times, it has a martial tradition and reached the height of its power in 404 BC at that time they had a victory against Athens in what was known as the second Peloponnesian war. An interesting thing to note about Sparta is that it didn't have any city walls during its prime. They were always defending it with men and not mortar, which was their philosophy at that time,

THE BEGINNINGS

at first, people from Sparta were accumulated near the Eurotas river and more specifically its valley. The interesting thing about it is that Sparta emerged in history during the 8th century BC at that point there was already a system in place designed to keep the villagers hard at work he lost which were the peasants of Sparta, were actually searched and they were only owned by the state. They were doing manual work for the community and citizens were tackling topics like politics and warfare when they were seven all sons of Spartan citizens were leaving their home and the focus was to add them in a special education system. This was teaching them about discipline and courage. there was corporal punishment here but this was more of an endurance test and not punishment. this even continued until they were reaching 20 years old however girls were educated on how to be good mothers and wives but unlike boys they were allowed to live within their home after that the Spartans were becoming a group of men taught into the art of war and which were ready to leave their homes at any given time to either attack new regions or defend their own. Spartan men were not allowed to engage in any kind of activity that would generate them money however they were offered a plot of land and lifetime interest, there was danger that helots might come in revolt against their masters, which were all a part of the military that actually happened multiple times a testament to their great power and responsibilities, it's also important to note the fact that Spartans also had some rather strange traditions, this survived over multiple centuries and it was related to how Sparta was ruled, they always had two kings that shared the crown every crown was hereditary for a certain family, the Spartan armies were also led to battle by one of the two kings. But maybe the relevant thing here is that the Spartan kings did not have absolute power. By having 2 kings the power was split, and they also consulted a council of elders, citizens assembly not to mention 5 ephors. This managed to bring in more power to the people, while illuminating situations where a single person would get absolute power and that's important to keep in mind. by following these ideas Sparta managed to become the most powerful city in Greece during the 6th century BC. It's started having a leadership role and the neighbors were involved in an alliance that we know with the name Peloponnesian League. The terms for this league is that everyone in this league will fight under the Spartans leadership in any campaign, and they will even send troops to the Spartans in case there would be any helot uprising, which did happen at times. Of course it was a mutually beneficial thing because they would be protected by Sparta.

Spartan leadership was appealing for aristocrats, who were controlling most city states at that time. Tyrants were actually their enemies at that time, however in Sparta there wasn't any commercial class in development at that time. there were no coins and commerce eventually the first main clash was with Athens which started in 510 , at that time, Cleomenes who was the Spartan king marched to drive Hippias the tyrant way. then in 480 Sparta and Athens had to work together because the Persians were attacking them Persians eventually withdraw towards the end of 480 and the reputation of Sparta continues to grow with Plataea and Thermopylae being great examples here. it's clear that having control over the Aegean Sea is the right way to deal with Persian attacks. Despite that Sparta and Athens continue to have their differences.

THE DELIAN LEAGUE

A continued shift of power balance between the two cities continues in 478 when the Athens representatives go to the island of delos to meet Aegean states with the idea to create a coalition named Delian league. Sparta isn't interested in this particular coalition since they didn't really have a major fleet, which makes Athens the alliance leader at that time, in the beginning the Delian league managed to grow quite a bit. They even have multiple victories against Persia which was an extremely important thing to take into consideration for that particular time. Athens is actually seeing the league as their own empire and a very large fleet, if a state tries to get out of the league they are forced to stay by Athens, which is important to keep in mind, they were demanding annual subscriptions and in 454 the league funds are sent to Athens instead of being Delos.

THE FIRST PELOPONNESIAN WAR

Sparta was dealing with issues when it came to keeping its Peloponnesian league loyalty. Some of the members were not OK with the Spartan system and they were hostile there was also a quake in 464 that ended up causing quite a lot of damage in the city this is also when he loads are revolting which becomes an even more challenging issue than expected. the interesting thing is that at this time Athens is an ally of Sparta so them as well as other allies are sending help but Spartans send Athenian soldiers back to their city and they are not included in the campaign. it's hard to know why but it seems that they dislike the fact Athens was adding a radical democracy into the mix which was opposing the Spartan beliefs at that time.

Athens is making alliances with cities that oppose Sparta, and that's how the first Peloponnesian war begins. Needless to say the war was very problematic for both cities Sparta and its own allies were very strong on land however Athens was ruling the seas at that particular time, in 446 both parties agreed to a 30 year treaty, and Sparta is acknowledging the Delian league. Athens is not diminishing the Peloponnesians League either.

The fact that Athens was under Pericles is why some of this peace treaty worked. however in 431 the war is resuming after half of the intended treaty time. which is extremely important to take into consideration this war continued for more than 20 years. and for most of it none of the two parties had any clear advantage. In 414 Persian start assisting Sparta and in 404 the Athenian fleet was destroyed. there is a peace treaty in place here but this is very problematic for Athens in particular. it also puts Sparta as the main city state in Greece at that time.

the next century wasn't any better since there were constant treaties being broken, lots of surprise attacks on one another new governmental forms and so on. there was a lot of political intrigue that brought in severe challenges at that particular time. Athens create a revised Delian League in 377 and the next year they defeat the Spartan Navy at Naxos. Sparta gets another blow since Thebans using tactics from Epaminondas end up attacking them and liberating Messenia.

SPARTA'S DECLINE

During the middle of the 4th century Sparta didn't have that much help or assistance against invaders coming from Macedonia. eventually they end up being part of Macedonia, and even if they were a free city under them the same can be said afterwards as they are ruled by the Roman Empire. the very rigorous training system for men remains the same even during the Roman era.

Unfortunately nowadays we don't really have any traces from ancient Sparta, They didn't store that many items, and the focus was on battles, not on masonry or items that would stand the test of time. we can still see the temple of Artemis site, due to Romans creating a theater in that location. That being said, Sparta's location has always remained the same it's interesting to note that a large Byzantine city was created in that region during the Middle Ages.

Right now Sparta is actually a town that has around 10,000 people and it was created in 1834. This was a gesture of pride showing that Greece is indeed independent Sparta did have tumultuous history, but it's unique legacy and strategy have remained embedded in human history even up to this date..

Images Source;

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https://en.topwar.ru/186842-drevnjaja-sparta-sparta-iznachalnaja.html

All content is based on historical events.