The prowess and fearlessness of Sparta's warriors has inspired the Western world for millennia and, even in the 21st century, has been incorporated into Hollywood films like "
300" and the futuristic video game series "
Halo" (where a group of super- soldiers are called “Spartans”).
Yet the real-life story of the city is more complicated than popular mythology makes it out to be. The task of sorting out what is real about the Spartans from what is myth has been made more difficult because many of the ancient accounts were written by non-Spartans. As such, they need to be taken with the appropriate grain of salt.
Early Sparta
Although there is evidence of Bronze Age habitation not far from Sparta, it seems that the city itself was not founded until the early Iron Age, in the time after 1000 B.C. Four villages — Limnae, Pitana, Mesoa and Cynosoura, which are located near what would be the Spartan acropolis — came together to form the early city.
Historian Nigel Kennell writes in his book "Spartans: A New History" (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) that the city’s location in the fertile Eurotas valley gave its inhabitants access to an abundance of food, something its local rivals did not enjoy. Even the name Sparta is from a verb meaning “I sow” or “to sow.”
Although Sparta made efforts to consolidate its territory in Laconia, we also know that, at this early stage, the people of the city appear to have taken pride in their artistic skills. Sparta was known for its poetry and it pottery, its wares being found in places as far flung as Cyrene (in Libya) and the island of Samos, not far from the coast of modern-day Turkey. Researcher Konstantinos Kopanias notes in a 2009 journal article that, up until the sixth century B.C., Sparta appears to have had an ivory workshop. Surviving ivories from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta depict birds, male and female figures and even a “tree of life” or “sacred tree.”
Poetry was another key early Spartan achievement. “In reality we have more testimony to poetic activity at Sparta in the seventh century than for any other Greek state, including Athens,” writes historian Chester Starr in a chapter of the book "Sparta" (Edinburgh University Press, 2002).
While much of this poetry survives in fragmentary form and some of it, such as from Tyrtaeus, reflects the development of the martial values that Sparta would become famous for, there is also work that appears to reflect a society concerned with art, rather than just war.
This fragment from the poet Alcman, which he composed for a Spartan festival, stands out. It refers to a choir girl named “Agido.”
There is such a thing as retribution from the gods.
Happy is he who, sound of mind,
weaves through the day
unwept. I sing
the light of Agido. I see it
like the sun, whom
Agido summons to appear and
witness for us. But the glorious chorus mistress
forbids me to either praise
or blame her. For she appears to be
outstanding as if
one placed among a grazing herd
a perfect horse, a prize-winner with resounding hooves,
one of the dreams that dwell below the rock...
(Translation by Gloria Ferrari, from Alcman and the Cosmos of Sparta, University of Chicago Press, 2008)
War with Messenia and subjugation
A key event on Sparta’s road to becoming a more militaristic society was its conquest of the land of Messenia, located to the west of Sparta, and its conversion of its subjects to helots (slaves).
Kennell points out that this conquest appears to have begun in the eighth century B.C. with archaeological evidence from the city of Messene showing that the last evidence of habitation was during the eighth/seventh centuries B.C. before a period of desertion began.
The incorporation of the people of Messenia into Sparta’s slave population was important as it provided Sparta with “the means to maintain the nearest thing to a standing army in Greece,” Kennell writes, “by freeing all its adult male citizens from the need for manual labor.”
Keeping this population of slaves in check was a problem the Spartans would have for centuries with some deeply cruel methods employed. The writer Plutarch (who lived A.D. 46-120) claimed that the Spartans used what we might consider death squads.
“The magistrates from time to time sent out into the country at large the most discreet of the young warriors, equipped only with daggers and such supplies as were necessary. In the day time they scattered into obscure and out-of-the-way places, where they hid themselves and lay quiet; but in the night they came down into the highways and killed every Helot whom they caught.”
Spartan poetry written in the seventh century B.C. also hints at a move to a more martial society. Tyrtaeus writes:
Here is courage, mankind’s finest possession, here is
the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win,
and it is a good thing his city and all the people share with him
when a man plants his feet and stands in the foremost spears
relentlessly, all thought of foul flight completely forgotten,
and has well trained his heart to be steadfast and to endure,
and with words encourages the man who is stationed beside him.
Here is a man who proves himself to be valiant in war...
(Translation by Richmond Lattimore, from the book "Greek Lyrics," University of Chicago Press, 1960)
Kings of Sparta
Sparta in time developed a system of dual kingship (two kings ruling at once). Their power was counter-balanced by the elected board of ephors (who may only serve a single one-year term). There was also a Council of Elders (Gerousia), each member of which was over the age of 60 and could serve for life. The general assembly, which consisted of each citizen, also had the chance to vote on legislation.
The legendary lawmaker Lycurgus is often credited in ancient sources with providing the groundwork for Spartan law. Kennell notes, however, that he probably never existed and was in fact a mythical character.
War with Persia
Initially Sparta was hesitant to engage with Persia. When the Persians threatened Greek cities in Ionia, on the west coast of what is now Turkey, the Greeks who lived in those areas sent an emissary to Sparta to ask for help. The Spartans refused but did threaten King Cyrus, telling him to leave Greek cities alone. “He was to harm no city on Greek territory, or else the Lacedaemonians would punish him,” wrote Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.
The Persians did not listen. The first invasion by Darius I took place in 492 B.C. and was repulsed by a mainly Athenian force at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. The second invasion was launched by Xerxes in 480 B.C., the Persians crossing the Hellespont (the narrow strait between the Aegean and Black seas) and moved south, gaining allies along the way.
Sparta and one of their kings, Leonidas, became head of an anti-Persian coalition that ultimately made an ill-fated stand at Thermopylae. Located beside the coast, Thermopylae contained a narrow passage, which the Greeks blocked and used to halt Xerxes' advance. Ancient sources indicate that Leonidas started the battle with a few thousand troops (including 300 Spartans at its core). He faced a Persian force many times its size.
After spying on the Spartan-led force, and waiting to see if they would surrender, Xerxes ordered an attack. The “Medes rushed forward and charged the Greeks, but fell in vast numbers: others, however, took the places of the slain, and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible losses. In this way it became clear to all, and especially to the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had but very few warriors. The struggle, however, continued during the whole day,” wrote Herodotus. (Translation by George Rawlinson)
After this beaten force withdrew, Xerxes sent an elite unit called the “Immortals” after the Spartan-led force but they too failed. Herodotus noted the battle tactics the Spartans employed.
“The Lacedaemonians fought in a way worthy of note, and showed themselves far more skillful in fight than their adversaries, often turning their backs, and making as though they were all flying away, on which the barbarians would rush after them with much noise and shouting, when the Spartans at their approach would wheel round and face their pursuers, in this way destroying vast numbers of the enemy.”
Eventually a Greek man showed Xerxes a pass that allowed part of the Persian force to outmaneuver the Greeks and attack them on both flanks. Leonidas was doomed. Many of the troops who were with Leonidas withdrew (possibly because the Spartan king ordered them to). According to Herodotus, the Thespians decided to stay with the 300 Spartans by their own free will. Leonidas then made his fateful stand and “fell fighting bravely, together with many other famous Spartans,” Herodotus writes.
Ultimately, the Persians killed almost every Spartan. The helots the Spartans brought with them were also killed. The Persian army proceeded south, sacking Athens and threatening to break into the Peloponnese. A Greek naval victory at the Battle of Salamis halted this approach, the Persian king Xerxes going home and leaving an army behind that would later be destroyed. The Greeks led by the now dead Leonidas had prevailed.
Later history
In the following centuries Sparta, in its reduced state, found itself under the sway of different powers including Macedonia (eventually led by Alexander the Great), the Achaean League (a confederation of Greek cities) and, later on, Rome. In this period of decline, the Spartans was forced to build a city wall for the first time.
There were efforts to restore Sparta to its former military might. The Spartan kings Agis IV (244-241 B.C.) and later Cleomenes III (235-221 B.C.) brought in reforms that canceled debt, re-distributed land, allowed foreigners and non-citizens to become Spartans and ultimately expanded the citizen body to around 4,000 people. While the reforms brought some level of renewal, Cleomenes III was forced to yield the city to Achaean control. The Achaean League in turn, along with all of Greece, eventually fell to Rome.
But, while Rome was in control of the region, the people of Sparta never forgot their history. In the second century A.D., the Greek writer Pausanias visited Sparta and noted the presence of a great marketplace.
“The most striking feature in the marketplace is the portico which they call Persian because it was made from spoils taken in the Persian wars. In course of time they have altered it until it is as large and as splendid as it is now. On the pillars are white-marble figures of Persians...” he wrote. (Translation by W.H.S Jones and H.A. Omerod via Perseus Digital Library)
He also describes a tomb dedicated to Leonidas, who, by this point had died 600 years earlier at Thermopylae.
“Opposite the theater are two tombs; the first is that of Pausanias, the general at Plataea, the second is that of Leonidas. Every year they deliver speeches over them, and hold a contest in which none may compete except Spartans,” he wrote. “There is set up a slab with the names, and their fathers' names, of those who endured the fight at Thermopylae against the Persians.”
Modern-day ruins
Sparta continued on into the Middle Ages and, indeed, was never be truly lost. Today, the modern day city of Sparta stands near the ancient ruins, having a population of more than 35,000 people.
On the ruins of ancient Sparta the historian Kennell writes that only three sites can be identified today with certainty: "the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia beside the Eurotas [the river], the temple of Athena Chalcioecus (“of the Bronze House”) on the acropolis, and the early Roman theater just below it.”
Indeed, even the ancient writer Thucydides predicted that Sparta’s ruins would not stand out.
“Suppose, for example, that the city of Sparta were to become deserted and that only the temples and foundations of the buildings remained, I think that future generations would, as time passed, find it very difficult to believe that the place had really been as powerful as it was represented to be.” (From Nigel Kennell’s book "Spartans: A New History")
But Thucydides was only half-correct. While the ruins of Sparta may not be as impressive as Athens,
Olympia or a number of other Greek sites, the stories and legend of the Spartans lives on. And modern-day people, whether watching a movie, playing a video game or studying ancient history, know something of what this legend means.
(source: http://www.livescience.com/32035-sparta.html)
