37 4'27 "N 22 25'53" E / 37.07417, 22.43139 Sparta (in ancient Greek / Modern Greek / Dorian / and Sparta ( / is an ancient city Greece 's Peloponnese , perpetuated today by a modern city of 18,184 inhabitants ( 2001 ). Located on the Eurotas in the plain of Laconia, between Taygete and Parnon , it is one of the city-states the most powerful of ancient Greece , with Athens and Thebes.

Already mentioned in the Iliad , she became the ^seventh century BC. BC 's dominant military power in its region and takes the head of the Greek forces during the Median wars. In ^the fifth century BC. BC , she won the Peloponnesian War that pitted him against Athens , but lost the hegemony after the defeat of Leuctra against the Thebans of Epaminondas.

Sparta is distinguished from other cities by a social model where a minority of citizens ( Homoioi ) is a full-time: economic activity is ensured by Perioikoi , free population but not a citizen, and Helots , whose status s apparent to the serfs of medieval West. The education is compulsory, collective and organized by the city. It aims to train soldiers disciplined, efficient and committed to the welfare of the city. In fact, the Spartan army is renowned as the most powerful of the Greek world.

Although the dominance of Sparta ends in ^the fourth century BC. AD , continues its fascination from antiquity to the present.

Summary 1 Geographical setting 2 History 2.1 Archaic period 2.2 Classical Period (V-IV c.) 2.3 Hellenistic Period 3 Social organization 3.1 Population 3.2 The Citizens 3.3 The non-citizens 3.4 The Spartan education 3.5 Women 4 Political System 4.1 The total eunomia 4.2 The meeting 4.3 The Kings 4.4 The gerousia 4.5 The ephors 5 Economy 6 Military Organization 7 Religion 7.1 Cults and Deities 7.2 Sacrifice and divine signs 7.3 archaic characters 8 Culture 8.1 Literature 8.2 Art 8.2.1 Ceramics 8.2.2 Bronze 9 A "Spartan mirage"? 9.1 In ancient times 9.2 In the modern era 10 Rediscovery archaeological 11 Annexes 11.1 Related Articles 2.11 External Links 12 Historical Sources 1.12 ancient texts 12.2 Archaeological Sources 12.3 Modern Historians 12.4 Notes

Geographical setting

The State Spartan extends ^the fifth century BC. AD , according to Thucydides , about two fifths of the Peloponnesus . It comprises two main regions separated by mountains.

The Laconia is strictly the territory bounded on the west by the massive Taygetus , south and east by the Mediterranean Sea . The northern border is changing: victorious at the Battle of Champions "in 545 BC. BC , Sparta removes Argos control board Thyratide (or Kynourie). Now, the boundary of the region through the vicinity of Thyra (near present Astros ), southern Mount Parthenion , the watershed of the Eurotas (thus including the Skiritide ) and the territory at the foot of Mount Chelmos, identified as the Belminatide.

Messenia conquered following the wars of the same name , lies west of Taygetus to the Mediterranean and is bordered to the north by the valley of the Neda. It includes several mountain ranges, including cyparissias Mountains, which extend southward through the Aigalon and east by the Ithome. At the center lies the valley of Messinia itself, bathed in the Pamissos, there are the plain Stnyclaros north of the crest of Scala and the coastal plain Macaria called "Blessed", south .

Sparta itself consists of four villages, Limnai, Kynosoura, meso and Pitan, which are not fully met by a synoecism in the classical period . A fifth, Amyclae , a few kilometers away, just add it at an unknown .

History

Archaic period

Sparta is already in Homer : Menelaus , husband of the beautiful Helen reigns on "Sparta in deep valleys" . The transition between this ancient city and Sparta Dorian explained to the elders by the "return of the Heraclides ' Hyllus , son of Herakles , must flee the Peloponnese under the persecutions of Eurystheus. After several failed attempts, Temenos reclaims the land of his great-grandfather. He takes him to the sovereignty of Argos and gives his brothers the neighboring kingdoms: Cresphontes receives Messinia and Aristodemus (or his son) Laconia.

Archaeologists have uncovered 21 sites inhabited Mycenaean in Laconia, which Amyclae and Menelaion , which have been taken in the classical period as the remains of the Homeric Sparta . The return of the Heraclides was interpreted as the mythical version of invasion of the Dorians , a people from the north and speak Greek. It actually seems he has not acted in an invasion, but a long assimilation .

According to archaeological evidence, Sparta itself is founded before the middle of the ^tenth century BC. BC , which contradicts the traditional chronology placing the back a few generations after the fall of Troy . Nobody knows little or nothing about this period in its history . The first traces the expansion of safe Spartan back to ^eighth century with the conquest of Amyces, Pharis and Gronthrai . The Spartans then return to the sources of the Eurotas then embark on the conquest of Messenia, which gives rise to three wars in which they were victorious.

Classical Period (V-IV c.)

In the early ^fifth century BC. BC , Sparta appears as the champion of Greece against the Persians during the Median wars. It is gradually becoming the rival of Athens , engaged against her long Peloponnesian War ( 431 to 404 BC. ). During the war Sparta had received money Persian hostile to Athenian claims in Ionia. But the victory of 404 BC. BC, which ended the war gave the Spartans appetites while embarking on the expedition of Ten Thousand (401-399) to the conquest of Asia Minor. Although the expedition was a fiasco, it shows the weakness of the Persian Empire ( Alexander the Great will recall). The Persians then decided to finance the enemies of Sparta (Athens, Thebes, and Corinth and Argos ). In 396, the same year on land Coronea and sea at Cnidus , the Spartans were defeated, and then the long and indecisive war Corinth completes shake off the yoke of Sparta (396-387). Sparta holds a lesson: it is within the rank and mend with the Persians, who in turn worry again Athenian claims. On the occasion of this warming diplomacy, Peace Antalcidas of 387 BC. AD is sworn: Sparta is dedicated hegemon of Greece and referee freedoms of the Greek world. Seating its new status, Sparta gradually installed in all the Greek cities of governments to their pay. In 382, she took control of Thebes. Opponents took refuge in Athens. Thebes in 378 is released, the Spartans chased with discreet help of the Athenians. Sparta is not fooled and declares war. Athenian confederation is reformed (377), which joined Thebes against Sparta. In 376 BC. BC ( battle of Naxos ), Sparta is defeated and its military fleet is sunk by Athens, it is all of its hegemony Navy. In 375, Sparta tried in vain to regain Thebes and even gradually driven from Boeotia (Battle Tgyres 375), she also tries to take Athens by surprise (shot Sphodrias ) (375) but fails. Sparta is also driven from Corcyra , new ally of the Athenians (375). Sparta is then attacked by Phocis by the Thebans (375 / 4). Farther north, Thessaly is unified by Jason Pherae (375 / 4), forming a new threat to Sparta. Sparta is overwhelmed on all fronts. Faced with this catastrophic situation, Sparta needs a break and foreign aid: the aid is applied to an old ally, Dionysius of Syracuse , who has given her, and pause is requested in Athens, which consents (peace 374). But nothing is settled: Thebes continues to regain Boeotia (she shaved Plataea in 373), Corcyra still refuses to join Sparta forced Athens to support her (373). Sparta was still mired in Phocis , where the Thebans progressing. It is within this context that Sparta sends a powerful army load to finally settle his account at Thebes. But the hegemonic Sparta is defeated at the Battle of Leuctra 371 BC. BC and lost 400 of its 2000 homoioi a real bleeding. Sparta will never recover.

Therefore, Sparta withdrew to his sanctuary: the Peloponnese , and specifically the Laconia. As to the descent of the Thebans in the Peloponnese (371/370), Sparta's allies rallied to new hegemon of Greece (Thebes). The enemy's army is growing so much so that Laconia was sacked by the Thebans without the Spartans dared intervene. Laconia was pillaged and sacked, which had never seen then. It is really finished the Spartan supremacy in Greece. Theban ruin his dominion over his slaves perioikoi and helot s: Messinia is released, its capital ( Messenia ) by Epaminondas refounded for him to counterbalance; Arcadian federation was reborn as her Capital Mantinea (370). But Sparta is not dead yet: the assault on the city of Thebes is pushed by a heroic resistance organized by the great Agesilaus. Several Theban expeditions are needed to prevent re-establish its dominion (in 370, 369 etc..). Sparta is his salvation with fear of the Thebans too powerful build Arcadians, and the new Athenian alliance (formalized in 369). The attempt hegemonic maritime Thebes (365 / 4) on the Aegean and Asia Minor makes her support Persian. The Thessalians manage to weaken Thebes, killing Pelopidas (364). 2 years later, at the Sparta Mantinea battle of 362 BC. AD avenge his honor: the Spartans too few fail to weigh into the battle, but killing the general Epaminondas (died illustrated Euphranor ) they are an indecisive battle a victory. Despite this, Sparta is a shadow of itself. During the battle, the bulk of the troops was Athenian. The outbreak of Macedonia in the politics of the Greek cities (from the years 350) relegates it to the same level as the others: it can no longer be required and is dominated by Philip II of Macedon which imposes its law on Greece after Chaeronea (338).

Hellenistic Period

In ^the third century BC. AD , difficulties due to its socio-political system and declining population of Homoioi lead several reforms by successive IV Agis , Cleomenes III and the usurper Nabis. She allied with Rome against the league Aetolian. However, it must also fight against the Achaean League and finished as the other cities by being absorbed by Rome in 146 BC. BC Sparta was finally ruined by the invasion.

Social organization

Population

The Spartans are only a small part of the overall population of the city. According to Isocrates , they are invading Dorians 2000 Laconia , a simple assumption of no real value . Aristotle reports that according to some, the Spartans are the number of 10 000 under the first kings . Again, it is difficult to bear witness to this round number . The first reliable mention is that provided by Herodotus : in 480 BC. AD , King Demaratus estimates the number of hoplites mobilized at just over 8000 and a year later, 5000 Spartan hoplites were present at the battle of Plataea . This number decreased throughout the ^fifth century, mainly due to the earthquake in 464 BC. BC , which according to Plutarch , destroyed the gymnasium , killing all ephebes , and the revolt of the Helots (10 years of guerrilla warfare). Thus, at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. AD , there are more than 1,200 hoplites mobilized , of which 400 die in battle. Aristotle assures that in his time, there were barely a thousand citizens .

The number of Perioikoi exceeds the number of Homoioi. Presumably there were about a hundred cities perioikoi: Sparta was known, according to Strabo , the "city of a hundred cities" . The Helots themselves can be estimated 150 000-200 000. According to Thucydides , the largest group of slave Greece .

Citizens

Only enjoy political rights Spartans itself , also known / ASTOI ("urban") - a term more aristocratic than the usual / policies - or (Homoioi) c ' is to say, "Peers," "Like the" . It is not certain that all Spartans are the Homoioi: some citizens considered cowards in battle, are subjected to all kinds of bullying and harassment: the obligation to pay tax on bachelors, release the ball and teams chorus . Historiography traditionally called tresa , the trembling. They do not cease to be citizens, but become second class.

To be a Spartan citizen, four conditions must be met :

• be from a Spartan citizen and the daughter of a Spartan citizen (the bastards are distinguished from full citizens);
• having undergone the Spartan education ;
• participate in group meals ( messes );
• possess a domain ( kleros ) to pay its share to these meals.

The term reflects Homoioi according Thucydides , the fact that Sparta "was established the greater equality in lifestyles between the haves and the large number "all lead a common life and austere.

Non-citizens

The Helots are the peasants dependent on Sparta. Their status is created with the reform of Lycurgus. They are not chattel slaves, but their status is often closer to the serfs medieval:

• they are attached to kleros they grow;
• they marry and have children;
• the difference between the rent of the citizen and served kleros harvest theirs.

Exceptionally, they are enlisted to fight, and can then be freed. Outnumber Homoioi, they faced the reform of Lycurgus being sidelined. Fearing their revolt, the Spartans their solemnly declare war each year , degrade them constantly and terrorize .

Similarly, the Perioikoi (inhabitants of the periphery) are free but nevertheless belong to the State Spartan and as such, they serve in the military civic . However, they do not enjoy any political rights in this context : they can not access the magistrates or even participate in the Assembly . However, they are free citizens of their own cities. They hold the monopoly of trade and share the craft with the Helots. They have also peasants, pushed back to the land poor.

Sparta also has other categories of non-citizen free men called conventionally Below: citizens deprived by poverty (unable to pay their share to syssitia) or cowardice in battle (the tresa ), freed helots ( nodamodes ) Skirites etc..

Education spartan

Established by " Lycurgus "and failing to end the Roman era, education or Spartan / agog defines the features to be obligatory, collective and organized by the city . Symbol of the 'exception Spartan', it is also well known: most sources are late. Now the agog experienced at least one interruption imposed by the Achaean League in ^the second century BC. AD , and perhaps another in ^the third century BC. AD It is therefore unclear to what extent the Hellenistic and Roman descriptions can also apply to the Archaic and Classical.

According to Plutarch , the Spartan newborn is examined by a committee of elders to determine if it is beautiful and well trained. If this is not the case it is considered a useless mouth and a load for the city: he is thrown over a precipice called the abyss of Apothtes . This statement, reported by Plutarch alone, is now being questioned by archaeologists, who found no bones of a child where indicated . In addition, at least to Roman times, the decision to raise a child or not is left to the family, as elsewhere in Greece .

From childhood to adulthood (7 to 20 years inclusive), the young Spartan was enlisted by age, out of parental care . He saw the hard way: the shaved head , it receives a coat ( himation ) per year and walk barefoot , he sleeps on a mattress of reeds Eurotas he broken at hand . Various competitions (fighting rituals Platanista , whipping Orthia sanctuary of Artemis ) aim to highlight the strongest and most enduring pain. This education will train soldiers obedient, efficient and committed to the welfare of the city before their fame or their well-being .

Women

Sparta is distinguished by providing an education for girls. It consists mainly of a sports training, in order to produce strong and healthy mothers, able to generate vigorous children . It also includes learning music and dance are essential for religious holidays.

The Spartan women also differ from other women by their Greek wedding. While young Athenian marry at the age of 15 years about a man who has the double, the Spartan is 18 and her husband barely more . The wedding itself is done by removing; then we open the skull of the girl, who is dressed as a man and left in a room without lights where it is joined by her husband, who left the banquet discreetly common .

Became a mother, wife Spartan is supposed to conform to a model whose heroic Spartan Sayings of Plutarch give good examples. In this book, we see Lacedaemonian urge their children to the courage, rejoice in the glorious death of their son in combat and vice versa indignant to see them come back alive while others died. In one of the most famous aphorisms, a mother tells her son to return with his shield or on his shield, that is to say winner or death . The reality is not so edifying when Sparta invades Thebes after the battle of Leuctra , women fleeing or even cause more unrest in the city that the enemy .

The total eunomia

The crisis in the ^seventh century BC. BC could not be resolved by creating an army of hoplites , successor to the warriors on horseback or in small tanks. It is the creation of this class of citizens, by the absorption of the landed aristocracy in the masses, who founded the eunomia.

This absorption has been pushed far to create full equality:

• aristocrats have totally given up their privileges: the ^sixth century BC. BC , the Spartan civic body has 7 000 to 8 000 Equals (Homoioi);
• the landed aristocracy gave up his land for the pool, everyone gets a prize equal, the / klros ("lot, inheritance), inalienable and can not put it on sale or mortgage; this kleros is non-hereditary, cultivated by the slave state (the helots ), and the product is returned in kind to the owner, who feeds her family well, but can not get rich, it is also prohibited from trading, so each is the only fully available to civic activity, war;
• the education is the same for everyone and only turned to the war ;
• equal political rights: all citizens participate in the Assembly.

The assembly

Main article: Assembly (Sparta).

The meeting is a gathering of equals. It is collected at fixed dates.

Projects shaped by the gerousia submitted. It approves or not, without discussion (no citizen shall speak), the amendments proposed by ephors. It passes decisions by acclamation or, more rarely, by displacement of voters, but his vote does not bind the gerousia can consider that the people made a mistake.

It also elects ephors and geriatric leaders, a process that seems childish to Aristotle : individuals trapped in an enclosed measure the intensity of the cheers. Its actual operation we are poorly understood. It is unclear whether all the Spartans could take the floor, for example, propose a law or amendment, or if the meeting merely to elect ephors and geriatric.

For Aristotle , the assembly has a power so low that it does not even mention as a democratic element of the Spartan regime.

Kings

Main article: Kings of Sparta.

Leonidas at Thermopylae, Jacques-Louis David , 1814 , Muse du Louvre

From the reform of Lycurgus to the ^seventh century BC. BC , Sparta has two kings assumed equal. One part of the family Agiades , the other that of Eurypontides , from two families, according to legend, the twin descendants of Heracles. Families can not marry them, and their tombs are in different places , that is to say that the son comes before the brother, there birthright but the son born when the father is already king premium on those for whom this is not the case. Nevertheless, it seems that the Spartans liberally interpret the rule of succession .

The powers of kings are mainly military and religious . At first, they can wage war against the country of their choice and their power is college . In 506 BC. AD is the "divorce of Eleusis "and later, kings campaigning alone. It is the Assembly which votes the war in ^the fifth century BC. AD , and from at least the next century, the ephors decide mobilization ^, . Anyway, the King campaign is the commander in chief . It takes precedence over the other generals, conclude the truce, and fighting in the front row on the right wing , protected by an honor guard of a hundred men .

The gerousia

Main article: gerousia.

The gerousia is an assembly of 28 men aged over 60 years, elected for life by acclamation to the Assembly after nomination, and two kings . Selected based on their military virtue, the geriatric mostly belong to large families of Sparta. However, every citizen, irrespective of wealth or rank, can be a candidate. These different criteria of choice are the instrument of conservatism.

They play a prominent political role: they alone are capable of preparing legislation, and to take the initiative . They also have the equivalent of a right of veto on the votes of the Assembly, probably at a time when the ephors may also introduce bills, until ^the third century BC. AD , there is no known veto gerousia . They manage all the affairs of domestic politics. They do not make statements.

They are also the supreme court, which considers the crimes and sentencing to death and loss of civil rights . Ephors met with, they can even judge the kings .

The ephors

Main article: Ephorus.

The five ephors is a directory that is antagonistic to the real kings. The date of their foundation is not known. They are elected for one year by the Assembly, and not re-elected.

As their name implies (Orao, monitor), they are responsible for monitoring the kings and inhabitants of the city, and in particular to ensure respect for tradition . They can impose fines , penalties of imprisonment (even for kings) and order specific performance - in particular, to execute without trial of Helots , as during the kryptis . They are also responsible for foreign affairs, implement the decisions of the meeting (they chair), ordered the mobilization and of themselves are urgent decisions . One of them (no one knows how it is chosen) gives its name to the year and official documents: it is called as the eponymous ephor . Likely to be chosen from among citizens of modest extraction, they are an element of egalitarianism in Spartan society.

Their power is so great that Aristotle describes it as "equal to that of tyrants . In fact, they are supposed to represent the people: Cicero compares the tribunes of the people . Every month, the kings swore to respect the laws, and maintain the monarchy ephors . Their power has its limits: they are not reelected, and are subject to accountability on the initiative of their successors and may be killed on that occasion .

Economy

The economic model of Sparta is based on ideology and economic cons especially thorough. In theory, it is prohibited Homoioi (Pairs) to perform a productive activity, exclusive domain of Perioikoi and Helots . They are responsible for operating the kleros (lot of land) of Homoioi , they pay an annuity (apophora). As the Greeks in general, Perioikoi primarily devoted to agriculture, and possibly also to craft and trade.

In theory always, money is banned by a triple series of measures. First, it is rendered useless meals are provided in common, luxury and the arts are frivolous banned. Most exchanges are non-monetary. Then, money is made difficult job: the pieces of gold and silver are banned; single currency is an iron ( nomisma ) of very low value compared to its weight, since it takes a wheelbarrow to transport modest sum of ten mines (one hundred drachmas ), which has no classes outside the city. Finally, wealth is supposed to be despised.

In fact, most historians agree that the archaic Sparta has not known any law prohibiting the currency . Several witnesses also attest that the Spartans used in the classical era coins minted . In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War , the city also questioned on whether to issue a coinage of silver . She finally decides to maintain its currency for trade in particular iron, and limit the use of precious metals in the affairs of state. She joined the rest of Greece in the early ^third century BC. AD , from the reign of ^I. Areus which, like the Hellenistic monarchs, issues coins bearing his image and his name .

Despite the egalitarianism of the reform of Lycurgus, wealth is distributed very unevenly among the Spartans. Herodotus may well evoke individuals "of distinguished birth, and the richest of the city . ^"In the fourth century BC. BC, Aristotle notes that some have great wealth, while others have almost nothing, and that land is concentrated in the hands of a few . If we are to believe Plutarch, only a hundred people own land ⁱⁿ the third century BC. AD .

Military organization

Hoplite, detail of crater of Vix inspiration Laconian, c. 510 BC. AD

Main article: Spartan Army.

Like other Greek cities, Sparta provides a marked preponderance in heavy infantryman, the hoplite at the expense of other archers and light troops and cavalry. It differs in that all citizens capable of bearing arms (20-60 years) should serve as hoplites, not the richest fraction, as is the case elsewhere. The Perioikoi (inhabitants of the periphery of Sparta) also fought as hoplites, and even Helots : the 700 Helots controlled Brasidas in Halkidiki , during the Peloponnesian War , are rewarded with a postage . Subsequently, Sparta creates units Nodamodes , the Helots wearing heavy armor, and used as reinforcements in garrison.

On the battlefield, the hoplites are grouped by sections , the nomoties, which normally have a representative in each class mobilized - 35 before the battle of Leuctra , 40 after . They are deployed in order of increasing age, youth who are therefore at the forefront. In ^the fifth century BC. AD , the army is grouped in sections, then by companies (Pentecost), battalions (loach s) and regiment (moras), each unit being controlled by an officer. The whole form phalanx who fights in one deep line of eight to twelve men, renowned throughout Greece for its power and discipline.

This discipline is nourished by the emphasis on the "beautiful death", that is to say death in battle, with wounds in front. The citizen died in the war entitled to a stele inscribed with his name, while others must settle for unmarked graves . Conversely, those who survive are suspect; the banning of society awaits cowards, tresa. This ideology is not without heroic motivations practices: the effectiveness of the phalanx lies in its cohesiveness. Stand firm in his position is a civic duty, but also a guarantee of survival.

Sparta is the other Greek cities as a specialist in combat: describing the ceremony in the morning given orders by the king to his troops, Xenophon noted: "if you were at this stage, you'd think that all other peoples are, in fact war, as improvisers, and the Spartans are really only artists in military . His critics accuse him of being the same as this: for Plato, the political organization of Sparta is "that of an army in the field rather than people living in cities . Historians now prefer the perspective image of a Spartan militaristic . Indeed, as in all Greek cities, the Spartan army is not a separate body of social discipline of the phalanx is inspired civic and not vice versa.

Religion

Religion has a place in Sparta higher than in other cities. Evidenced by the number of temples and shrines mentioned by Pausanias when he visited the city: 43 temples of deities (Hiero), 22 temples hero (Heroon), fifteen statues of gods and four altars . Added to the monuments - many because Sparta bury their dead within its boundary - some of which are also places of worship: the case of those of Lycurgus , Leonidas ^I. or Pausanias ^I. .

Cults and Deities

Artemis Orthia represented as the "mistress of animals, ivory votive offerings deposited in his sanctuary , National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Female deities play a greater role than elsewhere: on 50 temples mentioned by Pausanias , 34 are devoted to goddesses . Athena , under a large number of epicleses , is the most honored of all. Apollon has little temples, but its importance is crucial: it plays a role in all major festivals spartan, and the largest religious monument in Laconia is the throne of Apollo at Amyclae.

Another special feature is dedicated to the cult hero of the Trojan War. Achilles is, according to Anaxagoras , "honored as a god" , and has two shrines. Similarly, are revered Agamemnon , Cassandra (as Alexandra), Clytemnestra , Menelaus or Helena.

Sparta also makes an important cult to Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri , twin son of Zeus. Pindar in fact the "stewards of Sparta" , and tradition made the city their place of birth. Their duality is reminiscent of the Kings. A number of miracles attributed to them, especially in the defense of the Spartan army (they go on campaign with the Kings, represented by amphorae binoculars).

Finally, Heracles in Sparta is also a kind of national hero . It is considered to have helped Tyndarus to recover his throne. It was he who built the temple in the city of Asclepius. The twelve labors are amply represented in the iconography Spartan. This is typically the young god.

Sacrifices and divine signs

Ruins of Menelaion near Sparta

The priests have a significant place. The two kings themselves have the status of priests in their charge of public sacrifices, which are very important, especially in wartime. Before the start of an expedition, were sacrificed to Zeus Agtor, when passing the border, to Zeus and Athena, before the battle with Ares Enyalios. Respect of rites, religious festivals and divine signs are evident in many stories, where the Spartans give up the fight to the bad omens, or events such as earthquakes.

Characters archaic

Religion in Sparta also hit by its archaic aspects. Thus, there are remnants of non-anthropomorphic cults: Boiai in Laconia , worships a myrtle in the name of Artemis SOTEIRA . Pausanias also speaks of 15 xoan in Laconia, including 6 at Sparta - these are wooden statues to the coarse representation, prior to the Olympic religion. The archaic is also found in the Spartan religious festivals (see Gymnopdies , Hyacinths and Karneia ), and some sacrifices, like horses at Helios on Mount Taygetos .

Culture

Related story: brevity.

Literature

The first example of Laconian alphabet dates back to mid- ^eighth century BC. AD : the dedication of a aryballos sharp bronze Menelaion found in . The sharpness of the letters, incised on a hard surface, and usually implies some evidence to suggest that literacy was already widespread. It is generally believed to date back around 775 BC. AD

In the late seventh ^centuryBC. BC, Sparta boasts one of the largest Greek elegiac poets , Tyrtaeus. Its origin is discussed from the Antiquity , the Suda , a Byzantine dictionary, hesitates between a birth in Sparta and Miletus in Ionia. It has kept him fragments of eleven elegies, which reconcile the ideal aristocratic legacy of Homer and the ideal of the city. He Lycurgus notes that the Spartans going to war meet to listen to his poems . At the same time, Alcman is brought to Sparta as' slave , then freed by his master, his poems have all been successful as they are read each year during the festival Gymnopdies .

Sparta also known to bring poets recognized as Thaltas , Terpander or Timothy Miletus. Various traditions show calm by singing a crisis ( stasis ) shaking Spartan society, making them precursors of Lycurgus. In ^the sixth century BC. AD , according to tradition, the city hosts one of the masters of lyric poetry, Stesichorus . It has kept him a fragment of a recantation in which he denies that Helen never went to either Troy , probably in deference to the Spartans who see it as a goddess . In the early ^fifth century BC. AD, Simonides of Ceos wrote a eulogy to the fallen warriors battle of Thermopylae , the Spartans seem to recite every year at a monument to the dead, or Sparta, or at Thermopylae .

Curiously, Sparta no longer come from poets after the arrival of Stesichorus and raises no copyright in it . Illiteracy of the Spartans is also proverbial in the classical period in Athens . In reality, it is likely that the kings, generals, the ephors, the geriatric and Hippeis can read and write . In terms of ordinary citizens, Justin reported that during the wars of Messinia, the Spartan soldiers write their name and surname on wood chips they attach to their arms - sort of ancestors of nameplates military. Plutarch also cites letters from mothers to their children Spartan soldiers . It is unclear whether these two statements are true or not. More credible, Aristophanes mentions a poet Spartan Clitagora , and Iamblichus mentions several Pythagorean Spartan .

During the Hellenistic period, Sparta opens again in literature and produced "antiques" that is to say scholars who specialize in the sights of their own history. The best known of them, Sosibios leaves a series of treaties and customs Spartan cults, including the grammarian Athenaeus preserves some fragments. Meanwhile, wealthier families are accustomed to send their son abroad to further their education and found some "Gorgus the Spartan" among the disciples of the famous Stoic Pantios Rhodes . In Roman times, Sparta became one of the Greek centers of higher learning .

Art

Laconian Art flourishes especially in the Archaic period , and its main modes of expression are the ceramics , the bronze and ivory.

Laconian's contribution to sculpture is far from reaching that of other Greek regions, but can be compared to that of Boeotia. Sparta has a school in style Daedalic ^seventh century BC. AD whose production is mainly subsistent terracotta figurines. Funerary reliefs of the next century are relatively poor, but said the statue of Leonidas suggests that the rest of the production could have been better .

For architecture, Thucydides wrote: "Suppose in fact that Sparta was devastated and there remains only the temples with foundations of buildings: after a long space of time, raise its power, I think, compared to its renowned, serious doubts in future generations . "However, Sparta is not devoid of any monument, as evidenced by Pausanias devotes chapters to the city : one can cite the Skias (570-560 BC.) Odeon shape circular, the temple of Athena at the House of Bronze (late ^fourth century BC.) or the stoa Persian, whose construction was financed by the spoils of the Median wars. Outside of Sparta is also the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia.

Ceramics

Cavalier birds, cutting the Cavaliers Painter, ca 550-530 BC. BC, British Museum

The ceramic is Laconian Geometric style until the ^mid-seventh century BC. The BC Laconian I is characterized by alternating squares decor and dark spots on the mouth of the vase or by rows of pomegranates, the figured decoration is reduced almost to the lions.

Laconian II maintains the grounds orientalizing but introduces the black figure, almost exclusively for export. This production reached its peak around 560-550 BC. AD; its outlets are mainly Taranto , a colony of Sparta, but also the Etruscans , the Cyrenaica or the Delta Nile. The kylix (cup) to walk above is the preferred form. We can identify a few major artists such as Naucratis Painter, the Painter of Borades the Arcesilaus Painter, the Painter of the Cavaliers and the Painter of the Hunt. The latter stops its production to 530 BC. BC During the same decade, export ceramics figured Laconian also ends, supplanted by the black ceramic coating.

Spartan artists love to represent Herakles , most often as an ordinary hoplite and the satyrs , gods and demons enthroned adults. However, neither Apollo nor the Dioscuri are identified with certainty on vases, scenes from the Trojan War also shine by their absence.

Bronze

Bronze Horse Laconian style found in Olympia , v. 740 Ave. BC, Louvre

Sparta also stands in the Archaic period, through his work with bronze. Its proponents flow figures whose typical example is the horse said Laconian, remarkable for the sense of stability and power that it releases contained . It is characterized by a long head, a short neck and a rectangular base with a perforated appendix on which the tail of the animal. It is made from a hard wax, bronze, with a high proportion of tin, is poured through the nostrils into a mold segmented using the technique of lost wax , and the figure removed from the mold is not subject to times. This type of figure, dated from the mid- ^eighth century BC. AD , prevails among ex-voto geometric of Olympia. The production figures of good quality persists until ^the fifth century BC. AD / A>. If horses are generally designed to be autonomous, most of the other figures are intended to decorate luxury items such as mirrors ^{A "Spartan mirage"?}

In antiquity

Sparta stands first few other Greek cities. Homer writes in the catalog of ships the "hollow Sparta , surrounded by mountains and Parnon Taygetus where, in the Odyssey, Artemis is shown leading the chase .

By the end of the Archaic period , however, emerges from Sparta lot, first to the power of his phalanx, and then for its political system, which many poets and Herodotus consider a model of eunomia, that is ie justice and good order . Herodotus and the Spartan king is in exile Demaratus warn Xerxes that the Spartans are "the bravest of all men" and stressing that "the law for them is an absolute master" . However, no city does have a constitution similar, even among those who adopt an oligarchic form.

The admiration for the Spartan model is developed especially in Athens. The first of these "laconisants is Cimon , who calls his son Lacdmonios and persuaded in 464 BC. AD his countrymen to help in Sparta, struck by an earthquake . The laconisants are recruited mainly among supporters of oligarchy: Critias , leader of the Thirty who took power in 404 BC. BC, is described as a "notorious laconisant" , for whom the constitution of Sparta is the best of all . Conversely, Euripides represents her characters Spartan Menelaus and Hermione , as detestable beings, obsessed with wealth and power, brutal and cunning .

In the early ^fourth century BC. BC , Sparta defeated Athens in the long Peloponnesian War. Many Greeks attributed the victory to the superiority of the Spartan political organization . This is particularly true of the Constitution of Sparta, attributed to Xenophon, who fought against his own city under the orders of King Agesilaus II at the Battle of Coronea and has subjected his son to the Spartan education. For his part, Plato condemns the mode by which, in imitation of the Spartans, "it bruises the ear, it gets the belts around the arms are exercised constantly in the gym, wearing clothes very short, as if it was from there that the Spartan Greeks surpass other . "

Plato knows the laconisants to be plenty busy in his youth. His attitude vis--vis Sparta is measured: he praises the wisdom and the Spartan Eunomia, based on common sense, but he denounces the Republic 's transformation into timocracy , that is to say in the regime where search for honors is the main driver . It regrets in the first part of Acts that the music is so neglected in Sparta, but praises the Spartan political system for the balance of power - first between the two kings, then between the kings, and gerousia ephors - which constitutes a middle ground between democracy and monarchy .

Aristotle proves relatively critical in its policy. For him, the Helots are not a good solution for enabling citizens to be freed from work, because the Spartans fear permanently. Then he complains too much freedom given to women. It highlights the extent of social inequalities and the fact that two-fifths of the state are owned by women. On the political front, the democratic election of ephors seemed dangerous because it leads to the selection of poor men, so venal, their power seemed oppressive. The gerousia is not immune: its members are senile, corrupt and prone to favoritism. Like Plato in the Laws, he criticizes Sparta to focus exclusively on military virtue: his victory over Athens is fatal because it can not handle the peace.

In the Hellenistic period , Sparta is a subject of interest for fans of political philosophy, which tend to idealize. One student of Aristotle, Dicaearchus , drafts a constitution of the Spartans as the Spartans like to point to read it once a year to their young people. The Pythagoreans are generally laconisants. The Treaty on the Law and Justice, attributed to Archytas of Tarentum , but actually a work Hellenistic Sparta made an example of the ideal regime, a mixed constitution combining democracy (hippagrtes and Koroi, that is to say King's personal guard), oligarchy (the ephors) and the monarchy (kings). Similarly, the Cynics collect the "Spartan sayings, quotes Aristotle in Rhetoric already as good maxims of moral practice .

Sparta also has an attraction outside Greece. Many cities of Asia Minor and the coast of Lazio pretend, quite fanciful, of colonies of Sparta. The first book of Maccabees and the Jewish Antiquities of Flavius Josephus reported both a letter attributed to King Areus ^I. and sent the high priest Onias ^I. wherein Areus claims a common origin between the Spartans and Jews. In 168 BC. AD , the high priest Jason, filed Sparta wins in hopes of finding refuge with relatives in this town . In Italy , the Sabines believe to be the descendants of Spartans who left their mother-city of disgust for his austerity .

In Rome, a current laconisant exists from the republic: Cato the Younger took the Spartans models ; Brutus renamed "Eurotas" a stream of his country estate style and affects a Spartan when he wrote in Greek . Roman institutions are often compared to those of Sparta, the two consuls recall the two kings, while the Senate evokes gerousia. During the Empire , the Stoics admired the austerity of the Spartans, their refusal to acknowledge defeat and their contempt of death. Plutarch wrote a biography of Lycurgus , of Agesilaus II , Lysander , Agis IV and Cleomenes III and collects sayings Spartans. Subsequently, the influence Spartan is less marked. The Second Sophistic is mainly interested in Athens, but Sparta still uses to suggest topics of rhetoric, "does it give the walls of Sparta? "" Prisoners of Sphacteria should they be punished for cowardice ? "

In modern times

In the Renaissance , Sparta, not Athens, is regarded as the archetype of the moral values of ancient times. The Italian humanist, Vergerio touts education of Sparta in his treatise (circa 1402) concerning the education of young princes. In 1436 , Cyriac of Ancona visited the ruins of the city and laments the disappearance of "this noble city", the symbol of "human virtue" and "famous for the integrity of his soul" .

The Swiss philosopher Rousseau admires the Spartan dedication to his country, and only Voltaire preferred the democracy of Athens. Part of German scholarship (Karl Otfried Mller, particularly in the Dorians, and Werner Jaeger), and some French as Maurice Barres (The Voyage of Sparta) see the genius of "race" Dorian , the "incarnation of a policy consciously racist, war and totalitarian .

Instead, the historian Henri Marrou Irenaeus denounced the "Spartan mirage "," far from seeing in the a safe method to generate the magnitude, I denounce the radical impotence of a people who conquered deluded. " For him, the misfortune of Sparta is to have matured too early. In preserving the heritage of the Archaic period, when Sparta knew both military education as the arts, she "clenched in an attitude of denial and defense, it was better known than the worship sterile the difference incommunicable. "