SPARTA. 



SPARTA. 



650 



Tvrtieus, the martial poet, was held in especial honour, as animating 

 and encouraging their youth. Gymnastic dancing also formed a part 

 of Spartan education ; and the Pyrrhic dance was taught to boys as 

 a warlike exercise, imitative of the movements and actions of a com- 

 batant in battle. But the lessons most strongly impressed upon 

 the young Spartan, and the duties most carefully inculcated, were 

 those of modesty, obedience, and respect to rank and age. Together 

 with all this, the young Spartan was impressed, both by precept and 

 example, with a sense of shame ; and taught to consider dishonour and 

 disgrace as more terrible than death, when met either for the honour 

 or at the command of his country. At the expiration of eighteen 

 yean, the Spartan youths passed from boyhood ; and from this 

 period to thirty they were considered to be in a state of transition to 

 manhood. At twenty they served in the ranks. ('Dorians,' iv. 5, 3.) 

 Even after maturity the Spartans were still expected to employ them- 

 selves in gymnastic exercises and amusements. (Xeu., ' Da Rep. 

 Lacon.,' v. 7.) Nor were they exempt from military service till sixty. 

 The last years of their life were spent in the service of the community, 

 in the council of the Gerusia, or in superintending the education of the 

 young ; and nowhere, it has been remarked by Cicero, had old age a 

 more agreeable or more honourable position than at Sparta. Another 

 important feature of the Spartan institutions was the Syssitia, or 

 public meals, in which all the citizen* of a suitable age joined. The 

 guests were divided into societies, or clubs, generally of fifteen men ; 

 any vacancy was filled by ballot, and unanimous consent was requisite 

 for the admission of new members. The repast of each club was of 

 a frugal and temperate character, but enlivened by social and cheerful 

 conversation, and the entertainment was provided by the contributions 

 of the individual members. 



The chief strength of the Spartan forces was in the heavy-armed 

 infantry, which was superior to that of any other state in Greece. 

 Cavalry service was not thought highly of amongst them, the country 

 being not fitted for the production of horses. The horsemen of 

 Sparta, in the Peloponnesian war, were at fi rat only 400, and after- 

 wards rose to COO men. (MuUer, iii. 12, 6.) The naval service was 

 chiefly confined to the Perioaci. 



Tl.c Spartan institutions, though almost entirely of a military 

 tendency, incidentally served other important ends, such as the 

 inviguration and health of the body, and the production of physical 

 beauty. About B.C. 540 the Spartans were tha most healthy of the 

 Greeks (Xen., Hep. Lacon.,' v. 9), and the handsomest men and 

 women were found amongst them. But Sparta did not produce 

 among her citizens the painter, the sculptor, the poet, or the historian. 

 They were all warriors; and therefore the cultivation of the art* and 

 sciences, and even of agriculture, was left almost entirely to the 

 Periceci and the Helot*. Lyrical and choral poetry indeed, for which 

 the Dorian communities were famous, were cultivated and encouraged, 

 but chiefly for religious purposes. The arts of rhetoric and eloquence 

 too were studiously discouraged among them, a* being instruments 

 of deceit and misrepresentation, and inconsistent with the concise and 

 sententious method of expression on which the Spartans prided them- 

 selves, and which they enforced on their youth by a regular training. 

 Trade and commerce aUo were alien to their character ; and these 

 were left entirely to their provincial subjects. Any extensive trade 

 indeed was rendered almost impossible by the want of a gold and silver 

 coinage, iron being till the latest time their only legal currency. The 

 very possession of gold or silver money was prohibited by their laws. 

 And yet owing probably to the tendency of human nature to long for 

 what is forbidden, " avarice appears to have been the vice to which 

 the Spartan was most prone : money, for which ho scarcely had any 

 use, was a bait which even the purest patriotism could not rout." 

 (Thirl., ' Hist of Greece; ' 'Dorians,' hi.) 



Spartan girls were in many respects brought up similarly to the boys. 

 They bad their own gymnasia, and practised themselves in running, 

 wrestling, and other exercises, which contributed to their health and 

 rigour of constitution, in order that they might prove the mothers of 

 a healthy progeny. The Spartan virgins, even in the company of 

 men, generally wore but single robe, without an upper garment ; 

 in which respect they were distinguished from married women. Hut 

 the most remarkable feature in the social position of the Spartan 

 women was the indulgence and respect universally shown to them, 

 presenting a strong contrast with the treatment of the female sex 

 among the Athenians and othr nations of the Ionian race. So great 

 was the influence of the women at Sparta, that the Spartans were 

 often censured by other nations for submitting to their yoke. 



The Spartans, and the Dorians generally, also differed from the 

 rest of the Greeks in the freedom of intercourse which they allowed 

 in public between the youth of both sexes, who were especially 

 brought into contact at religious festivals and choruses. Hence at 

 Sparta it was very possible for marriage to be the result of affection 

 and love, which was seldom the case in the Ionian states of Greece. 

 But still in this, as in everything else, private feelings and wishes 

 were made subordinate to the interests of the community ; and mar- 

 riage was not considered merely as a private relation, but as a public 

 institution, the chief end of which was to supply the state with a 

 strong ami healthy progeny. Intermarriage with foreign women wss 

 forbidden to all the Spartans, and to the Heracleids, or royal family, 

 by a particular rhetra, or constitutional ordinance. 



History. The occupation of Laconia by the Spartans dates, accord- 

 ing to the received chronology, from the year B.C. 1104, the 80th year 

 after the Trojan war : but some writers place that event in B.C. 1048. 

 About one of those periods the Dorians migrated from Doris, a district 

 lying between the chains of Mount (Ek& on the north and Parnassus 

 on the south, and, under the command of three leaders, Ariatodemus, 

 Temenus, and Cresphontes, reputed descendants of Hercules, invaded 

 the Peloponnesus ; they were accompanied and guided in their expe- 

 dition by Oxylus, an .Etolian chief, and soon succeeded, according to 

 the poetical legend, in making themselves masters of the country. In 

 the division which took place, Laconia was assigned to Aristodemus, 

 Argos to Temenus, Messenia to Cresphontes, while Elis was given to 

 Oxylus as a reward for his assistance. Till the conquest of Laconia 

 was thoroughly effected, the Spartans were probably too much occupied 

 at home to engage in foreign wars. Their earliest expeditions were 

 into Arcadia and Argos. Against Tegea, the capital of the former 

 country, they continued to wage war, and always unsuccessfully, for 

 many generations. The first of the Messeniau wars commenced about 

 B.C. 743, and terminated in the defeat and subjection of Messenia. 

 The struggle was renewed in B.C. 685, but ended in a like result 

 B.C. 668. 



From B.C. 668, the close of the second Messenian war, Sparta con- 

 tinued in a course of uninterrupted success, till she became supreme 

 in the Peloponnesus, and pre-eminent in all Greece. The old contest 

 with Tegea was at last decided in her favour, about the year B.C. 545. 

 (Herod., L 68.) Nearly at the same time the contest with Argos, for 

 the possession of the tract of land called Thyreto, of which the 

 Spartans had made themselves masters in the third generation after 

 the conquest, was decided by a battle of 300 champions on each side, 

 in which Argos lost the day, and Thyreac was won by the Spartans. 

 (Herod., i. 82.) About B.C. 525, the Spartans were again in hostilities 

 with Argos, and victorious over them in a decisive battle. At the 

 instigation of the Delphian oracle they invaded Attica, under their 

 king Cleomenes, for the purpose of expelling the usurper Hippias, an 

 object which they effected in B.C. 510. Five years afterwards they 

 again appeared in Attica as the supporters of the aristocratic party 

 headed by Isagoras : they were led by Cleomenes ; but the Spartan 

 king, who had occupied the citadel, was obliged to capitulate, and 

 submit to the terms dictated by the popular party at Athens. The 

 expulsion of the Pisistratidae from Athens, and the aid furnished by 

 the Athenians to some of the revolted subjects of Persia, gave occa- 

 sion to the Persian war. The battle of Marathon followed (B.C. 490), 

 the honour of sharing in which the Spartans lost, from a superstitious 

 regard to an ancient custom which forbade them to set out on an 

 expedition before the moon was at the full. (Herod., vi. 103.) But 

 ten years afterward*, when Xerxes invaded Greece, they fought 

 against him, first at Thermopylae, then at Sruamis, and lastly at Platiea. 

 At Thermopylae, Leonidas, the Spartan king, with a handful of troops, 

 long defied the hosts of the enemy; and at last, after dismissing his 

 allies, fell, with his 300 Spartan citizens, in obedience, as their epitaph 

 recorded of them, to the laws of their country. At Salamis, the 

 chief command on the Greek side was entrusted to the Spartan Eury- 

 biades, though the Lacedaemonians furnished only 16 ships, and the 

 Athenians 180 ; and had not Themistocles interposed, Greece would 

 have been ruined by his irresolute aud narrow-minded policy. At 

 the battle of Platsaa, B.C. 479, the Spartans were present with a force 

 of 5000 citizens, 5000 provincials, and 35,000 Helots ; the chief com- 

 mand was in the hands of Pausanias, their general, aud the valour 

 and firmmsi of his troops mainly contributed to tho success of the 

 Grecian arms. 



In the year B.C. 477 commenced what is called the Athenian ascen- 

 dency. The war was still caried on against Persia, in the Hellespont, 

 and off the coast of Asia Minor, by the confederates, under the com- 

 mand of the Spartan Pausanias ; the Athenian admirals being Aristidcs 

 nnil I 'iinon. Pausanias by his haughtiness aud arrogancu disgusted 

 the allies, who, with the exception of vEgiim and tho Poloponuesian 

 states, called upon the Athenians to accept the supremacy in the 

 alliance. (Thucyd., i. 95.) In the mean time Pausanias was recalled, 

 and another commander was sent out in his plead ; but it was too 

 late; the confederates refused to tubmit to his command, whereupon 

 he and his colleagues retired altogether from the conduct of the war, 

 and left it to the Athenians. 



The Spartans were on the eve of invading Attica as allies of the 

 Thasiana, when a domestic disaster occurred to prevent them. This 

 was caused by a shock of an earthquake (n.c. 464), so violent that the 

 whole of Laconia was shaken by it, and, according to one account, 

 only five houses were left standing in Sparta. The Helots, tho 

 descendants of the conquered Messeuians, took advantage of this 

 occurrence to rise against their oppressors, and, in conjunction with 

 some of the Perioeci, occupied their former stronghold of Ithome. 

 The Spartans, not being very skilful as besiegers, solicited the assist- 

 ance of the Athenians, who sent Cimon with a force to help them. 

 Their assistance however not proving so efficacious as was expected, 

 the Spartans doubted their good faith, and dismissed them. The 

 Athenians resented the affront by allying themselves with tho Argives, 

 the old enemies of the Spartans, and shortly afterwards met them at 

 Tanagra in Boootia, as they were returning from au expedition into 

 Doris, their mother country. A pitched battle was the consequence 



