Ancient Sparta: state and traditions. Ancient Sparta

In the southeast of the largest Greek peninsula - the Peloponnese - the powerful Sparta was once located. This state was located in the region of Laconia, in the picturesque valley of the Evros River. Its official name, which was most often mentioned in international treaties, is Lacedaemon. It was from this state that such concepts as "Spartan" and "Spartan" came. Everyone has also heard about the cruel custom that has developed in this ancient policy: to kill weak newborns in order to maintain the gene pool of their nation.

History of occurrence

Officially, Sparta, which was called Lacedaemon (the name of the nome, Laconia, also came from this word), arose in the eleventh century BC. After some time, the entire area on which this city-state was located was captured by the Dorian tribes. Those, having assimilated with the local Achaeans, became Spartakiates in the sense known today, and the former inhabitants were turned into slaves, called helots.

The most Doric of all the states that Ancient Greece once knew, Sparta, was located on the western bank of the Eurotas, on the site of the modern city of the same name. Its name can be translated as "scattered". It consisted of estates and estates that were scattered across Laconia. And the center was a low hill, which later became known as the acropolis. Initially, Sparta had no walls and remained true to this principle until the second century BC.

Government of Sparta

It was based on the principle of unity of all full-fledged citizens of the policy. For this, the state and law of Sparta strictly regulated the life and life of its subjects, restraining their property stratification. The foundations of such a social system were laid by the agreement of the legendary Lycurgus. According to him, the duties of the Spartans were only sports or military art, and crafts, agriculture and trade were the work of helots and perieks.

As a result, the system established by Lycurgus transformed the Spartan military democracy into an oligarchic-slave-owning republic, which at the same time still retained some signs of a tribal system. Here it was not allowed to land, which was divided into equal plots, considered the property of the community and not subject to sale. Helot slaves also, as historians suggest, belonged to the state, and not to wealthy citizens.

Sparta is one of the few states headed by two kings at the same time, who were called archagetes. Their power was hereditary. The powers that each king of Sparta possessed were limited not only to military power, but also to the organization of sacrifices, as well as participation in the council of elders.

The latter was called gerousia and consisted of two archagetes and twenty-eight gerontes. The elders were elected by the people's assembly for life only from the Spartan nobility who had reached sixty years of age. Gerusia in Sparta performed the functions of a certain government body. She prepared questions that needed to be discussed at public meetings, and also led foreign policy. In addition, the council of elders considered criminal cases, as well as state crimes directed, among other things, against the archagets.

Court

Judicial proceedings and the law of ancient Sparta were regulated by the board of ephors. This organ first appeared in the eighth century BC. It consisted of the five most worthy citizens of the state, who were elected by the people's assembly for only one year. At first, the powers of the ephors were limited only to litigation of property disputes. But already in the sixth century BC, their power and authority are growing. Gradually, they begin to displace gerusia. The ephors were given the right to convene a popular assembly and gerousia, to regulate foreign policy, to carry out the internal management of Sparta and its legal proceedings. This body was so important in the social structure of the state that its powers included the control of officials, including the archaget.

People's Assembly

Sparta is an example of an aristocratic state. In order to suppress the forced population, whose representatives were called helots, the development of private property was artificially restrained in order to maintain equality among the Spartans themselves.

Apella, or popular assembly, in Sparta was distinguished by passivity. Only full-fledged male citizens who had reached the age of thirty had the right to participate in this body. At first, the people's assembly was convened by the archaget, but later its leadership also passed to the college of ephors. Apella could not discuss the issues put forward, she only rejected or accepted the decision she proposed. Members of the people's assembly voted in a very primitive way: by shouting or dividing the participants on different sides, after which the majority was determined by eye.

Population

The inhabitants of the Lacedaemonian state have always been class unequal. This situation was created by the social system of Sparta, which provided for three estates: the elite, perieks - free residents from nearby cities who did not have the right to vote, as well as state slaves - helots.

The Spartans, who were in privileged conditions, were engaged exclusively in war. They were far from trade, crafts and Agriculture, all this was given as the right to be farmed out to the perieks. At the same time, the estates of the elite Spartans were processed by the helots, whom the latter rented from the state. During the heyday of the state, the nobility was five times less than the perieks, and ten times less than the helots.

All periods of existence of this one of the most ancient states can be divided into prehistoric, ancient, classical, Roman and Each of them left its mark not only in the formation ancient state Sparta. Greece borrowed a lot from this history in the process of its formation.

prehistoric era

Lelegs originally lived on the Laconian lands, but after the capture of the Peloponnese by the Dorians, this area, which has always been considered the most infertile and generally insignificant, as a result of deceit went to the two minor sons of the legendary king Aristodem - Eurysthenes and Proclus.

Soon Sparta became the main city of Lacedaemon, the system of which for a long time did not stand out among the rest of the Doric states. She waged constant external wars with neighboring Argive or Arcadian cities. The most significant rise occurred during the reign of Lycurgus, the ancient Spartan legislator, to whom ancient historians unanimously attribute the political structure that subsequently dominated Sparta for several centuries.

ancient era

After winning the wars lasting from 743 to 723 and from 685 to 668. BC, Sparta was able to finally defeat and capture Messenia. As a result, its ancient inhabitants were deprived of their lands and turned into helots. Six years later, Sparta, at the cost of incredible efforts, defeated the Arcadians, and in 660 BC. e. forced Tegea to recognize her hegemony. According to the contract, stored on a column placed near Alfea, she forced her to conclude a military alliance. It was from this time that Sparta in the eyes of the peoples began to be considered the first state of Greece.

The history of Sparta at this stage boils down to the fact that its inhabitants began to make attempts to overthrow the tyrants that appeared from the seventh millennium BC. e. in almost all Greek states. It was the Spartans who helped drive the Kypselids from Corinth, the Peisistrati from Athens, they contributed to the liberation of Sicyon and Phokis, as well as several islands in the Aegean Sea, thereby gaining grateful supporters in different states.

History of Sparta in the classical era

Having entered into an alliance with Tegea and Elis, the Spartans began to attract the rest of the cities of Laconia and neighboring regions to their side. As a result, the Peloponnesian Union was formed, in which Sparta assumed hegemony. These were wonderful times for her: she led the wars, was the center of meetings and all meetings of the Union, without encroaching on the independence of individual states that retained autonomy.

Sparta never tried to extend its own power to the Peloponnese, but the threat of danger pushed all other states, with the exception of Argos, during Greco-Persian Wars come under her protection. Having eliminated the danger directly, the Spartans, realizing that they were unable to wage war with the Persians far from their own borders, did not object when Athens assumed further leadership in the war, limiting itself only to the peninsula.

Since that time, signs of rivalry between these two states began to appear, which subsequently resulted in the First, ending with the Thirty Years' Peace. The fighting not only broke the power of Athens and established the hegemony of Sparta, but also led to a gradual violation of its foundations - the legislation of Lycurgus.

As a result, in 397 BC, there was an uprising of Cinadon, which, however, was not crowned with success. However, after certain setbacks, especially the defeat at the battle of Knidos in 394 BC. e, Sparta ceded Asia Minor, but became a judge and mediator in Greek affairs, thus motivating its policy with the freedom of all states, and was able to secure primacy in alliance with Persia. And only Thebes did not obey the conditions set, thereby depriving Sparta of the advantages of such a shameful world for her.

Hellenistic and Roman era

Starting from these years, the state began to decline rather quickly. Impoverished and burdened with the debts of its citizens, Sparta, whose system was based on the legislation of Lycurgus, turned into an empty form of government. An alliance was made with the Phocians. And although the Spartans sent them help, they did not provide real support. In the absence of King Agis, with the help of money received from Darius, an attempt was made to get rid of the Macedonian yoke. But he, having failed in the battles of Megapolis, was killed. Gradually began to disappear and became a household spirit, which was so famous for Sparta.

Rise of an empire

Sparta is a state that for three centuries was the envy of all Ancient Greece. Between the eighth and fifth centuries BC, it was a collection of hundreds of cities, often at war with each other. One of the key figures for the formation of Sparta as a powerful and strong state was Lycurgus. Before its appearance, it was not much different from the rest of the ancient Greek policies-states. But with the advent of Lycurgus, the situation changed, and priorities in development were given to the art of war. From that moment on, Lacedaemon began to transform. And it was during this period that he flourished.

From the eighth century B.C. e. Sparta began to wage aggressive wars, conquering one by one its neighbors in the Peloponnese. After a series of successful military operations, Sparta moved on to establishing diplomatic ties with its most powerful opponents. Having concluded several treaties, Lacedaemon stood at the head of the union of the Peloponnesian states, which was considered one of the most powerful formations of Ancient Greece. The creation of this alliance by Sparta was to serve to repel the Persian invasion.

The state of Sparta has been a mystery to historians. The Greeks not only admired its citizens, but feared them. One type of bronze shields and scarlet cloaks worn by the warriors of Sparta put opponents to flight, forcing them to capitulate.

Not only the enemies, but the Greeks themselves did not really like it when an army, even a small one, was located next to them. Everything was explained very simply: the warriors of Sparta had a reputation for being invincible. The sight of their phalanxes caused even the worldly-wise to panic. And although only a small number of fighters participated in the battles in those days, nevertheless, they never lasted long.

The beginning of the decline of the empire

But at the beginning of the fifth century BC. e. a massive invasion, undertaken from the East, was the beginning of the decline of the power of Sparta. The huge Persian empire, always dreaming of expanding its territories, sent a large army to Greece. Two hundred thousand people stood at the borders of Hellas. But the Greeks, led by the Spartans, accepted the challenge.

King Leonidas

Being the son of Anaxandrides, this king belonged to the Agiad dynasty. After the death of his older brothers, Dorieus and Klemen the First, it was Leonidas who took over the reign. Sparta in 480 years before our era was at war with Persia. And the name of Leonid is associated with the immortal feat of the Spartans, when a battle took place in the Thermopylae Gorge, which has remained in history for centuries.

It happened in 480 BC. e., when the hordes of the Persian king Xerxes tried to capture the narrow passage connecting Central Greece with Thessaly. At the head of the troops, including the allied ones, was Tsar Leonid. Sparta at that time occupied a leading position among friendly states. But Xerxes, taking advantage of the betrayal of the dissatisfied, bypassed the Thermopylae Gorge and went into the rear of the Greeks.

Upon learning of this, Leonid, who fought on a par with his soldiers, disbanded the allied detachments, sending them home. And he himself, with a handful of warriors, whose number was only three hundred people, stood in the way of the twenty thousandth Persian army. The Thermopylae Gorge was strategic for the Greeks. In the event of a defeat, they would be cut off from Central Greece, and their fate would be sealed.

For four days, the Persians were unable to break the incomparably smaller enemy forces. The heroes of Sparta fought like lions. But the forces were unequal.

The fearless warriors of Sparta died one and all. Together with them, their king Leonid fought to the end, who did not want to abandon his comrades.

The name of Leonid has gone down in history forever. Chroniclers, including Herodotus, wrote: “Many kings have died and have long been forgotten. But Leonid is known and honored by everyone. His name will always be remembered by Sparta, Greece. And not because he was a king, but because he fulfilled his duty to his homeland to the end and died like a hero. Films have been made and books written about this episode in the life of the heroic Hellenes.

The feat of the Spartans

The Persian king Xerxes, who did not leave the dream of capturing Hellas, invaded Greece in 480 BC. At this time, the Hellenes held the Olympic Games. The Spartans were preparing to celebrate Carnei.

Both of these holidays obligated the Greeks to observe a sacred truce. This was one of the main reasons why only a small detachment opposed the Persians in the Thermopylae Gorge.

A detachment of three hundred Spartans, led by King Leonidas, headed towards the army of Xerxes with thousands of men. Warriors were selected on the basis of having children. On the way, a thousand Tegeans, Arcadians and Mantineans, as well as one hundred and twenty from Orchomenus, joined the militias of Leonidas. Four hundred soldiers were sent from Corinth, three hundred from Phlius and Mycenae.

When this small army approached the Thermopylae pass and saw the number of Persians, many soldiers were frightened and began to talk about retreat. Part of the allies proposed to withdraw to the peninsula in order to guard Isthm. Others, however, were outraged by the decision. Leonid, ordered the army to remain in place, sent messengers to all the cities asking for help, since they had too few soldiers to successfully repel the attack of the Persians.

For four whole days, King Xerxes, hoping that the Greeks would take flight, did not start hostilities. But seeing that this was not happening, he sent the Cassians and Medes against them with orders to take Leonidas alive and bring him to him. They quickly attacked the Hellenes. Each attack of the Medes ended in huge losses, but others came to replace the fallen. It was then that it became clear to both the Spartans and the Persians that Xerxes had many people, but there were few warriors among them. The fight lasted all day.

Having received a decisive rebuff, the Medes were forced to retreat. But they were replaced by the Persians, led by Gidarn. Xerxes called them the "immortal" detachment and hoped that they would easily finish off the Spartans. But in hand-to-hand combat, they did not succeed, just like the Medes, to achieve great success.

The Persians had to fight in tight quarters, and with shorter spears, while the Hellenes had longer ones, which in this fight gave a certain advantage.

At night, the Spartans again attacked the Persian camp. They managed to kill many enemies, but their main goal there was a defeat in the general turmoil of Xerxes himself. And only when dawn broke, the Persians saw the small number of the detachment of King Leonidas. They threw spears at the Spartans and finished off with arrows.

The road to Central Greece was open to the Persians. Xerxes personally inspected the battlefield. Finding the deceased Spartan king, he ordered him to cut off his head and put it on a stake.

There is a legend that King Leonidas, going to Thermopylae, clearly understood that he would die, therefore, when his wife asked him what the orders would be, he ordered him to find a good husband and give birth to sons. This was the life position of the Spartans, who were ready to die for their Motherland on the battlefield in order to receive a crown of glory.

Beginning of the Peloponnesian War

After some time, the Greek policies that were at war with each other united and were able to repulse Xerxes. But, despite the joint victory over the Persians, the alliance between Sparta and Athens did not last long. In 431 BC. e. The Peloponnesian War broke out. And only a few decades later, the Spartan state was able to win.

But not everyone in ancient Greece liked the supremacy of Lacedaemon. Therefore, half a century later, new fighting. This time, Thebes became his rivals, who, together with their allies, managed to inflict a serious defeat on Sparta. As a result, the power of the state was lost.

Conclusion

This is what ancient Sparta was like. She was one of the main contenders for primacy and supremacy in the ancient Greek picture of the world. Some milestones in Spartan history are sung in the works of the great Homer. A special place among them is occupied by the outstanding Iliad.

And now from this glorious policy now there are only the ruins of some of its buildings and unfading glory. Legends about the heroism of its warriors, as well as a small town of the same name in the south of the Peloponnese peninsula, have reached contemporaries.

In contrast to democratic Athens, Sparta was a kind of aristocratic republic. In the XII-XI centuries BC. Doric tribes invaded a small area on the Peloponnese peninsula - Laconica. This area was already occupied by the Achaeans. After a fierce struggle, both tribes entered into an alliance, formed a joint community. It was headed by two kings - Dorian and Achaean.
Little Lakonika (300 km ") turned out to be cramped for the new community. A war began for the possession of neighboring Messenia. It lasted a whole century and ended with the victory of Sparta.
The lands of Messinia became the common property of the winners. Its population was turned into slaves - helots. Unlike Athens, Sparta remained throughout its history an agricultural community. Crafts and trade were the work of non-full perieks. Both of these professions were strictly forbidden to a free Spartiate. Their occupation is military service. Free time was devoted to "round dances, feasts, festivities," hunting, gymnastics.

The land in Sparta was divided into 10 thousand equal plots - according to the number of full citizens. This number was supposed to remain unchanged. There was no plot - there was no citizenship.

Helots cultivated the land. They had families, were endowed with a yard and a plot of land. Their duties were limited to a certain tax.

The whole community and each of its members separately existed on this tax. The laws of Sparta prescribed simplicity of life and moderation in food. Citizens had the same clothes and weapons. Social equality was emphasized by daily collective meals, for the arrangement of which the Spartiate deducted part of his income.

Lycurgus was considered the founder of the Spartan order. He was credited with publishing a retr - this is how some of its basic laws were called in Sparta. One of the retros, directed against luxury, demanded that in each house the roof should be made only with an ax, and the doors only with a saw. The legislator expected that no one would wish to decorate this simple dwelling with beds on silver legs or luxurious bedspreads.

Money was prescribed to be minted in the form of large and heavy iron coins in order to prevent their accumulation and make circulation difficult. Gold and silver coins were banned.

An essential part of the activity of the state was the education of young people: it developed courage, discipline, and unquestioning obedience in young people.

From the age of seven until the age of 20, boys and young men lived outside their families, eating and sleeping together, doing physical exercises and military affairs together. They were given coarse clothes, forced to walk barefoot in winter and summer, and assigned to difficult tasks. They were badly fed to excite their intelligence, and they were severely punished for discovered theft. The slightest discontent was severely suppressed. Every mistake was punished. It came to real torture, disguised as a religious ceremony. To speak briefly, and more to be silent, was considered an indispensable virtue.

They tried to instill in the young men admiration for the Spartan order, to develop in them an arrogant contempt for the helots.

The helots gave their masters half of the harvest. The rest was their property. In this they differ from slaves in the strict sense of this concept and approach serfs. Helots were considered the property of the state in the same way as land.

Every year Sparta declared war on the Helots. This was followed by cryptia: young Spartans, armed with daggers, killed every helot that came across on the road, in the forest, in the field.

Unlike other slaves of Greece, the helots were the indigenous population of their country. The land they cultivated was once their land, they lived in their houses, in their ancient villages. Managed by their people.

There were about 200 thousand helots in Sparta, several times more than the number of Spartans. But each time they raised an uprising failed. Nevertheless, Sparta constantly felt the danger threatening her.

"In its state system, Sparta was an aristocratic republic.

The people's assembly, the council of elders and, as already mentioned, two kings survived here from the primitive communal era.

The first of these bodies - the people's assembly - retained the ancient democratic structure, but over time lost real power.

Voting in the assembly was primitive: the citizens dispersed in different directions, after which the majority was determined by eye. The election of officials was carried out by shouting: for whom they shouted louder, he was considered elected.

Gerousia considered and prepared bills, carried out a criminal court.
The kings were members of the Gerousia. As such, they had to obey her decisions. The functions of kings were limited to military, religious and some court cases. Over time, a collegium of ephors appeared in Sparta and acquired a decisive influence on the affairs of the state, consisting of five people elected by the popular assembly for a year.
The ephors convened a national assembly, a council of elders, and offered them questions for discussion. They directed all domestic and foreign policy. They monitored the steady implementation of laws. They could bring to justice not only citizens, but also officials. Litigation for civil affairs were their direct responsibility.

Question #25

Gods of Ancient Greece.

Religion ancient Greece has two main characteristics:

Polytheism (polytheism). With all the many Greek gods, 12 main ones can be distinguished. The pantheon of common Greek gods developed in the era of the classics.

Each deity in the Greek pantheon performed strictly defined functions:

Zeus - the main god, the ruler of the sky, the thunderer, personified strength and power

Hera is the wife of Zeus, the goddess of marriage, the patroness of the family. The image of Hera grew out of the image of the cow goddess, the patroness of Mycenae

Poseidon is the brother of Zeus. Poseidon was an ancient sea deity of the Pelaponnese. The cult of Poseidon, having absorbed a number of local cults, became the god of the sea and the patron of horses.

Athena is the goddess of wisdom, just war. Athena is an ancient deity - the patroness of cities and city fortifications. Her other name - Pallas - is also an epithet, meaning "Spear Shaker". According to classical mythology, Athena acts as a warrior goddess, she was depicted in full armor

Aphrodite - the idealized personification of femininity, the goddess of love and beauty, born from sea foam

Ares - god of war

Artemis - In classical mythology, Artemis appears as a virgin hunting goddess, usually with her companion - a deer

Apollo in the Pelaponesse was considered a shepherd deity. Around Thebes, Apollo Ismenius was revered: this epithet is the name of a local river, which was once deified by the inhabitants. Apollo later became one of the most popular gods of Greece. He is considered the embodiment of the national spirit. The main functions of Apollo: divination of the future, patronage of the sciences and arts, healing, cleansing from all filth, the deity of light, the correct, orderly world order

Hermes - the god of eloquence, trade and theft, the messenger of the gods, the guide of the souls of the dead to the kingdom of Hades - the god underworld

Hephaestus - the god of fire, the patron of artisans and especially blacksmiths

Demeter - goddess of fertility, patroness of agriculture

Hestia - goddess of the hearth

The ancient Greek gods lived on the snowy Mount Olympus. In addition to the gods, there was a cult of heroes - semi-deities born from the marriage of gods and mortals. Hermes, Theseus, Jason, Orpheus are the heroes of many ancient Greek poems and myths.

The second feature of the ancient Greek religion is anthropomorphism - the human likeness of the gods.

Question #26

Confucius and his teachings.

Confucius- an ancient thinker and philosopher of China. His teachings had a profound effect on Chinese life and East Asia, becoming the basis of the philosophical system known as Confucianism. Teaching. Confucianism is often called a religion, it does not have the institution of the church, and theological issues are not important for it. Confucian ethics is not religious. The ideal of Confucianism is the creation of a harmonious society according to the ancient model, in which every person has his own function. Confucius formulated the golden rule of ethics: "Do not do to a person what you do not want for yourself."

from Plutarch:
ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF THE SPARTANS

1. The elder, pointing to the door, warns everyone entering the sissitia:
"Not one word goes beyond them."

3. Spartans drink little in their sissits and leave without torches. Them
it is generally not permitted to use torches either in this case or when they are on other roads. It is ordained that they may learn boldly and fearlessly
walk the roads at night.

4. The Spartans studied literacy only for the needs of life. All other types of education were expelled from the country; not only the sciences themselves, but also people,
dealing with them. Education was aimed at ensuring that young men could
obey and courageously endure suffering, and die in battles or
seek victory.

5. The Spartans did not wear chitons, using a single himation for a whole year. They went about unwashed, abstaining for the most part both from baths and from anointing the body.

6. Young people slept together on silts on beds, which they themselves prepared from reeds growing near Eurotas, breaking it with their hands without any tools. In winter, they added to the reeds another plant, which they call lycophon, as it is believed that it is able to warm.

7. Among the Spartans, it was allowed to fall in love with honest-hearted boys, but it was considered a shame to enter into a relationship with them, because such a passion would be bodily, and not spiritual. A person accused of a shameful relationship with a boy was deprived of civil rights for life.

8. There was a custom according to which the older ones questioned the younger ones,
where and why they go, and scolded those who did not want to answer or came up with excuses. The one who, being present at the same time, does not choose the violator of this law, was subject to the same punishment as the violator himself. If he resented the punishment, he was subjected to even greater reproach.

9. If someone was guilty and was convicted, he had to go around
altar that was in the city, and at the same time sing a song composed in reproach to him, then
is to expose oneself to reproach.

10. Young Spartans had to honor and obey not only their own fathers, but also take care of all the elderly; when meeting, give way to them, get up, freeing up space, and also not make noise in their presence. Thus, everyone in Sparta disposed not only of his children, slaves, property, as was the case in other states, but also had the right to
neighbors property. This was done in order for people to act together and
treat other people's affairs as if they were their own.

11. If someone punished a boy and he told his father about it,
then, having heard the complaint, the father would consider it a shame not to punish the boy a second time.
The Spartans trusted each other and believed that none of the faithful fatherly laws
will not order the children anything bad.

12. Youths, whenever given the opportunity, steal food, thus learning to attack sleeping and lazy guards. Those caught are punished with starvation and flogging. Their dinner is so meager that they are forced to be impudent and stop at nothing to escape want.

13. This explains the lack of food: it was scarce so that the young men got used to constant hunger and could endure it. The Spartans believed that young men who received such an upbringing would be better prepared for war, as they would be able to live for a long time with almost no food, do without any seasonings and
eat whatever comes to hand. The Spartans believed that poor food makes young men healthier, they will not be prone to obesity, but will become tall and even beautiful. They believed that a lean physique provided the flexibility of all
members, and the heaviness and completeness prevent this.

14. The Spartans took music and singing very seriously. In their opinion, these arts were intended to encourage the spirit and mind of a person, to help him in his
actions. The language of Spartan songs was simple and expressive. They did not contain
nothing but praise for people who lived their lives nobly, died for Sparta and are revered as blessed, as well as condemnation of those who fled from the battlefield, oh
who were said to have led a miserable and miserable life. In songs
praised the valor inherent in every age.

17. The Spartans did not allow anyone to change the rules in any way.
ancient musicians. Even Terpander, one of the best and oldest kyfareds
of his time, praising the exploits of heroes, even his ephors were punished, and his cithara was pierced with nails because, trying to achieve a variety of sounds, he pulled an additional string on it. The Spartans only liked simple melodies. When Timothy took part in the Carnean festival, one of the ephors, taking up a sword, asked him on which side it would be better to cut off the strings on his instrument, added in excess of the seven.

18. Lycurgus put an end to the superstitions that surrounded the funeral, allowing burial within the city and near the sanctuaries, and decided not to count anything,
associated with the funeral, filth. He forbade putting anything with the dead
property, but allowed only to wrap it in plum leaves and a purple veil and bury everyone in the same way. He forbade inscriptions on grave monuments, with the exception of those erected by those who died in the war, and
also weeping and sobs at funerals.

19. The Spartans were not allowed to leave the borders of their homeland, so that they could not
to join the foreign customs and way of life of people who have not received the Spartan
education.

20. Lycurgus introduced xenolasia - the expulsion of foreigners from the country, so that when they come to
country, they did not teach the local citizens anything bad.

21. Which of the citizens did not go through all the stages of raising boys, did not have
civil rights.

22. Some argued that if any of the foreigners endured a way of life,
established by Lycurgus, then it could be included in the assigned to him from the very
moira started.

23. Trade was banned. If there was a need, it was possible to use the neighbors' servants as their own, as well as dogs and horses, unless the owners needed them. In the field, too, if someone was lacking in something, he opened, if necessary, someone else's warehouse, took what he needed, and then, putting back the seals, left.

24. During the wars, the Spartans wore red clothes: firstly, they
considered this color more courageous, and secondly, it seemed to them that the blood-red color should terrify opponents who had no combat experience. In addition, if one of the Spartans is injured, it will not be noticeable to the enemies, since the similarity of colors will hide the blood.

25. If the Spartans succeed in defeating the enemy by cunning, they sacrifice a bull to the god Ares, and if the victory is won in an open battle, then a rooster. In this way, they teach their commanders to be not just militant, but also to master the art of generalship.

26. To their prayers, the Spartans also add a request to grant them the strength to endure injustice.

27. In prayers, they ask to adequately reward noble people and more
nothing.

28. They venerate Aphrodite armed and in general depict all gods and goddesses with a spear in her hand, for they believe that military prowess is inherent in all of them.

29. Lovers of proverbs often cite the words: "Do not call on the gods without putting your hands on it," that is: you need to call on the gods only if you set to work and work, and
otherwise not worth it.

30. The Spartans show drunken helots to children in order to turn them away from drunkenness.

31. The Spartans had a custom not to knock on the door, but to speak out from behind the door.

33. The Spartans do not watch either comedies or tragedies, so as not to hear something said in jest or in earnest that goes against their laws.

34. When the poet Archilochus came to Sparta, he was expelled the same day, as he wrote in a poem that throwing down weapons is better than dying:

The Saian now proudly wears my impeccable shield:
Willy-nilly, I had to throw it to me in the bushes.
I myself escaped death. And let it disappear
My shield. As good as a new one I can get.

35. In Sparta, access to the sanctuaries is open equally to both boys and girls.

36. The ephors punished Skyraphids because many offended him.

37. The Spartans executed a man only because, wearing rags, he adorned
his colored stripe.

38. They reprimanded one young man only because he knew the road leading from the gymnasium to Pylaea.

39. The Spartans expelled Cephisophon from the country, who claimed that he was able to talk all day on any topic; they believed that a good orator's speech should be proportionate to the importance of the matter.

40. Boys in Sparta were whipped on the altar of Artemis Orthia during
whole day, and they often died under the blows. The boys are proud and cheerful
they competed to see which of them would endure the beatings longer and more worthily; the winner was praised, and he became famous. This competition was called "diamastigosis", and it took place every year.

41. Along with other valuable and happy institutions provided by Lycurgus for his fellow citizens, it was also important that the lack of employment was not considered reprehensible by them. The Spartans were forbidden to engage in any kind of crafts, and the need for business activities and the accumulation of money from
they were not. Lycurgus made the possession of wealth both unenviable and inglorious. The helots, cultivating their land for the Spartans, paid them a dues fixed in advance; demand big pay for rent was forbidden under pain of damnation. This was done so that the helots, receiving benefits, worked with pleasure, and the Spartans would not strive to accumulate.

42. Spartans were forbidden to serve as sailors and fight at sea. However, they later participated in naval battles, but, having achieved dominance at sea, they abandoned it, noticing that the morals of citizens change from this for the worse.
However, morals continued to deteriorate in this and in everything else. Before, if
one of the Spartans accumulated wealth, the accumulator was sentenced to
of death. After all, even Alkamen and Theopompus were predicted by an oracle: "The passion for the accumulation of wealth will someday destroy Sparta." Despite this prediction, Lysander, having taken Athens, brought home a lot of gold and silver, and the Spartans accepted him and surrounded him with honors. While the state adhered to the laws of Lycurgus and given oaths, it excelled in Hellas for five hundred years, distinguished by good morals and enjoying a good reputation. However, gradually, as the laws of Lycurgus began to be violated, self-interest and the desire for enrichment penetrated the country, and the power of the state decreased, and the allies, for the same reason, began to be hostile to the Spartans. Such was the state of affairs when, after the victory of Philip at Chaeronea, all the Hellenes proclaimed him commander-in-chief on land and sea, and later, after the destruction of Thebes, recognized his son Alexander. Only the Lacedaemonians,
although their city was not fortified with walls and due to constant wars they had very few people left, so to defeat this state that had lost its military power
it was not difficult at all, only the Lacedaemonians, thanks to the fact that weak sparks of the Lycurgus institutions were still glimmering in Sparta, dared not to accept
participation in the military enterprise of the Macedonians, not to recognize either these or those who ruled in
subsequent years of the Macedonian kings, do not participate in the Sanhedrin and do not pay
foros. They did not depart completely from the Lycurgus institutions until they
own citizens, seizing tyrannical power, did not reject at all Lifestyle ancestors and thus did not bring the Spartans closer to other peoples.
Having abandoned their former glory and the free expression of their thoughts, the Spartans
began to drag out a slave existence, and now, like the rest of the Hellenes, they turned out to be
under Roman rule.

The statue of Leonidas was erected in 1968 in Sparta, Greece.

Ancient Sparta is a city in Laconia, in the Peloponnese in Greece. In ancient times it was a powerful city-state with a famous military tradition. Ancient writers sometimes referred to him as Lacedaemon and his people as the Lacedaemonians.

Sparta reached the height of its power in 404 BC. after the victory over Athens in the second Peloponnesian War. When it was at its height, Sparta had no city walls; its inhabitants seem to have preferred to defend it by hand rather than with a mortar. However, within a few decades after the defeat against Thebans at the Battle of Leuctra, the city found itself reduced to "second class", a status from which it never recovered.

The valor and fearlessness of the warriors of Sparta has inspired the Western world for millennia, and even into the 21st century, it has been included in Hollywood movies like 300 Spartans and the futuristic video game series Halo (where a group of super-soldiers are referred to as "Spartans").

But real story cities are more complex than popular mythology makes. The task of sorting out what is really about the Spartans from what is myth has become more difficult because many of the ancient stories were not written by Spartans. As such, they must be taken with appropriate distrust.

The ruins of an ancient theater sit near the modern city of Sparta, Greece

Early Sparta

Although Sparta was not built until the first millennium BC, recent archaeological discoveries show that early Sparta was an important site at least as early as 3,500 years ago. In 2015, a 10-room palace complex containing ancient records written in a script archaeologists call "linear B" was discovered just 7.5 kilometers (12 kilometers) from where early Sparta was built. Frescoes, a goblet with a bull's head and bronze swords were also found in the palace.

The palace burned down in the 14th century. Supposedly there was an older Spartan city located somewhere around a 3500 year old palace. Sparta was built later. Future excavations may reveal where this older city lies.

It is not clear how many people continued to live in the area after the burning of the palace. Recent studies show that a three-century-long drought was warming Greece around the time the Spartan palace burned down.

Archaeologists know that sometime during the early Iron Age, after 1000 BC, four villages - Limna, Pitana, Mezoa and Chinosura, which are located near what will be the Spartan acropolis, came together to form a new Sparta .

Historian Nigel Kennell writes in The Spartans: A New History (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) that the city's location in the fertile valley of Eurotas gave its inhabitants access to an abundance of food that its local rivals did not experience. Even the name Sparta is a verb meaning "I sowed" or "sow".

Culture of early Sparta

Although early Sparta made efforts to fortify its territory in Laconia, we also know that at this early stage the inhabitants of the city seem to have taken pride in their artistic abilities. Sparta was known for its poetry, culture and it was ceramics, its products were found in places that are so far from Cyrene (in Libya) and the island of Samos, not far from the coast of modern Turkey. Researcher Konstantinos Kopanias notes in his 2009 journal article that before the sixth century B.C. Sparta seems to have held a workshop on Ivory. Surviving elephants from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Sparta depict birds, male and female figures, and even a "tree of life" or "sacred tree".

Poetry was another key early Spartan achievement. “In fact, we have more evidence of poetic activity in Sparta in the seventh century than for any other Greek state, including Athens,” writes historian Chester Starr in a chapter of Sparta (Edinburgh University Press, 2002).

While much of this poetry survives in fragmentary form, and some of it, such as that of Tirtai, reflects the development of the martial values ​​that Sparta became famous for, there is also work that appears to reflect a society devoted to art and not 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". Alcman was a Spartan poet who lived in the seventh century BC.

There is such a thing as retribution from the gods.
Happy is he who, the sound of the mind,
weaving throughout the day
unwept. I sing
the light of Agido. I see
like the sun that
Agido calls to speak and
witness for us. But the glorious choirmaster
forbid me to praise
or blame her. For she seems
outstanding, as if
one placed in the pasture
perfect horse, prize winner with loud hooves,
one of the dreams that live below the rock...

Sparta's war with Messenia

The key event in Sparta's path to becoming a more militaristic society was the conquest of the land of Messenia, located to the west of Sparta, and turning it into slavery.

Kennell points out that this conquest appears to have begun in the eighth century BC, with archaeological evidence from the city of Messene showing that the last evidence of habitation was during the eighth and seventh centuries BC. before the start of the desertion.

The incorporation of people from Messenia into Sparta's slave population was important as it provided Sparta with "the means to maintain the closest to a standing army in Greece", Kennell writes, freeing all of its adult male citizens from the need manual labor.

Keeping this group of slaves under control was a problem that the Spartans could exploit for centuries with some brutal methods. The writer Plutarch claimed that the Spartans used what we might think of as death squads.

“The magistrates from time to time sent into the country for the most part the most reserved young warriors, equipped only with daggers and such accessories as were necessary. During the daytime they dispersed to obscure and well-kept places where they hid and were silent, but at night they went down the highway and killed every Helot they caught."

Spartan education system

Availability a large number The slaves relieved the Spartans of manual labor and allowed Sparta to build a citizen education system that prepared the city's children for the brutality of war.

“At seven years old, a Spartan boy was taken from his mother and raised in the barracks under the eyes of older boys,” writes University of Virginia professor J. E. Landon in his book Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity (Yale University Press, 2005 ). "The boys rebelled to command respect and obedience, they were ill-dressed to make them tough, and they were hungry to make them resistant to hunger..."

If they were too hungry, the boys were encouraged to try stealing (as a way to improve their stealth), but were punished if they were caught.

The Spartans trained rigorously and developed through this system of training until the age of 20, at which time they were allowed to enter the communal order and therefore become a full citizen of the community. Each member is expected to provide a certain amount of food and exercise rigorously.

The Spartans mocked those who could not fight due to disability. “Because of their extreme norms of masculinity, the Spartans were cruel to those who were not capable, rewarding those who were capable despite their transgressions,” wrote Walter Penrose Jr., professor of history at the University of San Diego, in a newspaper published by in 2015 in the Classical World magazine.

Women of Sparta

Girls who are not militarily trained are expected to be physically trained. Physical fitness was considered as important to women as it was to men, and girls took part in races and tests of strength,” writes Sue Blundell in her book Women in ancient greece. This included running, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing. They also knew how to drive horses and rode in two-wheeled chariots.”

According to ancient writers, a Spartan woman even competed in the Olympic Games, at least in chariot competitions. In the fifth century BC, a Spartan princess named Cynitsa (also spelled Kyniska) became the first woman to win the Olympic Games.

“She was extremely ambitious to succeed in the Olympics and was the first woman to breed horses and the first to win an Olympic victory. After Siniscus, other women, especially women from Lacedaemon, won Olympic victories, but none of them was more distinguished for their victories than she, ”wrote the ancient writer Pausanias, who lived in the second century AD.

Kings of Sparta

Sparta developed a system of a double kingdom in time (two kings at once). Their power was balanced by an elected council of ephs (which could only serve one year's term). There was also a Council of Elders (Gerousia), each of whom was over 60 years of age and could serve for life. General meeting, consisting of every citizen, also had the opportunity to vote on legislation.

The legendary legislator Lycurgus is often mentioned in ancient sources, providing the basis for Spartan law. However, Kennell notes that he probably never existed and was in fact a mythical character.

Sparta's war with Persia

Sparta was initially hesitant to engage in 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 threatened King Cyrus, telling him to leave Greek cities at rest. “He should not have harmed any city in Greek territory, otherwise the Lacedaemonians would not attack him,” Herodotus wrote in the fifth century BC.

The Persians did not listen. Darius I's first invasion took place in 492 BC. and was repulsed mainly by an Athenian force at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The second invasion was launched by the Xerxes in 480 BC, the Persians crossing the Hellespont (the narrow strait between the Aegean and Black Seas) and moving south, gaining allies along the way.

Sparta and one of their kings, Leonidas, became the head of an anti-Persian coalition that eventually made the ill-fated position at Thermopylae. Located off the coast, Thermopylae contained a narrow passage that the Greeks blocked and used to stop Xerxes' advance. Ancient sources indicate that Leonidas started the battle with several thousand soldiers (including 300 Spartans). He faced a Persian force many times their size.

Lacedaemonians

The Lacedaemonians fought in a manner that deserves attention, and proved to be much more skillful in combat than their opponents, often turning their backs and making it look as if they were all flying away, on which the barbarians rush after them with great noise and shouting when the Spartans at their approach will be bypassed and brought before the pursuers, thereby destroying great amount enemies.

Eventually, the Greek man showed Xerxes a passage that allowed part of the Persian army to outmaneuver the Greeks and attack them on both flanks. Leonidas was doomed. Many of the troops that were with Leonidas left. According to Herodotus, the Thespians chose to stay with the 300 Spartans of their own free will. Leonidas made his fateful stand and "fought bravely along with many other famous Spartans," writes Herodotus.

Ultimately, the Persians killed almost all of the Spartans. The helots, carried down with the Spartans, were also killed. The Persian army went south, sacking Athens and threatening to infiltrate the Peloponnese. The Greek naval victory at the Battle of Salamis stopped this approach, Persian king Xerxes went home and left the army behind, which would later be destroyed. The Greeks, led by the now dead Leonidas, won.

Peloponnesian War

As the Persian threat receded, the Greeks resumed their intercity rivalry. Two of the most powerful city states were Athens and Sparta, and tensions between them escalated in the decades following the victory over Persia.

In 465/464 BC powerful earthquakes struck Sparta, and the helots took advantage of the situation to revolt. The situation was serious enough that Sparta called on allied cities to help stop it. However, when the Athenians arrived, the Spartans refused their help. This was taken as an insult in Athens and reinforced anti-Spartan views.

The Battle of Tanagra fought in 457 BC heralded a period of conflict between the two cities that went on and on for over 50 years. At times, Athens has proven to have an advantage, such as the Battle of Sphacteria in 425 BC. when, disgustingly, 120 Spartans surrendered.

Nothing that happened in the war surprised the Hellenes as much as this. It was believed that no force or hunger could force the Lacedaemonians to give up their weapons, but they would fight as best they could and die with them in their hands, wrote Thucydides (460-395 BC).

There were periods when Athens was in trouble, such as in 430 BC when the Athenians, who were packed outside the city walls during a Spartan attack, suffered from a plague that killed many people, including their leader Pericles. There have been suggestions that the plague was actually an ancient form of the Ebola virus.

Conflict between Sparta and Athens

Ultimately, the conflict between Sparta and Athens was resolved at sea. While the Athenians enjoyed naval advantage for most of the war, the tide turned when a man named Lysander was named commander of Sparta's fleet. He sought Persian financial support to help the Spartans build their fleet.

He persuaded the Persian king Cyrus to provide him with money. The king had brought with him, he said, five hundred talents, if this amount proved insufficient, he would use his own money which his father had given him, and if that too proved inadequate, he would go so far as to smash the throne on which he sat on silver and gold,” wrote Xenophon (430-355 BC).

With the financial backing of Persians, Lysander built his fleet and trained his sailors. In 405 BC he was in charge of the Athenian fleet at Egospopati, on the Hellespon. He managed to catch them by surprise, winning a decisive victory and cutting off Athens from grain supplies from the Crimea.

Now Athens was forced to make peace under the terms of Sparta.

“The Peloponnesians with great enthusiasm began to tear down the walls [of Athens] with the music of flute girls, thinking that this day was the beginning of freedom for Greece,” wrote Xenophon.

Fall of Sparta

The fall of Sparta began with a series of events and mistakes.

Soon after the victory, the Spartans turned against their Persian supporters and launched an inconclusive campaign in Turkey. Then, in the following decades, the Spartans were forced to campaign on multiple fronts.

In 385 BC the Spartans clashed with the Mantes and used the floods to tear apart their city. " bottom bricks became impregnated and could not support those above them, the wall began to crack at first, and then give way, ”wrote Xenophon. The city was forced to abandon this unorthodox onslaught.

More problems affected the Spartan hegemony. In 378 BC Athens formed a second maritime confederation, a group that challenged Spartan control of the seas. Ultimately, however, the fall of Sparta did not come from Athens, but from a city called Thebes.

Thebes and Sparta

Under the influence of the Spartan king Agesilaus II, relations between the two cities of Thebes and Sparta became increasingly hostile, and in 371 BC. a key battle took place at Leuctra.

The Lacedaemonian force was defeated by Thebes on the field of Leuctra. Although an ally of Sparta during the long Peloponnesian War, Thebes became a conductor of resistance when the victorious Sparta became an evil tyrant in turn, Landon writes. He notes that after peace was negotiated with Athens in 371 BC, Sparta turned its attention to Thebes.

At Leuctra, for reasons unclear, the Spartans sent their cavalry ahead of their phalanx. The Lacedaemonian cavalry was poor because good Spartan warriors still insisted on serving as hoplites [foot soldiers]. The Thebans, on the other hand, had an old cavalry tradition, and their fine horses, much exercised in recent wars, quickly routed the Spartan cavalry and brought them back into the phalanx, throwing them into disarray.

With confusion in the Spartan lines, the slaughter continued.

Clembrutus, fighting in the phalanx like the Spartan kings, was overwhelmed and pulled out of the battle, Landon writes. Other leading Spartans were soon killed in the battle as well. The Theban general Epaminondas is said to have said: Give me one step and we shall have victory!

Of the seven hundred full Spartan citizens, four hundred died in the battle ...

Later history of Sparta

In the following centuries, Sparta, in its reduced state, came under the influence of various powers, including Macedonia (ultimately led by Alexander the Great), the Achaean League (a confederation of Greek cities), and later Rome. During this period of decline, the Spartans were forced to build a city wall for the first time.

There were attempts to restore Sparta to its former military power. The Spartan kings Agis IV (244-241 BC) and later Cleomenes III (235-221 BC) introduced reforms that canceled debt, redistributed land, allowed foreigners and non-citizens to become Spartans, and eventually expanded the civilian corps to 4,000 men. Although the reforms brought about some renewal, Cleomenes III was forced to cede the city to Achaean control. The Ageean League, in turn, along with all of Greece, eventually fell to Rome.

But while Rome controlled the region, the people of Sparta never forgot their history. In the second century AD, the Greek writer Pausanias visited Sparta and noted the presence of a large market.

“The most striking feature in the market is the portico, which they call Persian because it was made from trophies taken from Persian Wars. Over time, they changed it until it was as big and beautiful as it is now. the pillars are white marble figures of the Persians…” he wrote.

He also describes a tomb dedicated to Leonidas, who by this point had died 600 years ago at Thermopylae.

“Opposite the theater there are two tombs, the first is Pausanias, a general in Plataea, the second is Leonidas. Every year they give speeches over them and hold a competition in which no one can compete except the Spartans,” he wrote, “A plate has been created with the names and names of their fathers, from those who survived the fight with Thermopylae against the Persians.”

Ruins of Sparta

Sparta continued into the Middle Ages and, indeed, never got lost. Today, the modern city of Sparta stands beside the ancient ruins, with a population of over 35,000.

Historian Cannell writes that only three sites can be identified with certainty today: the sanctuary of Artemis Orthius next to the Eurotas [river], the temple of Athena Halsiocus (Bronze House) on the acropolis, and an early Roman theater just below.

Indeed, even the ancient writer Thucydides predicted that the ruins of Sparta do not stand out.

Suppose, for example, that the city of Sparta was to become deserted and that only the temples and the foundations of buildings remained, I think that future generations in time would find it very difficult to believe that this place really was as powerful as it was presented.

But Thucydides was only half right. While the ruins of Sparta may not be as impressive as those of Athens, Olympia, or a number of other Greek cities, stories and legends about the Spartans live on. And modern people watching movies, playing video games or studying ancient history, know something about what this legend means.

The Spartan kings considered themselves Heraclids - the descendants of the hero Hercules. Their belligerence became a household name, and quite rightly so: the combat formation of the Spartans was the direct predecessor of the phalanx of Alexander the Great.

The Spartans were very sensitive to signs and prophecies, and carefully listened to the opinion of the Delphic oracle. The cultural heritage of Sparta is not evaluated in the same detail as the Athenian, largely due to the wariness of the warlike people for writing: for example, their laws were transmitted orally, and it was forbidden to write the names of the dead on non-military tombstones.

However, if not for Sparta, the culture of Greece could have been assimilated by foreigners who constantly invaded the territory of Hellas. The fact is that Sparta was actually the only policy in which there was not only a combat-ready army, but whose whole life was subject to the strictest daily routine, designed to discipline the soldiers. The emergence of such a militarized society, the Spartans were due to unique historical circumstances.

During the occupation, they did not subject local population death, but decided to subjugate him and make him slaves, who are known as helots - literally "prisoners". The creation of a colossal slave complex led to inevitable uprisings - already in the 7th century, the helots fought against the enslavers for several years, and this became a lesson for Sparta.

Their laws, created according to legend by the king-legislator named Lycurgus (translated as “working wolf”) back in the 9th century, served to strengthen the further domestic political situation after the conquest of Messenia. The Spartans distributed the lands of the helots among all citizens, and all full-fledged citizens had hoplite weapons and formed the backbone of the army (about 9,000 people in the 7th century - 10 times more than in any other Greek policy). The strengthening of the army, provoked, perhaps, by fear of subsequent uprisings of slaves, contributed to the extraordinary rise in the influence of the Spartans in the region and the formation of a special way of life, characteristic only of Sparta.

For optimal training, boy warriors from the age of seven were sent to centralized state structures for education, and until the age of eighteen they spent time in intense training. It was also a kind of initiation stage: in order to become a full-fledged citizen, one had not only to successfully pass all the years of training, but also, as proof of one's fearlessness, kill a helot alone with a dagger. It is not surprising that the helots constantly had reasons for the next uprisings. The widespread legend about the execution of handicapped Spartan boys or even babies, most likely, has no real historical basis: the policy even had a certain social stratum of “hypomeions”, that is, physically or mentally handicapped “citizens”.