Different Groups Within Spartan Society

 Spartiates

• Original Dorian conquerors of Laconia - the Spartiates never numbered more than 10,000
• Privileged social class, holding all political power
• All equal under the law and all subjected to the same training and discipline
• Forbidden to engage in farming, trade and industry. These were done by Helots and Perioeci
• There were rich and poor Spartiates, but there is some controversy over the existence of a nobility
• Full time soldiers owing total obedience to the state
• The state supported them by giving them an allotment of public land (Kleros) and of Helots
• Lived by a high code of honour that involved courage, loyalty, endurance and obedience

Women

• Emancipated - mingled freely with men and shared their sports, but were excluded from holding public office and did not have the right to vote
• Did not spin or weave - regarded these tasks as fit only for slaves
• Trained to be fit companions, and mothers of warriors and heroes
• Known for natural beauty, strength and grace - forbidden from wearing jewelry, cosmetics and perfume
• Grew up in physical freedom, but modest and careful of health
• Very wealthy, as numbers of men declined in the 5th century, two-fifths of the land came into their hands

Perioeci

"Dwellers around" or "Those on the periphery" - Perioeci were not unique to Sparta

• Dorian in origin - lived in approximately 100 scattered communities in the area controlled by Sparta
• Their villages served as a wall or "buffer zone" against escaping Helots
• Autonomous (self-governing) in their own communities - had local citizenship; owed allegiance to Sparta
• Had no say in formulating Spartan policy
• Were not permitted to marry Spartiates
• Chief contribution to the Spartans was economic - engaged in trade and industry
• Spartan Kings' revenue came from their estates in the lands of the perioeci
• All adult male perioeci were expected to serve as hoplites alongside Spartiates, although not involved in training
• If involved in a case with a Spartiate, were brought before the ephors for trial

Inferiors

Neither slaves nor citizens

• Partheniai
• Illegitimate offspring of Helot mothers and Spartiate fathers
• Neodamodes
• Helots, who for some courageous act or service to the state were given freedom
• Mothoces
• Sons of helots often 'adopted' as playmates of Spartan boys - shared training
• Tresantes
• Spartan peers - cowards who lost citizenship - not necessarily permanently

Helots

• Pre-Dorian inhabitants conquered by Spartans - some Messenians may have been part-Dorian
• State-owned serfs lived with families on lands of Spartiates - could not move without government permission
• Main duty was to supply a fixed amount of produce annually to Spartan masters - free to make a profit once upkeep of Spartans paid for
• Politically and legally had no rights whatsoever - only the state could free them or dispose of them
• Often acted as servants to Spartan soldiers during war - also served as light-armed skirmishers in battle
• Constant threat to Spartan security - were discontented and rebellious; outnumbered the Spartiates approximately 20:1
• Often treated harshly - from time to time killed by the Krypteia to keep them under control; always under suspicion
• A few freed for bravery or service to the state, but had no civic rights - termed neodamodes - however, it was dangerous to show too much bravery

Lyrcurgus: Man or Myth?

 Spartan Society

Spartan society consisted mainly of five different groups:

• Spartiates:
• The main group of the Spartan society. The men who guarded and defended the society
• Spartan Women:
• Equal to the Spartan men and the mothers of warriors
• Perioeci:
• The dwellers on the periphery of Spartan society
• Inferiors:
• The four groups in Spartan society who for some reason were outcasts
• Helots:
• The slave population for the Spartiates, they were feared by the Spartan community due to their rebellious nature

Lycurgus: The questions that should be asked...

1. Who was Lycurgus?
2. Why is he important to Spartan society?
3. What role did he play for the development of Spartan society?
4. Why do historians find Lycurgus problematic?
5. What do the sources say about Lycurgus?
6. How far can we trust the sources on Lycurgus' existence

The Man

So who was Lycurgus?

• (700 BC?-630 BC) he was [supposedly] the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi
• All his reforms were directed towards the three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens), military fitness and austerity

Historian Views

• He is referred to by ancient historians Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plutarch
• It is not clear if this Lycurgus was an actual historical figure; however, many ancient historians believed that Lycurgus was responsible for the communalistic and militaristic reforms which transformed Spartan society
• The most major of his reforms was known as The Great Rhetra. Ancient historians place him in the first half of the 7th century BC

The Great Rhetra

I.

Oh! thou great Lycurgus, that coms't

to my beautiful dwelling, Dear to

Jove, and to all who sit in the halls

of Olympus, Whether to hail thee a 

god I know not, or only a mortal,

But my hope is strong that thou a

god wilt prove, Lycurgus.

II.

Cravest thou Arcady? Bold is thy

craving. I shall not content it.

Many the men that in Arcady

dwell, where food is the acorn.

They will never allow thee. It is not

I that am ungenerous, I will give

thee to dance in Tegea, with noisy

foot-fall. And with the measuring

line mete out the glorious

campaign.

III.

Level and smooth is the plain where

Arcadian Tegea standeth; There two

winds are ever, by strong necessity

blowing, Counter-stroke answers

stroke, and evil lies upon evil. There

all-teeming Earth doth harbour the

son of Atrides; Bring thou him to

thy city, and then be Tegea's master.

IV.

These oracles they from Apollo

heard, And brought from Pytho

home the perfect word; The heaven-

appointed kings, who love the land,

Shall foremost in the nation's council

stand; The elders next o them; the

commons last; Let a straight Rhetra

among all be passed

Plutarch points out in his biography of Lycurgus that:

"One can say absolutely nothing on Lycurgus the Lawgiver which is not prone to controversy: his origin, his travels, his death, and finally the development of his laws and constitution give rise to very different historical accounts"

Lycurgus activity:

1. What claims are made regarding the time period for when Lycurgus lived by
1. Aristotle
• Same time as Iphitus and was his partner in instituting the Olympic truce
2. Eratosthenes and Apollodorus
• He lived a great many years before the First Olympiad
3. Timaeus
• Two Lycurguses at different times who were confused as the same. The older one might have lived close to Homer's time
4. Xenophon
• In the time of the Heraclids (first kings)
2. Who does the poet Simonides state as the father of Lycurgus?
• Prytanis
3. What occurred under the rule of Sous?
• Helots first became slaves and Sparta expanded in to new territory
4. How did the kingly line of Eurypontids come about?
• Named as such after Sous' son, Eurypon, who courted popularity and ingratiated himself with the masses, thereby being the first to relax the "excessively autocratic character of the kingship"
5. How did Sparta come to be a society "gripped by lawlessness and disorder"?
• Ingratiating himself with the masses led to a "bolder attitude on the part of the people" - some succeeding kings were detested for ruling the people by force, while others were "merely tolerated" because their role was either partisan or feeble
6. How, according to Plutarch, did Lycurgus' father die?
• Died from being struck by a chef's cleaver while trying to break up a fight
7. What is the Spartan word for the guardians of kings without fathers?
• Prodikoi
8. How did Lycurgus mislead the wife of Polydectes?
• She was pregnant with the late king's baby, and she told Lycurgus that she would abort the baby on the condition that he would marry her. He told her he would dispose of the child as soon as it was born. He sent observers and guards to be present at the birth and ordered them to bring the child straight to him if it was a boy. When the boy was brought to him, he presented the baby to the magistrates he was dining with and declared him as the king
9. What was the name of the newly born King of Sparta?
• Charilaus
10. Who made the accusation against Lycurgus and why?
• The king's mother felt injured by Lycurgus. Once, her brother Leonidas accused Lycurgus of wanting to become king. By his slander, Leonidas laid the ground for accusing Lycurgus of a plot, should any harm come to the king
11. Where did Lycurgus travel to and what did he learn at each place?
• Crete - where he studied the forms of government and took note of the laws he admired, with the intention of bringing them home and putting them to use
• Asia - he went to compare the frugal, tough way of life in Crete with the extravagance and luxury of Ionia, and to observe the contrast in the ways of life and government. Ionia is also where he allegedly first encountered the poems of Homer
• Egypt - he learned of the Egyptian separation of the warrior class from the others - he carried this over to Sparta
12. Who were the Gymnosophists?
• Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought
13. Why were the kings NOT reluctant to see Lycurgus return?
• They hoped that with his presence they would receive less offence from the people
14. What was the first intention of Lycurgus upon his return to Sparta?
• To sweep away the existing order and to make a complete change of constitution
15. What were the words of the Oracle?
• The oracle called Lycurgus "dear to the Gods" and "a god rather than a man" - he had asked for a Good Order, and she declared that the gods granted this and promised that his constitution would be by far the finest of all
16. When Plutarch makes mention of "God" by the Oracle, who is he referring to?
• Lycurgus
17. Who was Arthmiades?
• Arthmiades is generally named as the one who was particularly associated with Lycurgus in all his operations, and who collaborated with him in formulating legislation
18. Why did King Charilaus seek refuge in the Bronze house?
• King Charilaus thought that the whole action was being concerted against him
19. According to Plato, what was Lycurgus' first innovation? What was it a combination of? What was it intended to fix?
• The institution of the Elders. Its combination with the king's arrogant rule, and the right to an equal vote on the most important matters, produced security and at the same time sound sense
• It was intended to fix the instability of the state, as at one moment it would incline towards kings and virtual tyranny, and at another towards the people and democracy
20. Why, according to Aristotle, were the 28 elders introduced? What is Plutarch's theory on this?
• This number of Elders was instituted because two of Lycurgus' thirty leading associates panicked and abandoned the enterprise
• The total should be thirty when the two kings are included

What the Sources Say...

Theory 1:

• A war veteran - who, with the support of his comrades, managed to become regent or tutor to the Spartan King Charilaus

Theory 2:

• In his beginnings, many of his laws were opposed, particularly by the wealthier men. They collected in a body against Lycurgus, and came to throwing stones, so that he was forced to flee and make sanctuary

Story to link to Theory 2:

He outran all but one, a young man who was known for his haste and ill mannered temperament, named Alcander. When Lycurgus stopped running and turned to see if he was followed, Alcander came up close and hit him in the face with a stick, causing great distress to Lycurgus' eye

Upon showing his damaged face to the protesters, they felt great shame and served Alcander to be punished at Lycurgus' will in order to make amends. Alcander's sentence was to serve as Lycurgus' servant and through that period of time, upon learning the greatness of Lycurgus and his dedication to the people, Alcander eventually became one of Lycurgus' biggest supporters

Institutions

Lycurgus is credited with the formation of many Spartan institutions integral to the country's rise to power

1. He created the sussita/syssitia, the practice that required all Spartan men to eat together in common mess halls
2. His most important addition to Spartan culture was the development of the agoge. The infamous practice took all healthy seven year old boys from the care of their mothers and placed them in a rigorous military regiment
3. More dubiously, Lycurgus is prescribed with forbidding the use of any tools other than an axe and saw in the building of a house

Establishments

Among the reforms attributed to Lycurgus are:

1. The establishment of the gerousia and assembly;
2. The substitution of iron money for gold and silver coinage;
3. The requirement of eating in commons and living (for men under the age of thirty) in rough-hewn barracks;
4. The destruction of the city walls to promote martial skill;
5. Re-dividing Spartan land and forcing it to be worked by Helots; and
6. The system of government that divided power between the King, the Spartan citizenry, the Gerousia, and the Ephors, all in order to establish within his people a free-mind, self-dependence, and temperance

So Legend Says...

According to the legend found in Plutarch's Lives and other sources, when Lycurgus became confident in his reforms, he announced that he would go to the Oracle at Delphi to make a sacrifice to Apollo

However, before leaving for Delphi, he called an assembly of the people of Sparta and made everyone, including the kings and senate, take an oath binding them to observe his laws until he returned. He made the journey to Delphi and consulted the oracle, which told him that his laws were excellent and would make his people famous

He then disappeared from history

One explanation was that being satisfied by this he starved himself to death instead of returning home, forcing the citizens of Sparta to keep his laws indefinitely.

Bertrand Russell states that he is a mythical person of Arcadian origin - his name meaning "He who brings into being the works of a wolf"

Year 2: Introduction to the Greek State: Sparta

 The Greek Polis

• Self governing autonomous society

Features

1. The acropolis - stronghold of community life
2. The town and city were built around the acropolis
3. The villages and countryside
4. The people of the city and countryside
5. The political, cultural, religious and economic life

Structure of Population

• Citizens [adult males] 43,000
• Women and children - 129,000
• Metics [foreign craftsmen] 28,000
• Slaves - 115,000

Citizenship Restrictions

• Adult males - varied depending on the city i.e: Athens = 18yrs; Sparta 30yrs
• Usually both parents had to be born in the city; sometimes only one was necessary

Obligations and Responsibility

• Every citizen was expected to take his political responsibility seriously and to take pride in the affairs of the polis
• This evoked strong feelings of patriotism
• Difficulties - joint union of the Hellenes

1. Geographical location
2. A need to be free and independent
3. Relations marked by commercial jealousies and rivalries, shifting alliances and interstate wars

Forms of Government

1. Monarchy [governance by kings]
2. Aristocracy [group of nobles]
3. Timocracy [group who owed their political power to wealth]

Overthrown Governments

• On many occasions the oligarchies were overthrown and a tyrant would seize control for a short time
• A tyrant would bring with him many benefits before being overthrown himself and replaced by another form of government, either:
• Oligarchy [where a select elite dew control political power] or
• Democracy [where all citizens have the right to vote, to make laws and be elected to official positions]

Sparta: Prehistory

• Sparta is heavily attested in the mythological canon
• Supposedly the first settlement was made by Lacedaemon, a son of Zeus and the nymph Taygete. He married Sparta, the daughter of Eurotas
• These names would then be co-opted by the Spartans - the city would be Sparta, the country Lacedaemon, the fertile river that flowed through the city Eurotas and the impassable mountains that protected the city Taygetos
• Sparta is central to the Trojan Wars. Helen of Troy was originally Helen of Sparta, and it was the Spartan King Menelaus who together with his brother Agamemnon led the Greeks to war
• The Dorian Invasions of the 11th Century BC brought down the Mycenaean civilisation, and with it Sparta slipped into the Dark Ages alongside the rest of Greece
• Herodotus and other classical scholars claim this had been prophesised, as the son of Heracles (Heraclidae) would return to claim their rightful lands
• The next major events attested in Sparta were their invasions of Messenia, and the enslavement of the Messenian population, who became the Helots
• Around the same time, tradition attests that a legendary lawgiver, Lycurgus, brought a sweeping new set of regulations to the Spartan way of life
• The Spartans collectively prescribed themselves to Lyrcurgus' regulations, focused on military training and personal excellence
• Sparta was born

The Poleis of Sparta [Lakedaemonia]

• Sparta itself was not a traditional city but was a collection of 5 villages:
1. Limnai
2. Pitana
3. Kynosaura
4. Mesoa
5. Amyklai
• The city was skirted by Mt Taygetos to the West and Mt Parnon to the East
• The river Eurotas flowed through the valley, providing rich, agricultural land

"Suppose the city of Sparta to be deserted, and nothing left but the temples and the ground-plan, distant ages would be very unwilling to believe that the power of the Lacedaemonians was at all equal to their fame. Their city is not built continuously and has no splendid temples or other edifices; it rather resembles a group of villages, like the ancient towns of Hellas, and would therefore make a poor show" - Thucydides 1.10

DVD Questions

1. What two things are the Spartans famous for?
• Frugality and fighting
2. What was the aim of the Spartan way of life?
• To create the perfect state
3. What was Sparta the first Greek city to do?
• To define the rights and duties of its citizens
4. What city did Agamemnon rule over?
• Mycenae
5. What percentage of land in Greece cannot be farmed?
• 70%
6. What mountains lied to the west of Sparta?
• Taygetos Mountains
7. What temple was built to honour "the legendary king and his wayward wife"?
• Menelaion, in honour of Menelaus and Helen
8. What did the city states of Greece in this period all have in common?
• They were governed by a set of mutually agreed laws and customs
9. How many kings did Sparta have?
• Two
10.  Who were the kings of Sparta supposedly descended from?
• Heracles
11. What does the word "Periocoi" mean?
• Those who live around
12. What does the word "Helot" translate into?
• Captives
13. How was slavery different in Sparta different than elsewhere in Greece?
• The Spartans enslaved other Greeks
14. Who was Tyrtaeus?
• A Spartan soldier and poet
15. Who served as the hoplites in Ancient Greece?
• The citizens
16. Why was hoplite warfare a "team effort"?
• The Phalanx, co-ordination, discipline and trust were vital
17. When were the Messenians finally enslaved by the Spartans?
• 650 BC
18. What was the aim of the Spartans after they had conquered Messenia? What would they model their society on?
• To create a utopia, modelled on the Hoplit

Sources for Ancient Sparta

• One key issue when studying Ancient Sparta is that they did not have a tradition of recording their history
• There are scant fragmentary papyrys from the 6th century of Spartan poets such as Tyrtaeus and Alcman, but that's about it
• Archaeology of Ancient Sparta has also only recently been conducted in any systematic fashion, and what we have found is minimal (there is a reason for that, but we'll get to that later)
• We are therefore left with one option: to use the wealth of written evidence about Sparta from their main rivals: Athens

Plutarch

• One chief source for Sparta is the historian/biographer/philosopher Plutarch
• He wrote a "biography" of Sparta's legendary lawgiver, Lycurgus, that transcends into a broad sociological study of Classical Sparta
• Plutarch was not a contemporary, wring around 120 AD, 500 years after the fall of Classical Sparta
• At this stage, Sparta was a popular tourist destination, where Romans would visit the city to see "Spartans" re-enact traditions from their glorious past - Plutarch himself says he visited Sparta as a tourist
• By this time Sparta had received wide academic study from other Greeks and the Romans, and Plutarch was able to draw upon this tradition to write his work. We know he used contemporary writers such as Xenophon, Thucydides, Aristotle and Plato

Xenophon

• Xenophon lived and wrote at the end of the Peloponnesian War in the late 5th century BC
• He was an Athenian and a student of Socrates, alongside Plato and Alcibiades
• Many of Athens' intellectuals at this stage were laconophiles - literally "Spartan Lovers" - they interpreted the failures of the Athenian democratic system through contrasting them with the seeming impervious system of the Spartans
• Following the Peloponnesian War, Xenophon served as a commander of a mercenary company known as the "Ten Thousand", who accompanied Cyrus the Younger in a civil war against  his brother, Artaxerxes II
• On his campaigns Xenophon endeared himself to the Spartan King Agesilaus and he later moved to Olympia in the Peloponnese to serve as a Spartan ambassador
• He almost definitely visited Sparta, and there is strong evidence his sons went through the agoge, Sparta's harsh educational programme
• His work, the "Politaea of the Spartans" is a systematic appraisal of most aspects of Sparta's society

Aristotle

• Aristotle was not an Athenian, but he was born in Stagira in Northern Greece
• However, he moved to Athens and studied under Plato in the 4th century BC
• At this stage, Sparta had crumbled under her own internal disorders, as well as a succession of military defeats
• The rose-tinted view of many laconophiles in Athens had therefore been shattered, and Aristotle made a clear break from his intellectual predecessors by viewing Sparta through a critical lens
• His work is a series of lecture notes that he delivered to his students

Other Sources

• Thucydides and Herodotus - both contemporaries to Classical Sparta who provide invaluable details
• Plato and Critias - two other students of Aristotle who made important philosophical notes on the Spartans
• Polybius - a second century BC Greek historian who interprets Sparta through a constitutional framework
• Tyrtaeus and Alcman - the two Spartan writers who offer us a sliver of a glimpse into the real Sparta
• Aristophanes - whose plays provide stereotype Spartans that show us how other Greeks viewed the Spartans
• Archaeology - to corroborate everything