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163-671: While Sparta excelled as Greece's greatest power on land, Athens turned to the seas becoming the dominant naval power of the Greek world . Following Sparta's withdrawal from the conflict with Persia , Athens took the lead of the Hellenic alliance accompanied by several states around the Aegean and the Anatolian coast. The Delian League was formed as an anti-Persian defensive association of equal city-states seeking protection under Athens, as

326-467: A free city under Roman rule, some of the institutions of Lycurgus were restored, and the city became a tourist attraction for the Roman elite who came to observe exotic Spartan customs. In 214 AD, Roman emperor Caracalla , in his preparation for his campaign against Parthia , recruited a 500-man Spartan cohort ( lokhos ). Herodian described this unit as a phalanx , implying it fought like

489-592: A second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, taking an enormous (although oft-exaggerated) army and navy to Greece. Those Greeks who chose to resist (the 'Allies') were defeated in the twin simultaneous battles of Thermopylae on land and Artemisium at sea. All of Greece except the Peloponnesus thus having fallen into Persian hands, the Persians then seeking to destroy the Allied navy once and for all, suffered

652-536: A "place in Lacedaemonia" named after Agis. The actual transition may be captured by Isidore of Seville 's Etymologiae (7th century AD), an etymological dictionary . Isidore relied heavily on Orosius ' Historiarum Adversum Paganos (5th century AD) and Eusebius of Caesarea 's Chronicon (early 5th century AD), as did Orosius. The latter defines Sparta to be Lacedaemonia Civitas , but Isidore defines Lacedaemonia as founded by Lacedaemon, son of Semele, which

815-546: A Greek alliance against the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. The decisive Greek victory at Plataea put an end to the Greco-Persian War along with Persian ambitions to expand into Europe. Even though this war was won by a pan-Greek army, credit was given to Sparta, who besides providing the leading forces at Thermopylae and Plataea, had been the de facto leader of the entire Greek expedition. In 464 BC,

978-540: A bid to pacify Ionia, allowing his flank to be protected as he advanced towards the Hellespont and then onto Athens and Eretria. Thence the fleet continued on to the Hellespont, and when all was ready, shipped the land forces across to Europe. The army then marched through Thrace, re-subjugating it, since these lands had already been added to the Persian Empire in 512 BC, during Darius's campaign against

1141-568: A brief time, captured. The Eretrians were enslaved and their city was burned. Finally, the expedition headed to Attica , landing at Marathon , en route to Athens. There, they were met by a smaller Athenian army, which nevertheless proceeded to secure for itself a remarkable victory. This defeat prevented the successful conclusion of the campaign, and the Persian expedition returned to West Asia , though they had fulfilled most of their aims, successfully punishing Naxos and Eretria and bringing much of

1304-505: A client kingdom to Persia; though the latter retaining an amount of autonomy up to 492 BC. Attempts at further expansion into the politically fractious world of Ancient Greece may have been inevitable. However, the Ionian Revolt had directly threatened the integrity of the Persian empire, and the states of mainland Greece remained a potential menace to its future stability. Darius thus resolved to subjugate and pacify Greece and

1467-713: A complete change in Athenian foreign policy, neglecting the alliance with the Spartans and instead allying with her enemies, Argos and Thessaly . Megara deserted the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League and allied herself with Athens, allowing construction of a double line of walls across the Isthmus of Corinth and protecting Athens from attack from that quarter. Roughly a decade earlier, due to encouragement from influential speaker Themistocles ,

1630-484: A considerable number of votive offerings. The city-wall , built in successive stages from the 4th to the 2nd century, was traced for a great part of its circuit, which measured 48 stades or nearly 10 km (6 miles) (Polyb. 1X. 21). The late Roman wall enclosing the acropolis, part of which probably dates from the years following the Gothic raid of 262 AD, was also investigated. Besides the actual buildings discovered,

1793-572: A council of elders known as the Gerousia . The Gerousia consisted of 28 elders over the age of 60, elected for life and usually part of the royal households, and the two kings. High state decisions were discussed by this council, who could then propose policies to the damos , the collective body of Spartan citizenry, who would select one of the alternatives by vote . First Persian invasion of Greece The first Persian invasion of Greece took place from 492 BC to 490 BC, as part of

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1956-540: A debacle, but fearing the worst, the Athenians had by this point already sent an embassy to Artaphernes in Sardis, to request aid from the Persian Empire. Artaphernes requested that the Athenians give him an ' earth and water ', a traditional token of submission, which the Athenian ambassadors acquiesced to. However, they were severely censured for this when they returned to Athens. At some point later Cleomenes instigated

2119-476: A decisive defeat at the Battle of Salamis . The following year, 479 BC, the Allies assembled the largest Greek army yet seen and defeated the Persian invasion force at the Battle of Plataea , ending the invasion and the threat to Greece. The Allied fleet defeated the remnants of the Persian fleet in the Battle of Mycale near the island of Samos—on the same day as Plataea, according to tradition. This action marks

2282-411: A double effect on Greek thought: through the reality, and through the myth.... The reality enabled the Spartans to defeat Athens in war; the myth influenced Plato's political theory, and that of countless subsequent writers.... [The] ideals that it favors had a great part in framing the doctrines of Rousseau , Nietzsche , and National Socialism . The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to

2445-667: A factor; Eretria was a mercantile city, whose trade was threatened by Persian dominance of the Aegean. Herodotus suggests that the Eretrians supported the revolt in order to repay the support the Milesians had given Eretria in a past war against Chalcis . The Athenians and Eretrians sent a task force of 25 triremes to Asia Minor. Whilst there, the Greek army surprised and outmaneuvered Artaphernes, marching to Sardis and there burning

2608-515: A force to capture the city of Byzantion (modern day Istanbul ). The siege was successful, but the behaviour of the Spartan general Pausanias alienated many of the Allies, and resulted in Pausanias's recall. After Byzantion, Sparta was eager to end its involvement in the war. The Spartans greatly feared the rise of the Athenians as a challenge to their power. Additionally, the Spartans were of

2771-735: A key event of 454 BC was the moving of the treasury of the Delian League from Delos to Athens. This is often seen as a key marker of the transition from alliance to empire, but while it is significant, it is important to view the period as a whole when considering the development of Athenian imperialism, and not to focus on a single event as being the main contributor to it. At the start of the Peloponnesian War , only Chios and Lesbos were left to contribute ships, and these states were by now far too weak to secede without support. Lesbos tried to revolt first, and failed completely. Chios,

2934-477: A major lesson for the Greeks was the potential of the hoplite phalanx. This style had developed during internecine warfare amongst the Greeks; since each city-state fought in the same way, the advantages and disadvantages of the hoplite phalanx had not been obvious. Marathon was the first time a phalanx faced more lightly armed troops, and revealed how devastating the hoplites could be in battle. The phalanx formation

3097-406: A means of dividing spoils of war. The members were given a choice of either offering armed forces or paying a tax to the joint treasury; most states chose the tax. League members swore to have the same friends and enemies, and dropped ingots of iron into the sea to symbolize the permanence of their alliance. The Athenian politician Aristides would spend the rest of his life occupied in the affairs of

3260-461: A message to Sparta saying "If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out.", the Spartans responded with the single, terse reply: αἴκα , "if". When Philip created the League of Corinth on the pretext of unifying Greece against Persia, the Spartans chose not to join, since they had no interest in joining a pan-Greek expedition unless it were under Spartan leadership. Thus, upon defeating the Persians at

3423-587: A number of points were situated and mapped in a general study of Spartan topography, based upon the description of Pausanias . In terms of domestic archaeology, little is known about Spartan houses and villages before the Archaic period, but the best evidence comes from excavations at Nichoria in Messenia where postholes have been found. These villages were open and consisted of small and simple houses built with stone foundations and clay walls. The Menelaion

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3586-440: A plot to restore Hippias to the rule of Athens. This failed and Hippias again fled to Sardis and tried to persuade the Persians to subjugate Athens. The Athenians dispatched ambassadors to Artaphernes to dissuade him from taking action, but Artaphernes merely instructed the Athenians to take Hippias back as tyrant. Needless to say, the Athenians balked at this, and resolved instead to be openly at war with Persia. Having thus become

3749-526: A puppet of Sparta by whatever means necessary. However, as a result of this proposal, Cleisthenes and his family were exiled from Athens, in addition to other dissenting elements, by Isagoras. Having been promised democracy however, the Athenian people seized the moment and revolted, expelling Cleomenes and Isagoras. Cleisthenes was thus restored to Athens (507 BC), and at breakneck speed began to establish democratic government. The establishment of democracy revolutionised Athens, which henceforth became one of

3912-669: A result of the so-called Lycurgan Reforms. Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaimonians, chapter 1 In the Second Messenian War , Sparta established itself as a local power in the Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece. During the following centuries, Sparta's reputation as a land-fighting force was unequalled. At its peak around 500 BC, Sparta had some 20,000–35,000 citizens, plus numerous helots and perioikoi. The likely total of 40,000–50,000 made Sparta one of

4075-605: A variant form by Josephus . Jewish historian Uriel Rappaport notes that the relationship between the Jews and the Spartans expressed in this correspondence has "intrigued many scholars, and various explanations have been suggested for the problems raised ... including the historicity of the Jewish leader and high priest Jonathan 's letter to the Spartans, the authenticity of the letter of Arius to Onias, cited in Jonathan's letter, and

4238-464: A vassal harbor, Gytheio , on the Laconian Gulf . Lacedaemon (Greek: Λακεδαίμων ) was a mythical king of Laconia. The son of Zeus by the nymph Taygete , he married Sparta , the daughter of Eurotas , by whom he became the father of Amyclas , Eurydice , and Asine. As king, he named his country after himself and the city after his wife. He was believed to have built the sanctuary of

4401-534: A violent earthquake occurred along the Sparta faultline destroying much of what was Sparta and many other city-states in ancient Greece. This earthquake is marked by scholars as one of the key events that led to the First Peloponnesian War . In later Classical times, Sparta along with Athens , Thebes , and Persia were the main powers fighting for supremacy in the northeastern Mediterranean. In

4564-530: Is a shrine associated with Menelaus , located east of Sparta, by the river Eurotas, on the hill Profitis Ilias ( Coordinates : 37°03′57″N 22°27′13″E  /  37.0659°N 22.4536°E  / 37.0659; 22.4536 ). Built around the early 8th century BC, the Spartans believed it had been the former residence of Menelaus. In 1970, the British School in Athens started excavations around

4727-429: Is around 25,000. The Persian infantry used in the invasion was probably a heterogeneous group drawn from across the empire. However, according to Herodotus, there was at least a general conformity in the type of armour and style of fighting. The troops were, generally speaking, armed with a bow, 'short spear' and sword, carried a wicker shield, and wore at most a leather jerkin. The one exception to this may have been

4890-476: Is consistent with Eusebius' explanation. There is a rare use, perhaps the earliest of "Lacedaemonia", in Diodorus Siculus ' The Library of History, but probably with Χώρα (‘’chōra’’, "country") suppressed. Lakedaimona was until 2006 the name of a province in the modern Greek prefecture of Laconia . Sparta is located in the region of Laconia, in the south-eastern Peloponnese . Ancient Sparta

5053-423: Is described as "the country of lovely women", an epithet for people. The residents of Sparta were often called Lacedaemonians. This epithet utilized the plural of the adjective Lacedaemonius (Greek: Λακεδαιμόνιοι ; Latin: Lacedaemonii , but also Lacedaemones ). The ancients sometimes used a back-formation , referring to the land of Lacedaemon as Lacedaemonian country . As most words for "country" were feminine,

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5216-505: Is difficult to reconstruct because the literary evidence was written far later than the events it describes and is distorted by oral tradition. The earliest certain evidence of human settlement in the region of Sparta consists of pottery dating from the Middle Neolithic period, found in the vicinity of Kouphovouno some two kilometres (1.2 miles) south-southwest of Sparta. This civilization seems to have fallen into decline by

5379-505: Is no indication in the historical sources of how many transport ships accompanied them, if any. Herodotus claimed that 3,000 transport ships accompanied 1,207 triremes during Xerxes 's invasion in 480 BC. Among modern historians, some have accepted this number of ships as reasonable; it has been suggested either that the number 600 represents the combined number of triremes and transport ships, or that there were horse transports in addition to 600 triremes. Herodotus does not estimate

5542-699: Is the capital of the southern Greek region of Laconia and a center for processing citrus and olives. Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution , which were supposedly introduced by the semi-mythical legislator Lycurgus . His laws configured the Spartan society to maximize military proficiency at all costs, focusing all social institutions on military training and physical development. The inhabitants of Sparta were stratified as Spartiates (citizens with full rights), mothakes (free non-Spartiate people descended from Spartans), perioikoi (free non-Spartiates), and helots (state-owned enslaved non-Spartan locals). Spartiate men underwent

5705-463: Is unclear in Herodotus' text and has been interpreted in a number of ways). Aristotle describes the kingship at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship" (Pol. iii. 1285a), while Isocrates refers to the Spartans as "subject to an oligarchy at home, to a kingship on campaign" (iii. 24). Civil and criminal cases were decided by a group of officials known as the ephors , as well as

5868-727: The Achaean League in 192 BC. The city nevertheless recovered much autonomy after the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC and prospered during the Roman Empire , as its antiquarian customs attracted many Roman tourists. However, Sparta was sacked in 396 AD by the Visigothic king Alaric , and underwent a long period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages , when many of its citizens moved to Mystras . Modern Sparta

6031-555: The Aegean under Persian rule, as well as fully integrating Macedon. The unfinished business from this campaign led Darius to prepare for a much larger invasion of Greece, aimed at firmly subjugating it and punishing Athens and Sparta. However, internal strife within the Achaemenid Empire delayed this expedition, and Darius then died of old age. It was thus left to his son Xerxes I to lead the second Persian invasion of Greece , which began in 480 BC. The main source for

6194-1000: The Arcadian Achaeans to the northwest. The evidence suggests that Sparta, relatively inaccessible because of the topography of the Taygetan plain, was secure from early on: it was never fortified. Nothing distinctive in the archaeology of the Eurotas River Valley identifies the Dorians or the Dorian Spartan state. The prehistory of the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the Dark Age (the Early Iron Age) at this moment must be treated apart from

6357-626: The Battle of the Granicus , Alexander the Great sent to Athens 300 suits of Persian armour with the following inscription: "Alexander, son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the Spartans, give these offerings taken from the foreigners who live in Asia". Sparta continued to be one of the Peloponesian powers until its eventual loss of independence in 192 BC. During Alexander's campaigns in the east,

6520-596: The Charites , which stood between Sparta and Amyclae , and to have given to those divinities the names of Cleta and Phaenna . A shrine was erected to him in the neighborhood of Therapne . Tyrtaeus , an archaic era Spartan writer, is the earliest source to connect the origin myth of the Spartans to the lineage of the hero Heracles ; later authors, such as Diodorus Siculus , Herodotus, and Apollodorus , also made mention of Spartans understanding themselves to be descendants of Heracles. Thucydides wrote: Suppose

6683-585: The Corinthian War , Sparta faced a coalition of the leading Greek states: Thebes , Athens , Corinth , and Argos . The alliance was initially backed by Persia, which feared further Spartan expansion into Asia. Sparta achieved a series of land victories, but many of her ships were destroyed at the Battle of Cnidus by a Greek-Phoenician mercenary fleet that Persia had provided to Athens. The event severely damaged Sparta's naval power but did not end its aspirations of invading further into Persia, until Conon

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6846-538: The Greco-Persian Wars . It ended with a decisive Athenian -led victory over the Achaemenid Empire during the Battle of Marathon . Consisting of two distinct campaigns, the invasion of the independent Greek city-states was ordered by the Persian king Darius the Great , who sought to punish Athens and Eretria after they had supported the earlier Ionian Revolt . Additionally, Darius also saw

7009-534: The Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne , in contrast to the lower town of Sparta. This term could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it denoted the terrain in which the city was located. In Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside: wide, lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken (full of ravines), suggesting the Eurotas Valley . "Sparta" on the other hand

7172-565: The Peloponnesian War broke out. Those who revolted unsuccessfully during the war saw the example made of the Mytilenians , the principal people on Lesbos . After an unsuccessful revolt, the Athenians ordered the death of the entire male population. After some thought, they rescinded this order, and only put to death the leading 1000 ringleaders of the revolt, and redistributed the land of the entire island to Athenian shareholders, who were sent out to reside on Lesbos. This type of treatment

7335-625: The Peloponnesian league . With the withdrawal of these states, a congress was called on the holy island of Delos to institute a new alliance to continue the fight against the Persians; hence the modern designation "Delian League". According to Thucydides, the official aim of the League was to "avenge the wrongs they suffered by ravaging the territory of the king." In reality, this goal was divided into three main efforts—to prepare for future invasion, to seek revenge against Persia, and to organize

7498-431: The siege of Sestos ), and therefore evidently felt that Herodotus's history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. Plutarch criticised Herodotus in his essay "On The Malignity of Herodotus", describing Herodotus as " Philobarbaros " (barbarian-lover), for not being pro-Greek enough, which suggests that Herodotus might actually have done a reasonable job of being even-handed. A negative view of Herodotus

7661-462: The 1st century BC in his Bibliotheca Historica , also provides an account of the Greco-Persian wars, partially derived from the earlier Greek historian Ephorus . This account is fairly consistent with Herodotus's. The Greco-Persian wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias of Cnidus , and are alluded by other authors, such as

7824-625: The Aegean, and to punish those involved in the Ionian Revolt. The Ionian revolt had begun with an unsuccessful expedition against Naxos , a joint venture between the Persian satrap Artaphernes and the Miletus tyrant Aristagoras . In the aftermath, Artaphernes decided to remove Aristagoras from power, but before he could do so, Aristagoras abdicated, and declared Miletus a democracy. The other Ionian cities, ripe for rebellion, followed suit, ejecting their Persian-appointed tyrants, and declaring themselves democracies. Aristagoras then appealed to

7987-586: The Aeginetans personally, but they appealed to Cleomenes's fellow king Demaratus , who supported their stance. Cleomenes responded by having Demaratus declared illegitimate, with the help of the priests at Delphi (whom he bribed); Demaratus was replaced by his cousin Leotychides . Now faced with two Spartan kings, the Aeginetans capitulated, and handed over hostages to the Athenians as a guarantee of their good behaviour. However, in Sparta news emerged of

8150-589: The Athenian commander at Mycale, had furiously rejected this; the Ionian cities had been Athenian colonies, and the Athenians, if no one else, would protect the Ionians. This marked the point at which the leadership of the Greek alliance effectively passed to the Athenians. With the Spartan withdrawal after Byzantion, the leadership of the Athenians became explicit. The loose alliance of city states which had fought against Xerxes's invasion had been dominated by Sparta and

8313-539: The Athenian ravaged the Spartan coastline and provoked the old Spartan fear of a helot revolt. After a few more years of fighting, in 387 BC the Peace of Antalcidas was established, according to which all Greek cities of Ionia would return to Persian control, and Persia's Asian border would be free of the Spartan threat. The effects of the war were to reaffirm Persia's ability to interfere successfully in Greek politics and to affirm Sparta's weakened hegemonic position in

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8476-399: The Athenians (for reasons that are not completely clear) decided to attack the Persians. Despite the numerical advantage of the Persians, the hoplites proved devastatingly effective, routing the Persians wings before turning in on the centre of the Persian line; the remnants of the Persian army left the battle and fled to their ships. Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on

8639-417: The Athenians and Plataeans prevailed. In victory they let the routed foreigners flee, and brought the wings together to fight those who had broken through the center. The Athenians prevailed, then followed the fleeing Persians and struck them down. When they reached the sea they demanded fire and laid hold of the Persian ships. Estimates for the cavalry are usually in the 1,000–3,000 range. The Persian cavalry

8802-721: The Athenians had also constructed the Long Walls connecting their city to the Piraeus , its port, making it effectively invulnerable to attack by land. In 454 BC, the Athenian general Pericles moved the Delian League's treasury from Delos to Athens, allegedly to keep it safe from Persia. However, Plutarch indicates that many of Pericles's rivals viewed the transfer to Athens as usurping monetary resources to fund elaborate building projects. Athens also switched from accepting ships, men and weapons as dues from league members, to only accepting money. The new treasury established in Athens

8965-497: The Athenians were not the old popular rulers they had been at first; and if they had more than their fair share of service, it was correspondingly easy for them to reduce any that tried to leave the confederacy. The Athenians also arranged for the other members of the league to pay its share of the expense in money instead of in ships and men, and for this the subject city-states had themselves to blame, their wish to get out of giving service making most leave their homes. Thus while Athens

9128-483: The Brygians were defeated and subjugated, before leading his army back to the Hellespont; the remnants of the navy also retreated to Asia. Although this campaign ended ingloriously, the land approaches to Greece had been secured, and the Greeks had no doubt been made aware of Darius's intentions for them. Perhaps reasoning that the expedition of the previous year may have made his plans for Greece obvious, and weakened

9291-538: The Cycladic islands had been resubjugated into the Persian empire, and Macedon reduced to a subordinate kingdom part of the empire; since the late 6th century BC they had been vassals of the Persians, but remained having a broad scope of autonomy. Darius was still fully intent on conquering Greece, to secure the western part of his empire. Moreover, Athens remained unpunished for its role in the Ionian Revolt, and both Athens and Sparta were unpunished for their treatment of

9454-598: The Delian League prompted the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War ; the League was dissolved upon the war's conclusion in 404 BC under the direction of Lysander , the Spartan commander. Witnessing Sparta's growing hegemony in the first half of the 4th century BC, Athens went on to partly revive the alliance, this time called the Second Athenian League , reestablishing its naval dominance in the eastern Mediterranean . The Greco-Persian Wars had their roots in

9617-608: The Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus . Herodotus, who has been called the 'Father of History', was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus , Asia Minor (then under Persian overlordship). He wrote his 'Enquiries' (Greek— Historia ; English— (The) Histories ) around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which would still have been relatively recent history (the wars finally ending in 450 BC). Herodotus's approach

9780-404: The Greek political system. Sparta entered its long-term decline after a severe military defeat to Epaminondas of Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra . This was the first time that a full strength Spartan army lost a land battle. As Spartan citizenship was inherited by blood, Sparta increasingly faced a helot population that vastly outnumbered its citizens. The alarming decline of Spartan citizens

9943-597: The Hellenes called Inaros and Amyrtaeus , who requested aid from Athens. Pericles led 250 ships, intended to attack Cyprus , to their aid because it would further damage Persia. After four years, however, the Egyptian rebellion was defeated by the Achaemenid general Megabyzus , who captured the greater part of the Athenian forces. In fact, according to Isocrates, the Athenians and their allies lost some 20,000 men in

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10106-519: The Ionian Revolt, and by 493 BC, the last hold-outs were vanquished by the Persian fleet. The revolt was used as an opportunity by Darius to extend the empire's border to the islands of the East Aegean and the Propontis , which had not been part of the Persian dominions before. The completion of the pacification of Ionia allowed the Persians to begin planning their next moves; to extinguish

10269-402: The Ionian city-states which bordered it. The members of the Delian League were made to swear an oath of loyalty to the league and contributed mostly monetarily but in some instances donated ships or other forces. It was also the case that many democratic members of the League owed their freedom from oligarchic or tyrannical rule to Athens. Because of this, Athens gained an overwhelming advantage in

10432-571: The League through judicial decisions. Synoecism under the Athenian Empire was enforced by resolving matters of and between states in Athens by courts composed of Athenian citizens and enforcing those decisions through the Athenian military. In the first ten years of the league's existence, Cimon/Kimon forced Karystos in Euboea to join the league, conquered the island of Skyros and sent Athenian colonists there. Over time, especially with

10595-459: The League's funds for its own purposes, like the reinforcement of its naval supremacy, which led to conflicts between the city and its less powerful allies, at times culminating in rebellions, like that of Thasos in 465 BC. The League's treasury initially stood in Delos until, in a symbolic gesture, Pericles moved it to Athens in 454 BC. By 431 BC, the threat that the League presented to Spartan hegemony combined with Athens's heavy-handed control of

10758-409: The League's vast territory. Furthermore, Pericles employed a number of offices to maintain Athens' empire: proxenoi , who fostered good relations between Athens and League members; episkopoi and archontes , who oversaw the collection of tribute; and hellenotamiai , who received the tribute on Athens' behalf. Athens's empire was not very stable and after 27 years of war, the Spartans, aided by

10921-410: The Menelaion in an attempt to locate Mycenaean remains in the area. Among other findings, they uncovered the remains of two Mycenaean mansions and found the first offerings dedicated to Helen and Menelaus. These mansions were destroyed by earthquake and fire, and archaeologists consider them the possible palace of Menelaus himself. Excavations made from the early 1990s to the present suggest that

11084-407: The Persian ambassadors. Darius therefore began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. Darius then died whilst preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I. Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and very quickly restarted

11247-401: The Persian force sailed from Cilicia firstly to the island of Rhodes . A Lindian Temple Chronicle records that Datis besieged the city of Lindos , but was unsuccessful. The fleet then moved north along the Ionian coast towards Samos , before turning west into the Aegean Sea. The fleet sailed next to Naxos, in order to punish the Naxians for their resistance to the failed expedition that

11410-509: The Persian invasion from their deposed king Demaratus , which prompted them to consult the Delphic oracle. According to Herodotus, the Pythia proclaimed that either one of the kings of Sparta had to die or Sparta would be destroyed. This prophecy was fulfilled after king Leonidas died in the battle. The superior weaponry, strategy, and bronze armour of the Greek hoplites and their phalanx fighting formation again proved their worth one year later when Sparta assembled its full strength and led

11573-451: The Persians and Athenian internal strife, were able to defeat it. However, it did not remain defeated for long. The Second Athenian League , a maritime self-defense league, was founded in 377 BC and was led by Athens. The Athenians would never recover the full extent of their power, and their enemies were now far stronger and more varied. Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece . In antiquity,

11736-411: The Persians attacked the walls, with losses on both sides; however, on the seventh day two reputable Eretrians opened the gates and betrayed the city to the Persians. The city was razed, and temples and shrines were looted and burned. Furthermore, according to Darius's commands, the Persians enslaved all the remaining townspeople. The Persian fleet next headed south down the coast of Attica, landing at

11899-446: The Persians from securing a landing, and seeing that the opportunity was lost, the Persians turned about and returned to Asia. On the next day, the Spartan army arrived, having covered the 220 kilometers (140 mi) in only three days. The Spartans toured the battlefield at Marathon, and agreed that the Athenians had won a great victory. The defeat at Marathon ended for the time being the Persian invasion of Greece. However, Thrace and

12062-525: The Persians had mounted there a decade earlier. Many of the inhabitants fled to the mountains; according to Herodotus, those that the Persians caught were enslaved. The Persians then burnt the city and temples of the Naxians. Moving on, the Persian fleet approached Delos , whereupon the Delians also fled from their homes. Having demonstrated Persian power at Naxos, Datis now intended to show clemency to

12225-400: The Persians was probably to stand off from an enemy, using their bows (or equivalent) to wear down the enemy before closing in to deliver the coup de grace with spear and sword. They fought a long time at Marathon. In the center of the line the foreigners prevailed, where the Persians and Sacae were arrayed. The foreigners prevailed there and broke through in pursuit inland, but on each wing

12388-512: The Persians, Darius ordered a further military campaign for the following year. The second Persian campaign, in 490 BC, was led by the Persian commanders Datis and Artaphernes . The expedition headed first to Naxos , which was captured and burned, and then leapfrogged between the rest of the Cycladic Islands , annexing each of them into the Achaemenid Empire. Reaching Greece, they landed at Eretria, which they besieged, and after

12551-478: The Persians. The task force then sailed around Euboea to the first major target, Eretria. According to Herodotus, the Eretrians were divided amongst themselves as to the best course of action; whether to flee to the highlands, or undergo a siege, or to submit to the Persians. In the event, the majority decision was to remain in the city. The Eretrians made no attempt to stop the Persians landing, or advancing, and thus allowed themselves to be besieged. For six days

12714-603: The Scythians . Upon reaching Macedon , the Persians forced it to become a fully subordinate part of the Persian Empire; they had been vassals of the Persians since the late 6th century BC, but retained their general autonomy. Meanwhile, the fleet crossed to Thasos , resulting in the Thasians submitting to the Persians. The fleet then rounded the coastline as far as Acanthus in Chalcidice , before attempting to round

12877-442: The Spartan army march to Athens' aid. Pheidippides arrived during the festival of Carneia , a sacrosanct period of peace, and was informed that the Spartan army could not march to war until the full moon rose; Athens could not expect reinforcement for at least ten days. They decided to hold out at Marathon for the time being, and they were reinforced by a contingent of hoplites from Plataea. Stalemate ensued for five days, before

13040-468: The Spartan city-state and its location. First, "Sparta" refers primarily to the main cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River . The second word, "Lacedaemon" ( Λακεδαίμων ), was often used as an adjective and is the name referenced in the works of Homer and the historians Herodotus and Thucydides . The third term, "Laconice" ( Λακωνική ), referred to the immediate area around

13203-624: The Spartan king Agis III sent a force to Crete in 333 BC to secure the island for the Persian interest. Agis next took command of allied Greek forces against Macedon, gaining early successes, before laying siege to Megalopolis in 331 BC. A large Macedonian army under general Antipater marched to its relief and defeated the Spartan-led force in a pitched battle. More than 5,300 of the Spartans and their allies were killed in battle, and 3,500 of Antipater's troops. Agis, now wounded and unable to stand, ordered his men to leave him behind to face

13366-553: The Spartans: Areus king of the Lacedemonians to Onias the high priest, greeting: It is found in writing, that the Lacedemonians and Jews are brethren, and that they are of the stock of Abraham : Now therefore, since this is come to our knowledge, ye shall do well to write unto us of your prosperity. We do write back again to you, that your cattle and goods are ours, and ours are yours. The letters are reproduced in

13529-550: The actions of the tyrant of Miletus , Aristagoras . Attempting to save himself after a disastrous Persian-sponsored expedition in 499 BC, Aristagoras chose to declare Miletus a democracy. This triggered similar revolutions across Ionia, extending to Doris and Aeolis , beginning the Ionian Revolt . The Greek states of Athens and Eretria allowed themselves to be drawn into this conflict by Aristagoras, and during their only campaigning season (498 BC) they contributed to

13692-465: The adjective was in the feminine: Lacedaemonia ( Λακεδαιμονία , Lakedaimonia ). Eventually, the adjective came to be used alone. "Lacedaemonia" was not in general use during the classical period and before. It does occur in Greek as an equivalent of Laconia and Messenia during the Roman and early Byzantine periods, mostly in ethnographers and lexica of place names. For example, Hesychius of Alexandria 's Lexicon (5th century AD) defines Agiadae as

13855-520: The advancing Macedonian army so that he could buy them time to retreat. On his knees, the Spartan king slew several enemy soldiers before being finally killed by a javelin. Alexander was merciful, and he only forced the Spartans to join the League of Corinth, which they had previously refused. During the Punic Wars , Sparta was an ally of the Roman Republic . Spartan political independence

14018-550: The alliance, dying (according to Plutarch ) a few years later in Pontus, whilst determining what the tax of new members was to be. The Delian League, also known as the Athenian Empire, was a collection of Greek city-states largely based around the Aegean Sea which operated under the hegemony of Athens. This alliance initially served the purpose of coordinating a united Greek front against a perceived looming Persian threat against

14181-436: The altar of Apollo on Delos, to show his respect for one of the gods of the island. The fleet then proceeded to island-hop across the rest of Aegean on its way to Eretria, taking hostages and troops from each island. The Persians finally arrived off the southern tip of Euboea, at Karystos . The citizens of Karystos refused to give hostages to the Persians, so they were besieged, and their land ravaged, until they submitted to

14344-583: The area around the Menelaion in the southern part of the Eurotas valley seems to have been the center of Mycenaean Laconia . The Mycenaean settlement was roughly triangular in shape, with its apex pointed towards the north. Its area was approximately equal to that of the "newer" Sparta, but denudation has wreaked havoc with its buildings and nothing is left of its original structures save for ruined foundations and broken potsherds . The prehistory of Sparta

14507-406: The army to march to the Hellespont, whilst he travelled with the fleet. He sailed round the coast of Asia Minor to Ionia, where he spent a short time abolishing the tyrannies that ruled the cities of Ionia. Ironically, since the establishment of democracies had been a key factor in the Ionian Revolt, he replaced the tyrannies with democracies. Mardonius' establishment of democracy here can be seen as

14670-542: The battle effectively marks the start of a 'golden age' for Athens. This was also applicable to Greece as a whole; "their victory endowed the Greeks with a faith in their destiny that was to endure for three centuries, during which western culture was born". John Stuart Mill 's famous opinion was that "the Battle of Marathon, even as an event in British history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings ". Militarily,

14833-423: The battle-lines for the coming conflict; Sparta and Athens, despite their recent enmity, would together fight the Persians. However, Sparta was then thrown into disarray by internal machinations. The citizens of Aegina had submitted to the Persian ambassadors, and the Athenians, troubled by the possibility of Persia using Aegina as a naval base, asked Sparta to intervene. Cleomenes travelled to Aegina to confront

14996-520: The battlefield; the Athenians lost just 192 men and the Plataeans 11. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, Herodotus says that the Persian fleet sailed around Cape Sunium to attack Athens directly, although some modern historians place this attempt just before the battle. Either way, the Athenians evidently realised that their city was still under threat, and marched as quickly as possible back to Athens. The Athenians arrived in time to prevent

15159-403: The bay of Marathon, roughly forty kilometres (25 mi) from Athens, on the advice of Hippias, son of the former tyrant of Athens, Peisistratus. The Athenians, joined by a small force from Plataea , marched to Marathon, and succeeded in blocking the two exits from the plain of Marathon. At the same time, Athens' greatest runner, Pheidippides (or Philippides) was sent to Sparta to request that

15322-412: The blockade of Citium , though the fleet won a double victory by land and sea over the Persians off Salamis, Cyprus . This battle was the last major one fought against the Persians. Many writers report that a peace treaty, known as the Peace of Callias , was formalized in 450 BC, but some writers believe that the treaty was a myth created later to inflate the stature of Athens. However, an understanding

15485-423: The bribes Cleomenes had given at Delphi, and he was expelled from the city. He then sought to rally the northern Peloponnesus to his cause, at which the Spartans relented, and invited him back to the city. By 491 BC though, Cleomenes was widely considered insane and was sentenced to prison where he was found dead the following day. Cleomenes was succeeded by his half-brother Leonidas I . Taking advantage of

15648-461: The capture and burning of the Persian regional capital of Sardis . After this, the Ionian revolt carried on (without further outside aid) for a further five years, until it was finally completely crushed by the Persians. However, in a decision of great historic significance, the Persian king Darius the Great decided that, despite having subdued the revolt, there remained the unfinished business of exacting punishment on Athens and Eretria for supporting

15811-538: The chaos in Sparta, which effectively left Athens isolated, Darius decided to launch an amphibious expedition to finally punish Athens and Eretria. An army was assembled in Susa , and marched into Cilicia , where a fleet had been gathered. Command of the expedition was given to Datis the Mede and Artaphernes , son of the satrap Artaphernes . According to Herodotus, the fleet sent by Darius consisted of 600 triremes. There

15974-477: 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. Until

16137-457: The city-state was known as Lacedaemon ( Λακεδαίμων , Lakedaímōn ), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in the Eurotas valley of Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese . Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece. Given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the leading force of

16300-418: The coalition. The Delian League successfully accomplished its principal strategic goal by decisively expelling the remaining Persian forces from the Aegean. As a result, Persia would cease to pose a major threat to Greece for the following fifty years. From its inception, Athens became the League's biggest source of military power, while more and more allies preferred to pay the dues in cash. Athens began to use

16463-468: The colony of Amphipolis on the Strymon river. Thasos , a member of the League, saw her interests in the mines of Mt. Pangaion threatened and defected from the League to Persia. She called to Sparta for assistance but was denied, as Sparta was facing the largest helot revolt in its history. After more than two years of siege, Thasos surrendered to the Athenian leader Aristides and was forced back into

16626-606: The conquest of the Greek cities of Asia Minor , and particularly Ionia , by the Achaemenid Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great shortly after 550 BC. The Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule, eventually settling for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city. While Greek states had in the past often been ruled by tyrants, this form of government was on the decline. By 500 BC, Ionia appears to have been ripe for rebellion against these Persian clients . The simmering tension finally broke into open revolt due to

16789-535: The course of the Peloponnesian War , Sparta, a traditional land power, acquired a navy which managed to overpower the previously dominant flotilla of Athens, ending the Athenian Empire . At the peak of its power in the early 4th century BC, Sparta had subdued many of the main Greek states and even invaded the Persian provinces in Anatolia (modern day Turkey), a period known as the Spartan hegemony . During

16952-605: The early 20th century, the chief ancient buildings at Sparta were the theatre , of which, however, little showed above ground except portions of the retaining walls ; the so-called Tomb of Leonidas , a quadrangular building, perhaps a temple, constructed of immense blocks of stone and containing two chambers; the foundation of an ancient bridge over the Eurotas; the ruins of a circular structure; some remains of late Roman fortifications ; several brick buildings and mosaic pavements. The remaining archaeological wealth consisted of inscriptions, sculptures, and other objects collected in

17115-478: The end of the Persian invasion, and the beginning of the next phase in the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek counterattack . After Mycale, the Greek cities of Asia Minor again revolted, with the Persians now powerless to stop them. The Allied fleet then sailed to the Thracian Chersonese , still held by the Persians, and besieged and captured the town of Sestos . The following year, 478 BC, the Allies sent

17278-480: The enemy of Persia, Athens was already in a position to support the Ionian cities when they began their revolt. The fact that the Ionian democracies were inspired by the example of Athens no doubt further persuaded the Athenians to support the Ionian Revolt; especially since the cities of Ionia were (supposedly) originally Athenian colonies. The city of Eretria also sent assistance to the Ionians for reasons that are not completely clear. Possibly commercial reasons were

17441-436: The enormous resources of the Persian empire. Yet, for the Greeks, it was an enormously significant victory. It was the first time that Greeks had beaten the Persians, and showed them that the Persians were not invincible, and that resistance, rather than subjugation, was possible. The victory at Marathon was a defining moment for the young Athenian democracy, showing what might be achieved through unity and self-belief; indeed,

17604-521: The ethnic Persian troops, who may have worn a corslet of scale armour . Some contingents would have been armed somewhat differently; for instance, the Saka were renowned axemen. The 'elite' contingents of the Persian infantry seem to have been the ethnic Persians, Medians , Cissians and the Saka; Herodotus specifically mentions the presence of Persians and Saka at Marathon. The style of fighting used by

17767-547: The expedition, while modern estimates place the figure at 50,000 men and 250 ships including reinforcements. The remainder escaped to Cyrene and thence returned home. This was the Athenians' main (public) reason for moving the treasury of the League from Delos to Athens, further consolidating their control over the League. The Persians followed up their victory by sending a fleet to re-establish their control over Cyprus , and 200 ships were sent out to counter them under Cimon , who returned from ostracism in 451 BC. He died during

17930-402: The family had ruled for 36 out of the previous 50 years and fully intended to continue Hippias's rule. Hippias fled to Sardis to the court of the Persian satrap , Artaphernes , and promised control of Athens to the Persians if they were to help restore him. In the meantime, Cleomenes helped install a pro-Spartan tyranny under Isagoras in Athens, in opposition to Cleisthenes , the leader of

18093-457: The famous flogging ordeal administered to Spartan boys ( diamastigosis ). The temple, which can be dated to the 2nd century BC, rests on the foundation of an older temple of the 6th century, and close beside it were found the remains of a yet earlier temple, dating from the 9th or even the 10th century. The votive offerings in clay, amber, bronze, ivory and lead dating from the 9th to the 4th centuries BC, which were found in great profusion within

18256-479: The first credible history. Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC the Spartans experienced a period of lawlessness and civil strife, later attested by both Herodotus and Thucydides. As a result, they carried out a series of political and social reforms of their own society which they later attributed to a semi-mythical lawgiver, Lycurgus . Several writers throughout antiquity, including Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plutarch have attempted to explain Spartan exceptionalism as

18419-460: The following year excavations were made at Thalamae , Geronthrae , and Angelona near Monemvasia . In 1906, excavations began in Sparta itself. A "small circus" (as described by Leake ) proved to be a theatre-like building constructed soon after 200 AD around the altar and in front of the Temple of Artemis Orthia . It is believed that musical and gymnastic contests took place here, as well as

18582-546: The headland of Mount Athos . However, they were caught in a violent storm, which drove them against the coastline of Athos, wrecking (according to Herodotus) 300 ships, with the loss of 20,000 men. Then, whilst the army was camped in Macedon, the Brygians , a local Thracian tribe, launched a night raid against the Persian camp, killing many of the Persians, and wounding Mardonius. Despite his injury, Mardonius made sure that

18745-462: The kings were primarily religious, judicial, and military. As chief priests of the state, they maintained communication with the Delphian sanctuary, whose pronouncements exercised great authority in Spartan politics. In the time of Herodotus c. 450 BC, their judicial functions had been restricted to cases dealing with heiresses ( epikleroi ), adoptions and the public roads (the meaning of the last term

18908-470: The larger Greek city-states; however, according to Thucydides, the population of Athens in 431 BC was 360,000–610,000, making it much larger. In 480 BC, a small force led by King Leonidas (about 300 full Spartiates, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans, although these numbers were lessened by earlier casualties ) made a legendary last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, led by Xerxes . The Spartans received advance warning of

19071-541: The late Bronze Age , when, according to Herodotus, Macedonian tribes from the north (called Dorians by those they conquered) marched into the Peloponnese and, subjugating the local tribes, settled there. The Dorians seem to have set about expanding the frontiers of Spartan territory almost before they had established their own state. They fought against the Argive Dorians to the east and southeast, and also

19234-483: The late 6th century BC—probably in 512 BC. However, further progress was prevented when Mardonius' fleet was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Mount Athos . The following year, having demonstrated his intentions, Darius sent envoys to all parts of Greece, demanding their submission . He received it from almost all of them, but not from Athens and Sparta , both of which executed the envoys sent to them. With Athens still defiant, and Sparta now effectively at war with

19397-483: The latter wished to extend its support towards the Ionian Greek colonies of Anatolia. By the mid-fifth century BC, the alliance had developed into a naval imperial power, called the Athenian Empire , where Athens established complete dominion and the allies became increasingly less autonomous. The alliance held an assembly of representatives in order to shape its policy, while the members swore an oath of loyalty to

19560-472: The leading cities in Greece. The new-found freedom and self-governance of the Athenians meant that they were thereafter exceptionally hostile to the return of the tyranny of Hippias, or any form of outside subjugation; by Sparta, Persia or anyone else. Cleomenes, unsurprisingly, was not pleased with events, and marched on Athens with the Spartan army. Cleomenes's attempts to restore Isagoras to Athens ended in

19723-527: The league. As a result, the fortification walls of Thasos were torn down, and they had to pay yearly tribute and fines. Additionally, their land, naval ships, and the mines of Thasos were confiscated by Athens. The siege of Thasos marks the transformation of the Delian league from an alliance into, in the words of Thucydides, a hegemony . In 461 BC, Cimon was ostracized and was succeeded in his influence by democrats such as Ephialtes and Pericles. This signaled

19886-540: The local museum, founded by Stamatakis in 1872 and enlarged in 1907. Partial excavation of the round building was undertaken in 1892 and 1893 by the American School at Athens . The structure has been since found to be a semicircular retaining wall of Hellenic origin that was partly restored during the Roman period. In 1904, the British School at Athens began a thorough exploration of Laconia , and in

20049-419: The lower city. However, this was as much as the Greeks achieved, and they were then pursued back to the coast by Persian horsemen, losing many men in the process. Despite the fact their actions were ultimately fruitless, the Eretrians and in particular the Athenians had earned Darius's lasting enmity, and he vowed to punish both cities. The Persian naval victory at the Battle of Lade (494 BC) all but ended

20212-464: The most famous battles in history. During the first invasion , Thrace , Macedon and the Aegean Islands were added to the Persian Empire, and Eretria was duly destroyed. However, the invasion ended in 490 BC with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon . After this invasion, Darius died, and responsibility for the war passed to his son Xerxes I . Xerxes then personally led

20375-573: The most powerful of the original members of the Delian League save Athens, was the last to revolt, and in the aftermath of the Syracusan Expedition enjoyed success for several years, inspiring all of Ionia to revolt. Athens was nonetheless eventually able to suppress these revolts. To further strengthen Athens's grip on its empire, Pericles in 450 BC began a policy of establishing kleruchiai —quasi-colonies that remained tied to Athens and which served as garrisons to maintain control of

20538-503: The nearby settlement of Mystras , and Sparta fell further in even local importance. Modern Sparta was re-founded in 1834, by a decree of King Otto of Greece . Sparta was an oligarchy . The state was ruled by two hereditary kings of the Agiad and Eurypontid families , both supposedly descendants of Heracles and equal in authority, so that one could not act against the power and political enactments of his colleague. The duties of

20701-403: The new synoecism, Athens began using its greatly expanded military to enforce membership in the League. City-states who wished to leave the alliance were punished by Athens with force such as Mytilene and Melos . No longer considered her allies, Athens eventually began to refer to the members of the Delian League as "all the cities Athens rules." Athens also extended its authority over members of

20864-401: The number of troops is to calculate the number of marines carried by 600 triremes. Herodotus tells us that each trireme in the second invasion of Greece carried 30 extra marines, in addition to a probable 14 standard marines. Thus, 600 triremes could easily have carried 18,000–26,000 infantry. Numbers proposed for the Persian infantry are in the range 18,000–100,000. However, the consensus

21027-408: The old Spartans as hoplites, or even as a Macedonian phalanx . Despite this, a gravestone of a fallen legionary named Marcus Aurelius Alexys shows him lightly armed, with a pilos-like cap and a wooden club. The unit was presumably discharged in 217 after Caracalla was assassinated. An exchange of letters in the deutero-canonical First Book of Maccabees expresses a Jewish claim to kinship with

21190-423: The other islands, if they submitted to him. He sent a herald to the Delians, proclaiming: "Holy men, why have you fled away, and so misjudged my intent? It is my own desire, and the king's command to me, to do no harm to the land where the two gods were born, neither to the land itself nor to its inhabitants. So return now to your homes and dwell on your island." Datis then burned 300 talents of frankincense on

21353-605: The peak of the city-state's power had come and gone. In 396 AD, Sparta was sacked by Visigoths under Alaric I . According to Byzantine sources, some parts of the Laconian region remained pagan until well into the 10th century. The Tsakonian language still spoken in Tsakonia is the only surviving descendant of the ancient Doric language . In the Middle Ages, the political and cultural center of Laconia shifted to

21516-462: The playwright Aeschylus . Archaeological evidence, such as the Serpent Column , also supports some of Herodotus's specific claims. The first Persian invasion of Greece had its immediate roots in the Ionian Revolt , the earliest phase of the Greco-Persian Wars . However, it was also the result of the longer-term interaction between the Greeks and Persians. In 500 BC the Persian Empire

21679-541: The power of Thebes in order to help hold the Athenians in check. Their return was blocked, and they resolved to march on Athens, where the Long Walls were not yet completed, winning a victory at the Battle of Tanagra . All this accomplished, however, was to allow them to return home via the Megarid. Two months later, the Athenians under Myronides invaded Boeotia, and winning the Battle of Oenophyta gained control of

21842-531: The precinct range, supply invaluable information about early Spartan art. In 1907, the location of the sanctuary of Athena "of the Brazen House" (Χαλκίοικος, Chalkioikos) was determined to be on the acropolis immediately above the theatre. Though the actual temple is almost completely destroyed, the site has produced the longest extant archaic inscription in Laconia, numerous bronze nails and plates, and

22005-450: The preparations for the invasion of Greece. This expedition was finally ready by 480 BC, and the second Persian invasion of Greece thereby began, under the command of Xerxes himself. For the Persians, the two expeditions to Greece had been largely successful; new territories had been added to their empire and Eretria had been punished. It was only a minor setback that the invasion had met defeat at Marathon; that defeat barely dented

22168-415: The resolve of the Greek cities, Darius turned to diplomacy in 491 BC. He sent ambassadors to all the Greek city states, asking for " earth and water ", a traditional token of submission. The vast majority of cities did as asked, fearing the wrath of Darius. In Athens, however, the ambassadors were put on trial and then executed; in Sparta, they were simply thrown down a well. This firmly and finally drew

22331-426: The revolt. The Ionian revolt had severely threatened the stability of Darius's empire, and the states of mainland Greece would continue to threaten that stability unless dealt with. Darius thus began to contemplate the complete conquest of Greece, beginning with the destruction of Athens and Eretria. In the next two decades, there would be two Persian invasions of Greece, occasioning, thanks to Greek historians, some of

22494-506: The rigorous agoge training regimen, and Spartan phalanx brigades were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights than elsewhere in classical antiquity . Sparta was frequently a subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in Western culture following the revival of classical learning. The admiration of Sparta is known as Laconophilia . Bertrand Russell wrote: Sparta had

22657-681: The size of the Persian army, only saying that they formed a "great and well-furnished army". Among other ancient sources, the poet Simonides , a near-contemporary, says the campaign force numbered 200,000, while a later writer, the Roman Cornelius Nepos estimates 200,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. Plutarch and Pausanias both independently give 300,000, as does the Suda dictionary; Plato and Lysias assert 500,000; and Justin 600,000. Modern historians generally dismiss these numbers as exaggerations. One approach to estimate

22820-527: The states of Mainland Greece for support, but only Athens and Eretria offered to send troops. The involvement of Athens in the Ionian Revolt arose from a complex set of circumstances, beginning with the establishment of the Athenian Democracy in the late 6th century BC. In 510 BC, with the aid of Cleomenes I , King of Sparta , the Athenian people had expelled Hippias , the tyrant ruler of Athens. With Hippias's father Peisistratus ,

22983-512: The stream of Dorian Spartan history. The legendary period of Spartan history is believed to fall into the Dark Age. It treats the mythic heroes such as the Heraclids and the Perseids , offering a view of the occupation of the Peloponnesus that contains both fantastic and possibly historical elements. The subsequent proto-historic period, combining both legend and historical fragments, offers

23146-404: The subjugation of Greece as an opportunity to expand into Southeast Europe and thereby ensure the security of the Achaemenid Empire's western frontier. The first campaign, in 492 BC, was led by the Persian commander Mardonius , who re-subjugated Thrace and forced Macedon to become a fully subordinate client kingdom within the Achaemenid Empire; it had been a Persian vassal as early as

23309-408: The supposed 'brotherhood' of the Jews and the Spartans." Rappaport is clear that "the authenticity of [the reply] letter of Arius is based on even less firm foundations than the letter of Jonathan". Spartans long spurned the idea of building a defensive wall around their city, believing they made the city's men soft in terms of their warrior abilities. A wall was finally erected after 184 BCE, after

23472-500: The suppression of rebellions, Athens exercised hegemony over the rest of the league. Thucydides describes how Athens's control over the League grew: Of all the causes of defection, that connected with arrears of tribute and vessels, and with failure of service, was the chief; for the Athenians were very severe and exacting, and made themselves offensive by applying the screw of necessity to men who were not used to and in fact not disposed for any continuous labor. In some other respects

23635-410: The threat to the empire from Greece, and to punish Athens and Eretria. In the spring of 492 BC an expeditionary force, to be commanded by Darius's son-in-law Mardonius , was assembled, consisting of a fleet and a land army. Whilst the ultimate aim was to punish Athens and Eretria, the expedition also aimed to subdue as many of the Greek cities as possible. Departing from Cilicia, Mardonius sent

23798-574: The town of Sparta, the plateau east of the Taygetos mountains, and sometimes to all the regions under direct Spartan control, including Messenia . The earliest attested term referring to Lacedaemon is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀨𐀐𐀅𐀖𐀛𐀍 , ra-ke-da-mi-ni-jo , "Lakedaimonian", written in Linear B syllabic script, the equivalent of the later Greek Λακεδαιμόνιος , Lakedaimonios ( Latin : Lacedaemonius ). Herodotus seems to use "Lacedaemon" for

23961-548: The traditionally powerful Alcmaeonidae family, who considered themselves the natural heirs to the rule of Athens. In a daring response, Cleisthenes proposed to the Athenian people that he would establish a ' democracy ' in Athens, much to the horror of the rest of the aristocracy. Cleisthenes's reasons for suggesting such a radical course of action, which would remove much of his own family's power, are unclear; perhaps he perceived that days of aristocratic rule were coming to an end anyway; certainly he wished to prevent Athens becoming

24124-462: The unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars , in rivalry with the rising naval power of Athens . Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), from which it emerged victorious after the Battle of Aegospotami . The decisive Battle of Leuctra against Thebes in 371 BC ended the Spartan hegemony , although the city-state maintained its political independence until its forced integration into

24287-522: The view that, with the liberation of mainland Greece, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the war's purpose had already been achieved. There was also perhaps a feeling that establishing long-term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible. In the aftermath of Mycale, the Spartan king Leotychidas had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion. Xanthippus,

24450-563: The voting system conducted by relying on the support of democratic city-states Athens had helped into being. By 454 Athens moved the treasury of the Delian League from the Island of Delos to the Parthenon in Athens. Benefitting greatly from the influx of cash coming out of the 150-330 members, Athens used the money to reinforce its own naval supremacy and used the remaining funds to embellish the city with art and architecture. In order to maintain

24613-420: The whole country except Thebes. Reverses followed peace with Persia in 449 BC. The Battle of Coronea , in 447 BC, led to the abandonment of Boeotia. Euboea and Megara revolted, and while the former was restored to its status as a tributary ally, the latter was a permanent loss. The Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues signed a peace treaty, which was set to endure for thirty years. It only lasted until 431 BC, when

24776-479: Was built on the banks of the Eurotas , the largest river of Laconia, which provided it with a source of fresh water. The Eurotas valley was a natural fortress, bounded to the west by Mt. Taygetus (2,407 m) and to the east by Mt. Parnon (1,935 m). To the north, Laconia is separated from Arcadia by hilly uplands reaching 1000 m in altitude. These natural defenses worked to Sparta's advantage and protected it from sacking and invasion . Though landlocked, Sparta had

24939-418: Was commented on by Aristotle . Sparta never fully recovered from its losses at Leuctra in 371 BC and the subsequent helot revolts . In 338, Philip II invaded and devastated much of Laconia, turning the Spartans out, though he did not seize Sparta itself. Even during its decline, Sparta never forgot its claim to be the "defender of Hellenism" and its Laconic wit . An anecdote has it that when Philip II sent

25102-540: Was definitely reached, enabling the Athenians to focus their attention on events in Greece proper. Soon, war with the Peloponnesians broke out. In 458 BC, the Athenians blockaded the island of Aegina , and simultaneously defended Megara from the Corinthians by sending out an army composed of those too young or old for regular military service. The following year, Sparta sent an army into Boeotia , reviving

25265-689: Was entirely novel, and at least in Western society, he does seem to have invented 'history' as we know it. As the British author Tom Holland has it: "For the first time, a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous, nor to the whims and wishes of some god, nor to a people's claim to manifest destiny, but rather explanations he could verify personally." Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, starting with Thucydides . Nevertheless, Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off (at

25428-432: Was increasing her navy with the funds they contributed, a revolt always found itself without enough resources or experienced leaders for war. The first member of the league to attempt to secede was the island of Naxos in c. 471 BC. After being defeated, Naxos is believed (based on similar, later revolts) to have been forced to tear down its walls along with losing its fleet and vote in the League. In 465 BC, Athens founded

25591-458: Was not reserved solely for those who revolted. Thucydides documents the example of Melos , a small island, neutral in the war, though founded by Spartans. The Melians were offered a choice to join the Athenians, or be conquered. Choosing to resist, their town was besieged and conquered; the males were put to death and the women sold into slavery (see Melian dialogue ). By 454 BC, the Delian League could be fairly characterised as an Athenian Empire;

25754-591: Was passed on to Renaissance Europe, though he remained well read. However, since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds which have repeatedly confirmed his version of events. The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a remarkable job in his Historia , but that some of his specific details (particularly troop numbers and dates) should be viewed with skepticism. Nevertheless, there are still some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story. The Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus , writing in

25917-526: Was put to an end when it was eventually forced into the Achaean League after its defeat in the decisive Laconian War by a coalition of other Greek city-states and Rome, and the resultant overthrow of its final king Nabis , in 192 BC. Sparta played no active part in the Achaean War in 146 BC when the Achaean League was defeated by the Roman general Lucius Mummius . Subsequently, Sparta became

26080-526: Was still relatively young and highly expansionist, but prone to revolts amongst its subject peoples. Moreover, the Persian king Darius was a usurper, and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule. Even before the Ionian Revolt, Darius had begun to expand the Empire into Europe, subjugating Thrace , expanding past the Danube river , conquering Paeonia , and forcing Macedon to become

26243-586: Was still vulnerable to cavalry (the cause of much caution by the Greek forces at the Battle of Plataea ), but used in the right circumstances, it was now shown to be a potentially devastating weapon. The Persians seem to have more-or-less disregarded the military lessons of Marathon. The composition of infantry for the second invasion seems to have been the same as during the first, despite the availability of hoplites and other heavy infantry in Persian-ruled lands. Having won battles against hoplites previously,

26406-531: Was used for many purposes, not all relating to the defence of members of the league. It was from tribute paid to the league that Pericles set to building the Parthenon on the Acropolis , replacing an older temple, as well as many other non-defense related expenditures. The Delian League was turning from an alliance into an empire. War with the Persians continued. In 460 BC, Egypt revolted under local leaders

26569-444: Was usually provided by the ethnic Persians, Bactrians , Medes, Cissians, and Saka; most of these probably fought as lightly armed missile cavalry. The fleet must have had at least some proportion of transport ships, since the cavalry was carried by ship; whilst Herodotus claims the cavalry was carried in the triremes, this is improbable. Lazenby estimates 30–40 transport ships would be required to carry 1,000 cavalry. Once assembled,

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