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93-645: Early references to the Ripheans appear in the writings of the Greek choral poet Alcman (7th century BC) and the Athenian playwright Sophocles (5th century BC). Many other ancient Hellenic writers mentioned the Ripheans, including Aristotle , Hippocrates , Callimachus , Apollonius of Rhodes , and Claudius Ptolemy . Ancient Roman writers also described the Ripheans in Latin literature: Plutarch , Vergil , and Pliny

186-467: 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

279-536: 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

372-602: 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,

465-484: 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,

558-467: 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

651-460: A long period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages , when many of its citizens moved to Mystras . Modern Sparta 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

744-412: A means of describing the girls of the choruses as fashionable. One tradition, going back to Aristotle , holds that Alcman came to Sparta as a slave to the family of Agesidas (= Hagesidamus? ), by whom he was eventually emancipated because of his great skill. Aristotle reported that it was believed Alcman died from a pustulant infestation of lice ( phthiriasis ), but he may have been mistaken for

837-461: 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

930-527: A mountain range called Rafa , which some have cautiously linked to the Ripheans. In late 15th-century western Europe, new access to Claudius Ptolemy's Geography led to many new maps of "Sarmatia," which notably featured the Riphean Mountains. In tandem with new contacts with the Grand Duchy of Moscow , Renaissance humanists and ambassadors debated the existence of the Riphean Mountains in

1023-587: 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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1116-669: 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

1209-605: 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

1302-464: 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

1395-534: 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

1488-530: 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

1581-476: 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

1674-423: 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,

1767-505: 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

1860-550: Is not sufficient for protection, nor intricate snake of solid gold, no, nor Lydian headband, pride of dark-eyed girls, nor the hair of Nanno, nor again godlike Areta nor Thylacis and Cleësithera; nor will you go to Aenesimbrota's and say, 'If only Astaphis were mine, if only Philylla were to look my way and Damareta and lovely Ianthemis'; no, Hagesichora guards me. I were to see whether perchance she were to love me. If only she came nearer and took my soft hand, immediately I would become her suppliant. Earlier research tended to overlook

1953-708: Is the First Partheneion or Louvre-Partheneion, found in 1855 in Saqqara in Egypt by the French scholar Auguste Mariette . This Partheneion consists of 101 lines, of which more than 30 are severely damaged. It is very hard to say anything about this fragment, and scholars have debated ever since the discovery and publication about its content and the occasion on which this partheneion could have been performed. The choral lyrics of Alcman were meant to be performed within

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2046-463: 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

2139-1000: 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

2232-679: 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,

2325-596: 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

2418-585: 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

2511-663: The Doric dialect, which does not usually sound beautiful , it did not at all spoil the beauty of his songs. Alcman's songs were composed in the Doric dialect of Sparta (the so-called Laconian dialect). This is seen especially in the orthographic peculiarities of the fragments like α = η, ω = ου, η = ει, σ = θ and the use of the Doric accentuation, though it is uncertain whether these features were actually present in Alcman's original compositions or were added either by Laconian performers in

2604-534: 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

2697-496: The Sirius -star) is a threat for the dawn, so the chorus tries to defeat him. In the meanwhile the chorus-members present themselves as women ready for marriage. Stehle doesn't agree with Calame about the initiation-rituals, but cannot ignore the 'erotic' language that the poem expresses. Some scholars think that the chorus was divided in two halves, who would each have their own leader; at the beginning and close of their performance,

2790-607: The 2nd century BC. He says that songs of Alcman were performed during the Gymnopaedia festival (according to Athenaeus ): The chorus-leaders carry [the Thyreatic crowns] in commemoration of the victory at Thyrea at the festival, when they are also celebrating the Gymnopaedia. There are three choruses, in the front a chorus of boys, to the right a chorus of old men, and to the left a chorus of men; they dance naked and sing

2883-594: 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

Riphean Mountains - Misplaced Pages Continue

2976-468: The Elder , among others. Late antique and early medieval writers, like Solinus , Martianus Capella , Orosius , and Isidore of Seville , ensured the Ripheans' continued place in geographic writing during the Middle Ages . These writers often disagreed on the exact location of the mountains, and a small minority of geographers (e.g. Strabo ) doubted their existence entirely. In antiquity, the inhabitants of

3069-404: 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

3162-467: 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

3255-671: 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

3348-418: 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

3441-468: 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

3534-624: 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

3627-553: 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

3720-465: 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

3813-573: 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

Riphean Mountains - Misplaced Pages Continue

3906-526: 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

3999-477: 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

4092-637: The city-state maintained its political independence until its forced integration into 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

4185-656: 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

4278-402: The creeping-things that come from the dark earth, the beasts whose lying is upon the hillside, the generation of the bees, the monsters in the depths of the purple brine, all lie asleep, and with them the tribes of the winging birds. The poet reflects, in a poignant poem, as Antigonus of Carystus notes, how "age has made him weak and unable to whirl round with the choirs and with the dancing of

4371-534: The details are often untrustworthy. Antipater of Thessalonica wrote that poets have "many mothers" and that the continents of Europe and Asia both claimed Alcman as their son. Frequently assumed to have been born in Sardis , capital of ancient Lydia , the Suda claims that Alcman was actually a Laconian from Messoa. The compositeness of his dialect may have helped to maintain the uncertainty of his origins, but

4464-605: 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

4557-400: The erotic aspect of the love of the partheneions; thus, instead of the verb translated as "guards", τηρεῖ , at the end of the first quotation, the papyrus has in fact the more explicit τείρει , "wears me out (with love)". Calame states that this homoerotic love , which is similar to the one found in the lyrics of the contemporaneous poet Sappho , matches the pederasty of the males and

4650-506: The extant fragments, but especially (b) in passages where metre or theme or both are taken from the Epic, and (c) in phrases which are as a whole borrowed or imitated from the Epic... Witczak (2016) suggests that the term ἀάνθα – the first use of which is attributed to Alcman according to Hesychius of Alexandria (5th century CE) – may have been an early Doric loanword from Proto-Albanian . To judge from his larger fragments, Alcman's poetry

4743-457: 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

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4836-479: 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

4929-563: The first half of the sixteenth century. Some, like Maciej Miechowita and Paolo Giovio , argued that the mountains were non-existent. Others, like the ambassadors Francesco Da Collo  [ it ] and Sigismund von Herberstein , argued that the ancient Ripheans referred to the Ural Mountains , then recently explored by Muscovy. Over the course of the sixteenth century, the Ripheans gradually disappeared from western maps of eastern Europe, along with many other ancient claims about

5022-491: The following conclusion about Alcman's dialect in his influential monograph (1951): (i) that the dialect of the extant fragments of Alcman is basically and preponderantly the Laconian vernacular; (ii) that there is no sufficient reason for believing that this vernacular in Alcman was contaminated by features from any alien dialect except the Epic; (iii) that features of the epic dialect are observed (a) sporadically throughout

5115-460: 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

5208-462: 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

5301-470: 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

5394-541: 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

5487-423: The latter half of the first partheneion portrays Hagesichora critically and emphasizes her absence, rather than praising her and emphasizing her approval. Tsantsanoglou's interpretation has not been met with mainstream acceptance in classical studies. Other scholars, among them Hutchinson and Stehle, see the First Partheneion as a song composed for a harvest ritual and not as a tribal initiation. Stehle argues that

5580-540: 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

5673-461: The maidens of the Partheneion carry a plough ( φάρος , or, in the most translations, a robe, φᾶρος ) for the goddess of Dawn (Orthria). This goddess of Dawn is honoured because of the qualities she has, especially in harvest time when the Greeks harvest during dawn ( Hesiod , Works and Days, ll. 575-580: "Dawn gives out a third share of the work [that is, harvesting]"). The heat (embodied by

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5766-476: The maidens", unlike the cock halcyons or ceryls, for "when they grow old and weak and unable to fly, their mates carry them upon their wings": No more, O musical maidens with voices ravishing-sweet! My limbs fail:—Ah that I were but a ceryl borne on the wing Over the bloom of the wave amid fair young halcyons fleet, With a careless heart untroubled, the sea-blue bird of the Spring! Sparta Sparta

5859-490: The many references to Lydian and Asian culture in Alcman's poetry must have played a considerable role in the tradition of Alcman's Lydian origin. Thus Alcman claims he learned his skills from the " strident partridges " ( caccabides ), a bird native to Asia Minor and not naturally found in Greece . The ancient scholars seem to refer to one particular song, in which the chorus says: "He was no rustic man, nor clumsy (not even in

5952-540: The mountains were variously called Ripheans (e.g. Pomponius Mela ) or Arimaspi (e.g. Pliny ). Geographers sometimes located the home of the legendary Hyperboreans in the inaccessible regions north of the Ripheans. While the Riphean Mountains appear only in Greek or Greek-influenced geographies, the name of the mountains has sometimes been connected by Christian theologians with Riphath , son of Gomer in Genesis 10 . The Book of Jubilees (8:12, 16, 28) also mentions

6045-503: 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

6138-408: 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

6231-434: 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

6324-406: The philosopher Alcmaeon of Croton . According to Pausanias , he is buried in Sparta next to the shrine of Helen of Troy . There were six books of Alcman's choral poetry in antiquity (c. 50-60 hymns), but they were lost at the threshold of the Middle Ages , and Alcman was known only through fragmentary quotations in other Greek authors until the discovery of a papyrus in 1855(?) in a tomb near

6417-415: 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

6510-405: The region. While people since the 16th century have tended to connect the Ripheans to the Ural Mountains, the original identity of the classical Ripheans remains unclear. The Alps, the Carpathians, and the Urals have all been suggested as the real-world inspiration for the Riphean Mountains. The Montes Riphaeus mountain range on the Moon is named after the Riphean Mountains. Johannes Hevelius

6603-452: 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

6696-745: The second pyramid at Saqqâra in Egypt . The fragment, which is now kept at the Louvre in Paris , contains approximately 100 verses of a so-called partheneion , i.e. a song performed by a chorus of young unmarried women. In the 1960s, many more fragments were published in the collection of the Egyptian papyri found in a dig at an ancient garbage dump at Oxyrhynchus . Most of these fragments contain poems (partheneia) , but there are also other kinds of hymns among them. Pausanias says that even though Alcman used

6789-464: The social, political, and religious context of Sparta . Most of the existing fragments are lines from partheneia . These hymns are sung by choruses of unmarried women, but it is unclear how the partheneia were performed. The Swiss scholar Claude Calame (1977) treats them as a type of drama by choruses of girls. He connects them with initiation rites. The girls express a deep affection for their chorus leader ( coryphaeus ): For abundance of purple

6882-417: The songs of Thaletas and Alcman and the paeans of Dionysodotus the Laconian. Regardless of the topic, Alcman's poetry has a clear, light, pleasant tone which ancient commentators have remarked upon. Details from rituals and festivals are described with care, even though the context of some of those details can no longer be understood. Alcman's language is rich with visual description. He describes

6975-512: 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

7068-461: The subsequent generations (see Hinge's opinion below) or even by Alexandrian scholars who gave the text a Doric feel using features of the contemporary, and not the ancient, Doric dialect. Apollonius Dyscolus describes Alcman as συνεχῶς αἰολίζων "constantly using the Aeolic dialect". However, the validity of this judgment is limited by the fact that it is said about the use of the digamma in

7161-408: 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

7254-612: The third-person pronoun ϝός "his/her"; it is perfectly Doric as well. Yet, many existing fragments display prosodic , morphological and phraseological features common to the Homeric language of Greek epic poetry , and even markedly Aeolic and un-Doric features (σδ = ζ, -οισα = -ουσα) which are not present in Homer itself but will pass on to all the subsequent lyric poets. This mixing of features adds complexity to any analysis of his works. The British philologist Denys Page comes to

7347-574: 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

7440-488: The two halves performed as a single group, but during most of the performance, each half would compete with the other, claiming that their leader or favorite was the best of all the girls in Sparta . There is, however, little evidence that the chorus was in fact divided. The role of the other woman of Alcman's first partheneion, Aenesimbrota, is contested; some consider her indeed a competing chorus-leader, others think that she

7533-457: The view of unskilled men?) nor Thessalian by race nor an Erysichaean shepherd: he was from lofty Sardis." Yet, given that there was a discussion, it cannot have been certain who was the third person of this fragment. Some modern scholars defend his Lydian origin on the basis of the language of some fragments or the content. However, Sardis of the 7th century BC was a cosmopolitan city. The implicit and explicit references to Lydian culture may be

7626-592: The yellow color of a woman's hair and the golden chain she wears about her neck; the purple petals of a Kalchas blossom and the purple depths of the sea; the "bright shining" color of the windflower and the multi-colored feathers of a bird as it chews green buds from the vines. Much attention is focused on nature: ravines, mountains, flowering forests at night, the quiet sound of water lapping over seaweed. Animals and other creatures fill his lines: birds, horses, bees, lions, reptiles, even crawling insects. Asleep lie mountain-top and mountain-gully, shoulder also and ravine;

7719-549: Was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece . In antiquity, 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

7812-566: Was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta . He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrian canon of the Nine Lyric Poets . He wrote six books of choral poetry, most of which is now lost; his poetry survives in quotation from other ancient authors and on fragmentary papyri discovered in Egypt. His poetry was composed in the local Doric dialect with Homeric influences. Based on his surviving fragments, his poetry

7905-406: Was an integrated part of the initiation rites . At a much later period, but probably relying on older sources, Plutarch confirms that the Spartan women were engaged in such same sex relationships. It remains open if the relationship also had a physical side and, if so, of what nature. While not denying the erotic elements of the poem, contemporary classicist Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou has argued that

7998-479: 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

8091-418: 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

8184-452: Was mostly hymns, and seems to have been composed in long stanzas made up of lines in several different meters. Alcman's dates are uncertain, but he was probably active in the late seventh century BC. The name of his mother is not known; his father may have been called either Damas or Titarus. Alcman's nationality was disputed even in antiquity. The records of the ancient authors were often deduced from biographic readings of their poetry, and

8277-544: Was normally strophic : Different metres are combined into long stanzas (9-14 lines), which are repeated several times. One popular metre is the dactylic tetrameter (in contrast to the dactylic hexameter of Homer and Hesiod ). The type of songs Alcman composed most frequently appear to be hymns, partheneia (maiden-songs Greek παρθένος "maiden"), and prooimia (preludes to recitations of epic poetry ). Much of what little exists consists of scraps and fragments, difficult to categorize. The most important fragment

8370-526: 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

8463-480: Was recognized as the leading force of 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

8556-414: Was some sort of witch, who would supply the girls in love with magic love-elixirs like the pharmakeutria of Theocritus 's Second Idyll, and others again argue that she was the trainer of the chorus like Andaesistrota of Pindar 's Second Partheneion Alcman could have composed songs for Spartan boys as well. However, the only statement in support of this idea comes from Sosibius, a Spartan historian from

8649-624: Was the first astronomer to apply the Riphean label to a feature of the lunar landscape, but Johann Heinrich von Mädler is responsible for the current designation of the Montes Riphaeus. The Riphean geochronological period was also named after the Riphean Mountains, in reference to the Ural Mountains. Alcman Alcman ( / ˈ æ l k m ən / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἀλκμάν Alkmán ; fl.  7th century BC)

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