Laconia (also known as Lacedaemon) in southeast Peloponnese was bounded to the north by Argolis and Arcadia, to the west by Messenia, and to the south and east by the Aegean Sea. The territory includes two mountain ranges running generally from northwest to southeast with Taygetus on the west and Parnon on the east terminating in the south at capes Tainaron (=Matapan) and Malea respectively. The two ranges are separated by a valley that contains the Eurotas River and its tributaries forming a large and fertile piece of land.
In the twelfth century BC a Mycenaean kingdom was destroyed. During the tenth century BC the land was resettled by the Dorians. Beginning in the ninth century BC a group of villages united to become the town of Sparta on the west bank of the Eurotas, about halfway down the valley.
During the eighth century BC the Spartans began to spread their influence further south, and by the middle of the century they had control of the whole of the Eurotas Valley. The population, pre-Dorian and Dorian alike, were reduced either to perioikoi, who retained partial independence subject to having to serve Sparta in a war, or to helots, who were bound to the soil which they cultivated for their Spartan masters.
In a great war c.743 to c.724 BC neighbouring Messenia was conquered and much of its population helotised. This conquest seems to have caused a dispute with the Partheniae (sons of Spartan women that had been allowed to marry perioikoi), who departed to found Taras (=Tarentum) in southern Italy in c.706 BC.
Sparta having committed herself to an agricultural future was forced to fight to retain her gains. She was successful against a Messenian revolt (c.685-c.668 BC) under their semi-legendary leader Aristomenes; but suffered a defeat by Argos at Hysiae in c.669 BC, and by Tegea in southeast Arcadia in the Battle of the Fetters (the name reflects Sparta’s intention to reduce the Tegeans to helots) in c.560 BC.
Central to Sparta’s history was the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus (c.800-c.730 BC?), who supposedly established both the ‘Great Rhetra’ and the military system which was the basis of Spartan power. The Greek poet Tyrtaeus who composed verses during the Second Messenian War does not mention Lycurgus but it is usual to date the Lycurgan reforms to shortly after the war.
In the seventh century BC Sparta, unlike other Greek states, did not institute a tyranny but retained a hereditary kingship that had two kings from separate families, the Agiads (c.930-215 BC) and Eurypontids (c.930-221 BC), ruling jointly. After the collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation, Sparta was supposedly given to Eurysthenes and Procles, the twin sons of Aristodemus, brother of Temenus of Argos and great-great-grandson of Hercules. The Agiads traced their descent to Eurysthenes’ son Agis, while the Eurypontids traced their descent to Procles’ grandson Eurypon. The Agiad line was regarded as being senior of the two, but neither could act against the veto of his colleague.
Each year ephors (‘overseers’), civil magistrates, eventually five in number, were elected from the whole citizen body, probably by acclamation. They had far-reaching executive, administrative and judicial powers. In particular, they served to put a check on the kings and to limit the powers of the gerousia (‘Council of Elders’).
The gerousia consisted of twenty-eight Spartan males over sixty years of age drawn from a restricted circle of aristocratic families, together with the two kings, elected in a similar way to the ephors. It prepared the business for and presented motions to the apella (‘Assembly’), with a right to a subsequent veto. It had a wide judicial competence and heard cases involving death and exile, and could even try the kings. The apella was open to all citizens and was the supreme decision-making body for matters of policy, but was limited to accepting or rejecting proposals formulated by the gerousia.
Having reduced the inhabitants of Messenia to helots, the Spartans were faced with the difficult task of controlling a group of people who outnumbered them. This, together with the constant threat from Argos, induced the Spartans to devote their full attention to military training. From the age of seven all Spartiates (freeborn Spartan males) underwent an austere public upbringing (the agoge) followed by a lifestyle of participation in messes and in military training and service in the army. These young men did no work, except training, athletics and fighting. This one-track, cohesive system made them, for a long time, by far the best soldiers in Greece. State-owned helots worked the Spartiates’ private land-holdings.
Like all other Greek city-states Sparta only gave citizen status to a limited part of the population. Women and slaves were excluded, as were the perioikoi and helots. After Lycurgus, the Spartiates were referred to as homoioi (‘Equals’ or ‘Like Ones’). This equality referred to their equal position in the hoplite phalanx and their equal vote in the apella. As the aristocracy had not been very successful in their wars against Messenia and Argos, the hoplites had very early been able to get their own way in Sparta.
As part of their initiation young Spartiates could be selected for the krypteia, the Spartan secret police. Every autumn, according to Plutarch, the ephors would declare war on the helot population. The kryptes were sent out into the countryside with only a knife to survive on their skills and cunning with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered at night and to take any food they needed.
The Spartan ephor Chilon (556/5 BC) was the first to ‘yoke the ephors alongside the kings’; presumably to increase their powers in some unrecorded way. He may have helped overthrow the tyranny at Sicyon, and it seems that he also had a part in the decision to switch Spartan strategy from the pursuit of conquest and helotisation to that of extending Spartan influence by gaining alliances.
Following their defeat by Tegea in c.560 BC the Spartans, according to Herodotus, received an oracle that foretold that they could not defeat the Tegeans until they moved the bones of the legendary Orestes to Sparta. Secretly digging in Tegea they discovered bones of a very large man, which they proclaimed to have been Orestes, son of Agamemnon and master of his day of the Peloponnese. Thereafter, claiming to lead not only Dorians but also non-Dorians, the Spartans defeated Tegea in c.550 BC.
Instead of seizing territory the Spartans chose to form a defensive alliance. This marked the inauguration of the new policy of which the main aim was the liberation of other city-states from dictators. It was also the prototype for the future treaties that Sparta was to sign with all the city-states of the Peloponnese and it led to the coalition known today as the ‘Peloponnesian League’ or ‘Spartan Alliance’. Since, however, the league was administered by the Spartan Assembly and a congress of their allies, the ancients described it as the ‘Lacedaemonians and their Allies’.
Spartan attacks on the dictators of other cities resulted in the installation of a network of friendly oligarchies. Confident of their support, the Spartans were ready in c.546 BC to invade Argolis. The hoplite engagement that followed the inconclusive Battle of the Champions resulted in a victory for the Spartans. This success secured Sparta’s borders for a generation and gained Sparta recognition as the leading power in Greece, far beyond what the size of its population warranted.
The Agiad king Cleomenes-I (Agiad; r.c.520-c.489 BC) followed a policy designed to extend Spartan suzerainty beyond the Isthmus and to crush Argos. When the Plataeans asked for help against Thebes in c.519 BC he referred their request to Athens, hoping to embroil them with Thebes. He attempted to attach Athens to the League by expelling the tyrant Hippias (r.527-510 BC; d.490 BC) in 510 BC; interfering on behalf of Isagoras against Cleisthenes in 508 BC; and by two full-scale expeditions, the first to restore Isagoras (506 BC) and the second to restore Hippias (504 BC). These attempts were frustrated by the obstruction of his colleague Demaratus (r.c.515-c.491 BC) and the Corinthians. Argos attempted a recovery but the Argive army was ruthlessly crushed at Sepeia near Tiryns in 494 BC. When he attempted to punish Aegina for pro-Persian sympathy, he was again frustrated by Demaratus. He persuaded the Delphic Oracle to declare Demaratus illegitimate, had him deposed, and went with his new colleague Leotychidas (1) (c.76; r.491-476; d.469 BC) to arrest the Aeginetan leaders. But the intrigue went wrong and Cleomenes fled to stir up revolt among the Arcadians. Recalled to Sparta, he was imprisoned and soon met a violent end.
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