When was sparta defeated

The Sphakteria debacle was a shocker; it proved Spartan soldiers were not invincible. The situation was serious, but the Spartans found among their ranks a genuinely innovative military leader. A few years later, the uneasy Peace of Nicias was negotiated; the first stage of the war was over and many Athenians and Spartans breathed a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, wily and ambitious Athenians—including the notorious Alcibiades—engaged in diplomatic intrigue with their Spartan counterparts; the result was a thoroughly confused international situation in the once-tidy Peloponnese. By , when hostilities recommenced, many Greeks doubted that the fabled Spartan courage, resolution and blunt straightforwardness were anything but a clever sham. Yet, as the Athenian-general-turned-historian Thucydides notes, all doubts were laid to rest at the battle of Mantinea.

It was, for the Spartans, a must-win engagement in their own Peloponnesian backyard. Faced by a dangerous coalition of disgruntled former allies and traditional enemies, the Spartans and their remaining loyal allies fielded a hoplite army of perhaps 10, men, including perhaps 4, of the elite Similars. The battle got off to a very bad start for the Spartan side: King Agis, as the commanding general, attempted a last-minute tactical redeployment to avoid being outflanked.

He withdrew two units of sub-Similars—neither manned by full Spartiates—from the line and deployed them on his left flank, then commanded two regiments of Similars to withdraw from the right flank and fill the gap. But, putting the safety of their unit-mates before the good of the army as a whole, the two Similar regimental commanders refused to obey the order. This left a dangerous gap in the Spartan left wing.

Their opponents poured through the gap, forcing back the Spartan left and inflicting numerous casualties. A lesser army would have collapsed.

But King Agis led the Spartan center in a confident advance and quickly put the troops facing them to flight. The victorious Spartan soldiers marched home, just in time to celebrate an important festival on their busy religious calendar. They also banished the two regimental commanders who had refused the order, charging them with cowardice. The defeat of the Athenians and their allies at Mantinea proved a propitious sign for the rest of the war.

Although it dragged on for another fourteen years, Sparta eventually got the upper hand; Athens surrendered in B. Sparta and Persia, the great territorial empire of the East, which eventually entered the war on the Spartan side, divided the spoils: Persia regained control of the culturally Greek western littoral of Anatolia.

Sparta, now unquestionably the dominant mainland Greek state, established friendly governments and garrisons in island and northern Greek states formerly subject to Athens. It seemed the dawn of a new Spartan century.

Yet only thirty-four years later, at Leuctra, Sparta was permanently removed from the ranks of great Aegean powers. Leuctra was not just a setback—it marked the end of Spartan power and influence. Many of the Fringe Dwellers seem not to have been particularly hostile to the Spartan regime, but neither did they have any reason to be particularly loyal to the Similars when it came to a crunch.

Beneath the Fringe-Dwellers was the enormous serf caste of Helots. The Helot was bound to the soil; he could not be bought and sold, as could a chattel slave, but neither could he move from the farm to which he was assigned, and he owed a significant part of the annual harvest to the Spartan Similar who was assigned by the state to be his master.

Helots initially came in two main varieties: those who were natives of Laconia, and the Messenians. The Messenian Helots, residents of the westernmost finger of the Peloponnese, had once been free citizens of their own polis; they were conquered by Sparta in colonial wars of the eighth and seventh centuries b.

Despite centuries of subjugation, the Messenian Helots remembered their free origins; they told tales of their brave resistance in ancient conflicts with the Spartans. These folk memories stimulated the will to resist whenever the chance arose, the Messenian Helots rose up against their masters and fled to the steep slopes of Mount Ithome, which looms over the fertile Messenian plain. The best documented of the Messenian uprisings occurred in B. A generation later, during the Peloponnesian War, Helots flocked to the fortified Athenian camp at Pylos—it was Spartan panic at the specter of Athenian support for armed Helot insurgency that precipitated the rash action that led to the Sphakteria debacle.

Spartan society was completely dependent on the systematic exploitation of the Helots, both as agricultural laborers and as porters during military expeditions: at Plataea, during the Persian Wars, each Spartan hoplite was attended by seven Helots. But since the Helots, especially those of Messenia, were far from willing accomplices, the Spartans were forced to expend enormous energies in attempting to keep their serf caste in its place.

Sparta, as a society, was necessarily turned inward on and against itself. The Similars spent their lives nervously policing the Helots for signs of revolt and obsessively watching each other for signs of non-conformity—because only an unbroken front would keep the much more numerous Helots at bay.

To remind everyone of the real state of affairs in Spartan territory, the Spartan Assembly formally declared war on the Helot population each year. Individual Helots were ritually humiliated—for example, by forcing them to drink massive quantities of alcohol as object lessons for young Spartans in the virtues of moderation.

The youthful members of the Krypteia snuck about Spartan territory, especially at night, and assassinated those Helots thought to be outstanding in any way—it could be fatally dangerous for a Helot to be regarded as handsome, intelligent, or ambitious.

On some occasions, the individualized, random violence of the Krypteia was not regarded as enough. Instead, the Athenians used their navy to deliver troops into the Spartan territory to conduct raids on settlements.

After years of open warfare, Sparta offered peace and Athens accepted. The agreement was made official with the signing of the Peace of Nicias.

The treaty stated that Athens and Sparta would defend each other for the next 50 years. However, the treaty only lasted six. Hostilities resumed between Athens and Sparta with an assault launched by the Athenians at Sicily. Sparta decided to retaliate. Learning from its past experiences with the Athenian navy, they established a fleet of warships.

It would be another decade of warfare before the Spartan general Lysander defeated the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami. This defeat led to Athenian surrender. As a result, the Peloponnesian War was concluded. Simultaneous to the end of this conflict came the end of the golden age of ancient Greece. The Allies were led by the U. Female Spartan citizens enjoyed status, power, and respect that was unequaled in the rest of the classical world.

The higher status of females in Spartan society started at birth. Unlike in Athens, Spartan girls were fed the same food as their brothers. Spartan women even competed in sports. Most important, rather than being married at the age of 12 or 13, Spartan law forbade the marriage of a girl until she was in her late teens or early 20s.

The reasons for delaying marriage were to ensure the birth of healthy children, but the effect was to spare Spartan women the hazards and lasting health damage associated with pregnancy among adolescents.

Spartan women, better fed from childhood and fit from exercise, stood a far better chance of reaching old age than their sisters in other Greek cities, where the median life expectancy was Unlike Athenian women, who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the house, Spartan women wore dresses peplos slit up the side to allow freer movement, and moved freely about the city, either walking or driving chariots.

Although Spartan society was highly regimented, militarily and socially, enslaved classes and women were afforded greater privileges relative to the populations of other Greek city-states. The duties of the kings were religious, judicial, and military in nature. They were the chief priests of the state, and maintained contact with Delphi, the sanctuary that exercised great authority in Spartan politics. Over time, royal prerogatives were curtailed further until, aside from their service as military generals, the kings became mere figureheads.

For example, from the time of the Greco Persian Wars, the kings lost the right to declare war and were shadowed in the field by two officials, known as ephors.

Civil and criminal cases were also decided by ephors, as well as a council of 28 elders over the age of 60, called the gerousia. The gerousia discussed high state policy decisions, then proposed action alternatives to the damos —a collective body of Spartan citizenry, who would then select one of the options by voting.

Unique in ancient Greece for its social system, Spartan society was completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full rights , Mothakes non-Spartan, free men raised as Spartans , Perioikoi free, but non-citizen inhabitants , and Helots state-owned serfs, part of the enslaved, non-Spartan, local population. Structure of Spartan society: Spartan society was highly regimented, with a clearly delineated class system.

Typically only men who were to become Spartiates underwent military training, although two exceptions existed to this rule. For example, the Athenian general Xenophon sent his two sons to Sparta as trophimoi. Additionally, sons of a Helot could enroll as a syntrophos if a Spartiate formally adopted him and paid his way. Here is courage, mankind's finest possession, here is the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win, and it is a good thing his city and all the people share with him when a man plants his feet and stands in the foremost spears relentlessly, all thought of foul flight completely forgotten, and has well trained his heart to be steadfast and to endure, and with words encourages the man who is stationed beside him.

Here is a man who proves himself to be valiant in war The presence of large numbers of slaves relieved Spartan men from manual labor and allowed Sparta to build a citizen training system that prepared the city's children for the harshness of war. If they got too hungry, the boys were encouraged to try stealing as a way of improving their stealth but were punished if they got caught. The Spartans trained rigorously and progressed through this training system until the age of 20 when they were allowed to join a communal mess and hence become a full citizen of the community.

Each member of the mess was expected to provide a certain amount of foodstuffs and to keep training rigorously. Those who could not fight due to disability were mocked by the Spartans. If he is strong and of sound body, they command that he be raised, and they assign him an allotment of land from the 9, plots.

If he is ill born and misshapen, they throw him into the pit at the place called Apothetae, below Mt. Taygetus, as it is better neither for him nor for the city to remain alive, as from the beginning he does not have a good start towards becoming healthy and strong" wrote Plutarch, a Greek writer who lived in the first century A.

Girls, while not trained militarily, were expected to train physically. This included running, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing. Spartan woman even competed in the Olympic games , at least in the chariot racing competition, according to ancient writers. In the fifth century B.

After Cynisca other women, especially women of Lacedaemon, have won Olympic victories, but none of them was more distinguished for their victories than she," wrote the ancient writer Pausanias who lived in the second century A. Jones and H. Spartan women likely did not engage in any public nudity.

Thucydides also wrote that the Spartans preferred to dress modestly and that "the richer citizens conducted themselves in a fashion that as much as possible put them into an equal position with the general populace. Spartan poetry also showed a desire for equality among the male Spartans. This desire for some level of equality applies to something as simple as a bowl of soup.

It has not been over a fire yet, but soon it will be full of soup, the kind that Alcman, who eats everything, loves hot after the solstice: he doesn't eat any confections, but seeks common, available food just like the people do," reads a poem by Alcman.

Sparta in time developed a system of dual kingship two kings ruling at once. Their power was counter-balanced by the elected board of ephors who may only serve a single one-year term. There was also a Council of Elders Gerousia , each member of which was over the age of 60 and could serve for life. The general assembly, which consisted of each citizen, also had the chance to vote on legislation.

The legendary lawmaker Lycurgus is often credited in ancient sources with providing the groundwork for Spartan law. Kennell notes, however, that he probably never existed and was in fact a mythical character.

Initially, Sparta was hesitant to engage with Persia. When the Persians threatened Greek cities in Ionia, on the west coast of what is now Turkey, the Greeks who lived in those areas sent an emissary to Sparta to ask for help. The Spartans refused but did threaten King Cyrus, telling him to leave Greek cities alone. The Persians did not listen. The first invasion by Darius I took place in B. The second invasion was launched by Xerxes in B. Sparta and one of their kings, Leonidas, became head of an anti-Persian coalition that ultimately made an ill-fated stand at Thermopylae.

Located beside the coast, Thermopylae contained a narrow passage, which the Greeks blocked and used to halt Xerxes' advance. Ancient sources indicate that Leonidas started the battle with a few thousand troops including Spartans at its core.

He faced a Persian force many times its size. After spying on the Spartan-led force, and waiting to see if they would surrender, Xerxes ordered an attack. The "Medes rushed forward and charged the Greeks, but fell in vast numbers: others, however, took the places of the slain, and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible losses. In this way it became clear to all, and especially to the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had but very few warriors.