Spartan cities are also constantly competing with other major cities in Greece, Athens and Corinth, and are involved in two long-term and huge destructive conflicts, namely the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC and the Corinthian War in the early 4th century BC.
The mythical Sparta
In Greek mythology, the founder of this ancient city is La Cedamon, the son of Zeus. He named this area after himself and named the city after his wife. Sparta was also an important member of the Greek army that participated in the Trojan War. In fact, King Menelaus of Sparta started the war after Paris, the prince of Troy, kidnapped his wife Helen, who was given to Paris by the goddess Aphrodite as a prize for choosing her in the beauty contest with Athena and Hera. It is said that Helen is the most beautiful woman among Greek and Spartan women. Generally speaking, they enjoy high reputation, not only because of their beautiful appearance, but also because of their spiritual independence.
Establish regional advantages
Sparta is located in the fertile valley of Europa Lacny in the southeast of Peloponnesus. The area was first settled in the Neolithic Age and developed into an important settlement in the Bronze Age. However, archaeological evidence shows that Sparta itself is a new settlement, which was built in 10 century BC.
In the late 8th century BC, Sparta conquered most of the neighboring Messenia, and its population was forced to serve the interests of Sparta. Sparta therefore controlled about 8,500 square kilometers of territory, making this city-state or city-state the largest city-state in Greece and a major participant in Greek politics. The conquered Mexicans and Lacconia were called Perioko Iraqis. They had no political rights in Sparta and were often assigned to serve in the Spartan army. The second lower social group is the Luo people in Riccardo Chailly, who are semi-slave agricultural laborers living in the estates owned by Spartans. The intermediary between helot and perioikoi is liberated helot or Neodam instead of deis. Spartan citizens themselves were not addicted to agricultural activities, but devoted their time to military training, hunting, war and politics. Xiluo people can keep a certain proportion of their own agricultural products, but they are often washed to maintain their social status, and they can also be recruited to participate in military missions during the war.
Sparta was admired everywhere, and no one imitated it. Xenophon
The relationship between citizens and Herodotus was unstable, and sometimes there were uprisings, especially in the 7th century BC, which led Sparta to defeat Argos in 669 BC. Sparta retaliated against Argos in 200 BC ... 545 BC, but soon lost the battle with Tegia. This regional instability led to the Peloponnesian League (505-365 BC), a union of Corinth, Elis, Tehia and other countries (but by no means Argos), in which each member vowed to have enemies and allies like Sparta. The Canadian Alliance does not need to pay tribute to Sparta, but needs to provide troops. The alliance will allow Sparta to establish hegemony and rule the Peloponnesus until the 4th century BC. In addition to local politics, Sparta began to broaden its horizons in the 6th century BC. For example, it formed Lydia by forming an alliance with crois, and in 525 BC it sent an expedition against Polikra to Samos.
Competition with Athens, Thebes and Corinth
Sparta overthrew the Athenian tyrant under Cleomenes (520-490 BC), but the resulting democracy prevented Sparta from having any ambitions for the city. However, Sparta allied itself with Athens to resist the invasion of Persian King Xue Xisi, and fought wonderfully in Wenquanguan in 480 BC and in Platia a year later. From 480 BC to 460 BC, the regional confrontation and rebellion of Herodotus destroyed Sparta. Worse, with the confrontation with Athens, it developed from BC 10 to the Peloponnesian War. 460 BC to 446 BC, 43 BC1year to 404 BC. The long war did harm to both sides, but with the help of Persians, Sparta finally won the conflict with the help of Lysander. In 405 BC, the Athenian fleet was destroyed at Egos Potami. However, Sparta's position as the first city-state in Greece was short-lived.
The persistent Spartan ambitions in central and northern Greece, Asia Minor and Sicily once again dragged the city into another protracted conflict, namely the Corinthian War with Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Persia from 396 BC to 387 BC. The result of the conflict is "the king's peace". Sparta ceded her empire to Persia (which in any case lacked the necessary bureaucracy to manage it properly), but Sparta was left to rule Greece. However, in order to crush Thebes, Sparta lost Luctra in the key battle with the talented Thebes general Epaminondas in 37 1 BC. Thebes then annexed parts of Mycenae and Sparta, and then became only a second-rate power.
Spartan women could own property that they usually obtained through dowry and inheritance.
In the 3rd century BC, she briefly challenged Macedonian control. After being besieged by Pyrrhos in 272 BC, Sparta never regained its former glory. She was forced to join the Achaia Confederacy in 195 BC. Under the control of Rome, Sparta was allowed to secede from the Confederacy in BC 147, which triggered the achaean War. But as a free city in the Roman world, the situation in Sparta did improve. The city maintained a good relationship with the conquerors, but when alaric, the visigoth king, looted the city in 396 AD, the end of Sparta finally came.
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Sparta's political system is unusual because it has two hereditary kings from two different families. These monarchs were particularly powerful when one of them led an army to fight. The king was also a priest of Zeus, and they attended the Council of Elders called the Council of Elders. This institution consists of 28 men over the age of 60 who hold this position for life. Citizens led by the Senate may propose a vote on this issue, which is also in the Supreme Court of Sparta. Parliament (ekklsia) is held once a month and is open to all citizens who vote by shouting. There is also a kind of person who is selected by five ephoro (Froy) from civic groups by lottery, and can only serve for one year at most, and is not qualified for future public office. Two of the proverbs were accompanied by a king during the election campaign. How these different political factors interact is still unknown, but obviously, the operation of the state machine requires a certain degree of knowledge. This can also explain Sparta's reputation as a conservative country for its slow decision-making in foreign policy.
society
Like all Greek societies, Sparta was ruled by male citizens, the most powerful of whom came from selected families. These are the nobles of the land. Thanks to the reform of Lekugus in the 6th century BC (even earlier), citizens could not indulge in agricultural activities-this is a large number of Shiloh people-but had to devote themselves to sports and military training and politics. Heros can't own property, so they can't become full citizens. This lack of social mobility will haunt Sparta again in the next few centuries. Due to the continuous wars in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the number of homoioi in Sparta became very small (8000 in 490 BC and 700 in 37 1 year BC), so that it was necessary to recruit non-Spartan soldiers, and their loyalty and interest in Sparta's ambition was questionable.
The Spartan army showed the rest of Greece the road to higher military specialization.
Women in Sparta lived better than women in other Greek cities. Spartan women could own property that they usually obtained through dowry and inheritance. In fact, Spartan women became one of the richest members of society, because their men were killed in many wars and eventually controlled two-fifths of Spartan land. In addition, Spartan women can walk freely, they can enjoy track and field sports (naked like men) and even drink alcohol. All these freedoms are unacceptable to other Greeks and Poles.
There are foreigners (xenoi) in Spartan society, but these people are not as popular as other city-states. Those who do live in Sparta are sometimes overly suspicious by them, and sometimes forcibly expelled by their active and paranoid masters.
Spartan army
For all Spartan citizens, public canteens attach great importance to military training and frugal life, and simple foods such as barley flour, cheese, figs and wine are commonplace. From the age of seven, men have been raised by militarism called AG Gü, where they are divided into different age groups and live in military camps. These young people pursue strict sports and military training. Since the age of 20, they have joined this organization, where they often form homosexual relations with older and more experienced citizens, which becomes more demanding. This kind of hard training led to the professional heavy infantry Spartan army being able to carry out relatively complicated combat exercises, and made them formidable throughout Greece. This fact can be proved by the obvious lack of fortifications for most of Sparta's history.
One of the characteristics of Spartans and their army is that they attach great importance to religious issues. As Herodotus said, they "think that God's things are more important than people's things". Sacrifice before and after the war was a common feature of the Greek war, but the Spartan army went further, such as sacrificing before crossing the river, and even did not mobilize its troops if an important religious festival was being held. During the Greek-Persian War, there were famous events in Marathon and Hot Springs where Spartans put religion above war and even national crisis. In the previous battles, Spartan soldiers came too late to help other Greek cities, while in the latter, they only mobilized symbolic forces because they felt it necessary to celebrate the festival of Canea to commemorate Apollo.
However, the Spartan heavy infantry army showed a greater road to military specialization to other parts of Greece, and took into account the iconic image of fearless and disciplined heavy infantry. They were Greeks, Romans and even 2 1 century movie-audience, which is Sparta.