Sparta
Spartans/Lacedaemonians/Laconians/ Peloponnesians
Early Sparta
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Art: BF vase painting (to c. 550)
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Lyric poets: Alcman, Tyrtaeus
Conquest of Messenians (late 8th c.?)
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Messenians become "helots" (serfs)
Lycurgus: (mythical?) 7th c. lawgiver
Spartan Government
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2 Kings (hereditary): war leaders
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5 Ephors: elected annually
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Gerousia: 28 elders + 2 kings
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Assembly: elects ephors, little else
Spartan Society
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Small core (+/- 5000) of citizen warriors
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Rigid athletic & military training
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Membership in "mess" (syssition)
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Control of helots by force, terror
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Krupteia: "secret police"
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No gold or silver; trade forbidden
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From c. 500, no art or literature
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More independence for women
Influence on other Greeks
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Anecdotes of Spartan fortitude
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Influence on Plato’s Republic
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Spartan support of/by oligarchs elsewhere (including Athens)
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