022 Sparta Ascendant

The History of Ancient Greece

Ryan Stitt

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2016

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we discuss the early history of the polis of Lakedaimon (Sparta), including their expansion in the southern Peloponnesos with the 1st and 2nd Messenian Wars (that brought about the formation of the helot system of slavery); Spartan society's social-class tensions and civil strife that led to reform, supposedly by the semi-mythical lawgiver Lykourgos in the 8th century BC, but more likely a gradual process during the 7th and 6th centuries BC; its military growing pains as Sparta suffered a series of losses to their neighbors, Argos (in the Argolid) and Tegea (in southern Arcadia), before eventually defeating them; the life of Chilon, one of the Seven Sages, and his role in making amendments to the Spartan constitution and in guiding foreign policy; and Sparta's ultimate rise to hegemony over their Peloponnesian and Isthmian neighbors, resulting in what modern scholars call the "Peloponnesian League"

Show Notes: http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2016/08/022-sparta-ascendant.html

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Hello and welcome back to the history of ancient Greece.
0:21.6	Episode 22 Sparta Ascendant.
0:27.0	On the southeastern portion of the Peloponnese, there are three claws that jut outward. Between the middle claws runs the Euryotus River, which travels from the mountains through the fertile Laconian plain.
0:39.6	About 25 miles north of where the river empties into the sea, sits the polis of lacai diemone, better known as Sparta.
0:48.5	It is located between two mountain ranges.
0:51.4	To the west is the towering Mount Tgetus, and to the east is the lower Mount Parnon.
0:57.0	Thus Sparta had access to plentiful water, was in a defensible location, and controlled access to the entire region of Laconia.
1:06.0	Sparta is famous for the way in which it lifted the abstract idea of a Polis
1:11.0	to a more extreme level than the rest of the Greeks. They made the Polis the complete
1:16.4	center of a man's life, which would become a model for many utopian philosophers later.
1:21.8	However, previously, Sparta used to be a polis like the others.
1:26.8	They employed skilled craftsman in making pottery and even enjoyed art and poetry.
1:31.7	We have previously discussed the musical schools of Turpander and Thilettis, as well as the poet Alkman. But Sparta initiated changes that removed all of that. When and in one manner all this happened is difficult to trace and was
1:46.4	subject to much controversy with even the ancient Greeks. Except for some fragmentary lyric verse by the 7th century BC poets Aukman and Tertaeus.
1:57.0	Our literary evidence for Sparta was created by outsiders who wrote well after many of the events they described.
2:04.0	Despite the interest the Spartans sparked in their contemporaries,
2:08.0	it is surprisingly difficult to write the history of Sparta.
2:11.0	The problem, though, is not a lack of sources.
2:15.0	For example, in the course of their narratives on Greek history,
2:19.2	Herodotus and Thucydides reveal a great deal about Spartan political history.
2:24.2	And the bulk of our information about Spartan society comes from Xenophon and Plutarch.
2:29.6	Xenophon admired the Spartans, and because of this he was exiled at Athens. So he moved to the Peloponnese where he
	...

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