The Rise and Fall of Sparta

this episode brought to you by mova globes for more information look at the end of the episode [Music] the historian plutarch relates the now famous story about philip ii of macedonia the father of alexander the great in the city-state of sparta philip was said to have sent a message to sparta that said if once i enter your lands i will destroy ye never to rise again and the spartans were said to respond with a single word if of course the military prowess of the spartans was legendary even in their own time especially after the battle of thermopylae and the spartans had secured the position as the strongest city state in greece with their defeat over athens in the peloponnesian war in 404 bc but by the time philip sent his message sparta was really nothing more than a minor power sparta held undisputed the position as the strongest city-state in greece for a mere 30 years before being toppled suddenly and decisively and many of the same factors that allowed them to gain their power contributed to their downfall the rise and fall of the mighty city-state of sparta deserves to be remembered the laws that came to define classical sparta known in antiquity as lesser demon came after a period of lawlessness in the 8th and 7th century bc peloponnesis that ended with the social and political reforms traditionally attributed to the semi-mythical figure the corgis this included the development of the spartan ago gay the spartan school that educated and trained boys from the age of seven early on the spartans conquered the nearby state of messina and forced its people into a position of state-owned serfdom this population was the foundation of what allowed spartians or spartan citizens and soldiers to spend all of their time training while the slaves called hilletts took care of farming and other labor a third class the periokoi ran commerce crafts and manufacturing as spartan citizens were forbidden from doing any kind of money-making activity sparta first rose to military prominence in greece after they defeated the messinians and their greek allies in the second messinian war sometime in the mid 7th century bc for the next several hundred years their reputation as the best land force in greece was unequaled the spartans received considerable credit for their leadership in repealing the persians at thermopylae and patea athens took over fighting persia after that building the delian league to continue the fight athens quickly began using league funds to its own ends and used military might to punish members who didn't toe the line in 456 bc thasos rebelled and asked for spartan aid it was an opportune time as spartan warhawks were already worried that athens was a threat to spartan power a plan was even made to invade attica but the plans were tabled when what thucydides called the great earthquake struck sparta contemporary reports of the earthquake are sparse later historians said it was greater than any before reported greek historian diadoros claimed that 20 000 were killed by the quake and plutarch says that it demolished the entire city with the exception of five houses but spartan houses were famously well spartan they were small and they were single story and so most historians assume that the death toll must have been exaggerated but still it must have been a large earthquake a 1991 study that was looking for evidence of the earthquake determined that it must have had a surface wave magnitude of some 7.2 and the earthquake would play a large role in the later decline of the powerful city-state dissatisfied helix saw this as an opportunity and revolted in messinia one probably legendary story says that the spartan army was marched out of the city in time to save it from the earthquake but it's difficult to know the actual cost it is telling that the spartan army couldn't put down the revolt the spartans called on help from the hellenic league and several cities sent aid including athens the rebels fortified their position on mount ethom and the greeks were unable to break through the spartans saw athens soldiers as a threat and they were concerned that the democratic ideals might incite others to revolt or that the athenians could even join the helots eventually the suspicion boiled over and the spartans demanded that the athenian force leave the other allies remained and athenians were deeply insulted the pro-spartan party in athens crumbled and the athenians broke off their friendship with sparta athens welcomed exiled rebels when sparta finally defeated the revolt the first peloponnesian war involved the needs and rivalries of a number of states but was essentially a conflict between athens delian league and the spartan peloponnesian league the war ended in a stalemate in the signing of the 30 years peace in 446 15 years later war broke out again in what historians call just the peloponnesian war the war was fought on and off between 431 and 404 bc with the spartans eventually defeating the athenian navy it was the costliest war in greek history but gave the spartans unquestioned hegemony over greece this was the peak of spartan power king aguesselaius ii even took an army to ionia to fight the persians unfortunately other greek states weren't willing to sit idly by ten years after the end of the peloponnesian war thebes athens corinth and argos formed a coalition backed by the persians to disrupt spartan control agues elaias came home to deal with the rebellious cities but a spartan fleet was destroyed by the persians at the battle of nidis marking the end of sparta's attempts to rule the sea while agusaleas and the spartans fought their foes to a standstill on land athens rebuilt the long walls between the city and its port at varayas and rebuilt their fleet the fleet began to recapture spartan controlled islands in the aegean and the athenians began supporting anti-persian forces in egypt and cyprus persia's primary goal was to keep the greeks divided so that they would stop messing with their borders and so a rising athens was not ideal the spartan antalcitus was able to negotiate with the persians and made a deal that if the other greeks refused to accept peace persia would switch its support to sparta the piece was called antalcodus's peace or the king's peace referring to our texas ii of persia greek cities would remain autonomous which primarily meant the various leagues were outlawed benefiting sparta while greece as the whole agreed to leave ionia and cyprus to the persians the spartans secured their hegemony but it was persia who benefited the most the spartans took advantage of their leadership punishing disloyal cities like mantania and augusta leias pushed sparta camping further afield in 382 bc a spartan general marching against far off calcity stopped in thebes and on behalf of the oligarchic party there seized the city's citadel the kadmia he executed the anti-spartan leader put pro-spartan men in charge of the city and left a garrison the theban palapidus fled with supporters to athens where he masterminded the conspiracy to return when they did a few years later they ambushed and killed their political opponents captured the spartan garrison and freed the city the spartans failed to retake the city and made a failed assault on athens which drove athens to ally with thebes the newly built athenian fleet delivered a stunning deflate to the spartan navy at nexus in boesha palepidus learned that the spartans had left a city undefended to go on an expedition elsewhere he hastily marched to take the city but turned back when he learned reinforcements were already near the city he didn't get back to thieves before he ran into the returning troops of the expedition near the city of taguira palopidus commanded the sacred band of thebes an elite unit made up of 150 pairs of men devoted to each other by mutual obligations of love in some 200 cavalry the spartan force numbered somewhere between a thousand and eighteen hundred plutarch says that upon seeing the spartans one theban said we are fallen into our enemies hands and palapidus responded and why not they into ours palapidus ordered his men into an unusually dense formation and charged the spartan phalanx while the cavalry harassed their flanks the spartan leaders were killed early in the battle and the dense formation was able to punch through the thinner spartan line once through the thebans struck the spartan rear and flanks and routed the whole formation it was the first time the spartans had been beaten on land by a lesser force fearful of thieves supremacy athens forced thebes and sparta into a peace negotiation the negotiation fell apart because thieves sought to rebuild its old boeshian league and the general if paminondis insisted on signing behalf of the league and not just thieves this was unacceptable the king adjace who crossed thiebs name off the treaty and then went home to prepare for war almost immediately the spartan sent a force under a second king cleon brothus to bring thebes to heal the spartans met the boesian forces near the small village of luctra on july 6th 371. the blessians were outnumbered with between six and nine thousand hoplites and fifteen hundred cavalry facing some ten thousand or slightly more spartans and their allies along with the thousand cavalry epomendus convinced the other generals to fight epema nandos broke from the traditional greek battle plan in general the greeks would put their strongest unit on the right side of their formation in a phalanx 8-12 men deep this meant that the opposing forces best troops didn't meet head-on but hit the weaker flank and attempted to turn it quick enough to route the whole formation instead the thebans put their best troops including this sacred band and some cavalry on the left flank opposite the spartans veterans in a phalanx 50 deep the rest of the thievin line was laid out diagonally and behind the initial force screened by cavalry and slingers the theban flank smashed the spartan formation killing the king and hundreds of spartans the rest of the spartan line held mostly by spartan allies who were less enthusiastic about fighting broke immediately reports differ but the spartans lost somewhere between a thousand and four thousand soldiers while the thieving casualties were much smaller even though it was a small battle luke had immediate and dramatic repercussions throughout greece the spartan myth of superiority was shattered completely ending in a day with the spartans have carefully built and sustained for centuries epeminondos marched against the peloponnese four times in the following years supporting cities that broke away from sparta an arcadian league brought many of the cities on sparta's northern border together and the demons even invaded laconia itself most disastrously for the spartans the thebans freed messinia and fortified the town of a scene depriving support of a third of its land and an even greater percentage of the helot population the thebans had their work cut out for them as their power drove their allies away while sparta remained handicapped thieves remained at war on several fronts in 362 bc nearly all of greece was arrayed on one side or the other when apparently marched against matinee sparta athens and the other states stood with mantanae against thebes and her allies the battle of mantanea was one of the largest ever in classical greece and there were more than fifty thousand troops present epema nandus again used innovative tactics allowing his enemies into thinking he was setting up camp before suddenly attacking while the thebans won the day epema nandis was killed likely by a spartan thebes power was spent the greek states had essentially battered each other into submission making it easy for alexander the great's father philip ii to defeat them sparta alone among the greeks refused to join philip's corinthian league but despite their still intact laconic wit the spartans no longer represented much of a threat and philip was able to seize some of their borderlands in 331 king aies iii of sparta declared war on macedon hoping to take advantage of the recent rebellion of thrace alexander's general and a painter defeated them sadly and killed ais the battle at luke tread drew a stark line across bartus history the question of why the powerful state fell so suddenly continues to persist the earthquake in 464 though nearly a century before luketra might have contributed to an obvious and serious decline in spartan manpower according to herodotus the spartans called all men between the ages of 20 and 55 to fight at batea in 479 which brought up as many as six thousand spartates spartan citizens who've gone through the training in the agoge they mustered about four thousand in 418 and there may be as few as a thousand by the time of luktra the earthquake may have killed some soldiers and certainly killed wives and children living communally in the agoge but it's impossible to know how great an effect that had on spartan numbers other theories have also been put forward spartan citizenship was always a closely protected privilege that belonged only to a small group of people the peloponnesian war forced the normally strict caste system to emit helits as warriors at least some of whom were freed following service good example of sparta's struggle for manpower it was much easier to lose one's citizenship than it was to gain it and spartan soldiers who showed weakness or children who failed in the agoge were expelled from the ranks plutarch describes an initiation ceremony claiming that if any member of the group objected to an initiate the man would be denied entrance to the unit spartan men also married late form 25 or later and they could not maintain a home until they were 30. this meant that many spartan warriors died without ever having children the declining number of spartiates can also be attributed to wealth inequality aristotle to modern historians famously misogynistic blames sparta's tradition of allowing women to inherit land which kept it from supporting more soldiers stale by 300 bc wealth was accumulating belonging to only around 100 families conservative feelings in sparta delayed any reform until after the city had been humbled each sparta also called the homie or the semblers was given a plot of land worked by helits which was meant to support them they were expected to contribute to their units meals and if they were unable to produce enough could lose their place in the unit in their citizenship without a doubt there was a shift in spartan society during and after the peloponnesian war when a number of new social classes appeared the neo-dominos meaning literally lately made one of the people were hellets freed after serving in the army the inferiors are less well-known but could have included former spartates and perhaps illegitimate children some textual evidence suggests that his spartan manpower needs became greater peri-okoi and helets were used in greater numbers to supplement spartan strength the spartans remained a minor regional power after luchter and participated in civil wars over the course of the next 200 years but their reputation was no longer legendary and nor was their performance this might be because they were slow to adapt new tactics like they had seen at luctra and that certainly affected the tactics of alexander the romans conquered sparta and despite many efforts to reform and return to the original traditions the spartans never again lived up to that legendary reputation and of course today that legendary reputation is pretty much all that survives but the rise in fall of sparta is important it represents that period between when the persians failed to conquer greece and the rise of alexander played an important role in the future of western civilization if you've been watching the history guide lately you might have noticed this amazing 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 178,557

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, ancient history, greece, city state, sparta

Id: cKNQQOEm2QM

Length: 16min 48sec (1008 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 16 2020