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| Prefecture: | Laconia |
| Province: | Province of Lacedaemonia |
| Location: Latitude: Longitude: | 37.07/37°4'15' N lat. 22.425/22°25'33' E long. |
| Dwellings: | --> |
| Population: ( 1991) - Total - Density¹ - Rank | -13,011 -/km² |
| Communes: | |
| Elevation: -lowest: -centre: -highest: | 210 m(centre) |
| Postal code: | 231 00 |
| Area/distance code: | 11-30- 27310 -2 (030-27310-2) |
| Municipal code : | 3221 |
| Car designation: | AK
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| Name of inhabitants: | Spartan sing. -s pl. |
| Address of administration: | 2 Gortsologou St. Sparta 231 00 |
Sparta (Σπάρτη) was an ancient city in Greece, the capital of Laconia and the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. The city lay at the northern end of the central Laconian plain, on the right bank of the river Eurotas. The site is strategically sited, guarded from three sides by mountains, and controls the routes by which an army can penetrate Laconia and the southern Peloponnessus and the Langhda Pass over Mt Taygetus connecting Laconia and Messenia. At the same time its distance from the sea—Sparta is 27 miles from its seaport, Gythium —made it difficult to blockade.
Sparta was the main superpower in ancient Greece before the rise of Athens after the Persian Wars. Initially they were reluctant allies, but soon became rivals. The second and third conflicts between them, which resulted in the dismantling of the Athenian Empire, is generally known as the Peloponnesian WarThe Peloponnesian War was begun in 431 BC between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League which included Sparta and Corinth. The war was documented by Thucydides, an Athenian general, in his work History of the Peloponnesian War''. The war lasted. Spartan attempts to take over from the Athenians as 'the guardians of Hellenism' ended in failure, and the first ever defeat of a (full strength) Spartan hoplite army at the Battle of LeuctraLeuctra was a village of Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae, chiefly noticeable for the battle fought in its neighborhood in 371 BC between the Thebans and the Spartans and their allies. A Peloponnesian army, about 10,000 strong, which had invaded Boeot in 371 B.C. By the time of Alexander of Macedon Sparta was a shadow of its former self, and was eventually forced into the Achaean LeagueThe Achaean League was a confederation of Greek city states in Achaea, a territory on the northern coast of the Peloponnese. An initial confederation existed during the 5th through the 4th century BC. The Achaean League reformed early in the 3rd century B.
See: History of SpartaPrehistoric Period Tradition relates that Sparta was founded by Lacedaemon, son of Zeus and Taygete, who called the city after his wife, the daughter of Eurotas. But Amyclae and Therapne (Therapnae) seem to have been in early times of greater importance t
Little is recorded of the internal development of Sparta. This want of information was attributed by most of the Greeks to "the stability of the Spartan constitution", which had lasted unchanged from the days of LycurgusLycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. He is referenced by ancient historians Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plutarch. It is not clea. But it is, in fact, due also to the absence of historical literature at Sparta, to the small part played by written laws, which were, according to tradition, expressly prohibited by an ordinance of Lycurgus, and to the secrecy which always characterizes an oligarchical rule. At the head of the state stood two hereditary kings, of the Agiad and Eurypontid families, equal in authority, so that one could not act against the veto of his colleague, though the Agiad king received greater honour in virtue of the seniority of his family (Herod. vi. 5).
This dual kingship, a phenomenon unique in history, was explained in Sparta by the tradition that on AristodemusIn Greek mythology, Aristodemus was a son of Aristomaches and brother of Cresphontes and Temenus. He was a great-great-grandson of Heracles and helped lead the fifth and final attack on Mycenae in the Peloponnesus. Aristodemus and his brothers complained's death he had been succeeded by his twin sons, and that this joint rule had been perpetuated. Modern scholars have advanced various theories to account for the anomaly. Some suppose that it must be explained as an attempt to avoid absolutism, and is paralleled by the analogous instance of the consuls at Rome. Others think that it points to a compromise arrived at to end the struggle between two families or communities, or that the two royal houses represent respectively the Spartan conquerors and their Achaean predecessors: those who hold this last view appeal to the words attributed by Herodotus (v. 72) to Cleomenes I: "I am no Dorian, but an Achaean."
The duties of the kings were mainly religious, judicial and military. They were the chief priests of the state, and had to perform certain sacrifices and to maintain communication with the Delphian sanctuary, which always exercised great authority in Spartan politics. Their judicial functions had at the time when Herodotus wrote (about 430 BC) been restricted to cases dealing with heiresses, adoptions and the public roads: civil cases were decided by the ephors) criminal jurisdiction had passed to the council of elders and the ephors. It was in the military sphere that the powers of the kings were least restricted.
Aristotle describes the kingship at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship" (Pol. iii. I285a), while Isocrates refers to the Spartans as "subject to an oligarchy at home, to a kingship on campaign" (iii. 24). Here also, however, the royal prerogatives were curtailed in course of time: from the period of the Persian wars the king lost the right of declaring war on whom he pleased, he was accompanied to the field by two ephors, and he was supplanted also by the ephors in the control of foreign policy. More and more, as time went on, the kings became mere figure-heads, except in their capacity as generals, and the real power was transferred to the ephors and to the gerousia. The reason for this change lay partly in the fact that the ephors, chosen by popular election from the whole body of citizens, represented a democratic element in the constitution without violating those oligarchical methods which seemed necessary for its satisfactory administration; partly in the weakness of the kingship, the dual character of which inevitably gave rise to jealousy and discord between the two holders of the office, often resulting in a practical deadlock; partly in the loss of prestige suffered by the kingship, especially during the 5th century, owing to these quarrels, to the frequency with which kings ascended the throne as minors and a regency was necessary, and to the many cases in which a king was, rightly or wrongly, suspected of having accepted bribes from the enemies of the state and was condemned and banished.| Politics | Business | Finance |
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