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The Spartan army was the principle ground force of Sparta. ... By the beginning of the 7th century BC, Sparta was, along with Argos, the Peloponnese's dominant power.
During the 3rd century BC, a social crisis slowly emerged: wealth had become concentrated amongst about 100 families [117] and the number of equals (who had always formed the backbone of the Spartan army) had fallen to 700 (less than a tenth of its 9000 strong highpoint in the 7th century BC). [117] Agis IV was the first Spartan king to attempt ...
In doing so, they trapped 420 Spartan hoplites on the island of Sphacteria, off Pylos. 120 of these were from the Spartiate class, and their peril threw the Spartan government into a panic. Members of the government were dispatched to the scene, and negotiated an armistice on the spot; the entire Spartan fleet was surrendered to the Athenians ...
[28] [114] By the mid-5th century, land had become concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, and the notion that all Spartan citizens were equals had become an empty pretence. By Aristotle's day (384–322 BC) citizenship had been reduced from 9,000 to less than 1,000, then further decreased to 700 at the accession of Agis IV in 244 BC.
At the Battle of Sepeia (Ancient Greek: Σήπεια; c. 494 BC [1]), the Spartan forces of Cleomenes I defeated the Argives, fully establishing Spartan dominance in the Peloponnese. [2] The Battle of Sepeia is infamous for having the highest number of casualties within a battle during the classical Greek period. [3]
Lycurgus (/ l aɪ ˈ k ɜːr ɡ ə s /; Ancient Greek: Λυκοῦργος Lykourgos) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, credited with the formation of its eunomia (' good order '), [1] involving political, economic, and social reforms to produce a military-oriented Spartan society in accordance with the Delphic oracle.
An army that was often willing to support its general over its emperor, meant that if commanders could establish sole control of their army, they could usurp the imperial throne from that position. The so-called Crisis of the Third Century describes the turmoil of murder, usurpation and in-fighting that followed the murder of the Emperor ...
The siege of Sparta took place in 272 BC and was a battle fought between Epirus, led by King Pyrrhus, (r. 297–272 BC) and an alliance consisting of Sparta, under the command of King Areus I (r. 309–265 BC) and his heir Acrotatus, and Macedon.