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The Spartan army was the principle ground force of Sparta.It stood at the center of the ancient Greek city-state, consisting of citizens trained in the disciplines and honor of a warrior society. [1]
Eurotas River. According to myth, the first king of the region later to be called Laconia, but then called Lelegia was the eponymous King Lelex.He was followed, according to tradition, by a series of kings allegorizing several traits of later-to-be Sparta and Laconia, such as the Kings Myles, Eurotas, Lacedaemon and Amyclas of Sparta.
For most of its history, the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously, who were called the archagetai, [1] [n 1] coming from two separate lines.
Many women played a significant role in the history of Sparta. [156] Queen Gorgo, heiress to the throne and the wife of Leonidas I, was an influential and well-documented figure. Herodotus records that as a small girl she advised her father Cleomenes to resist a bribe.
Epaminondas and Caphisodorus were buried together, [13] something usually reserved for a husband and wife in Greek society. Another pair of warrior-lovers—Harmodius and Aristogeiton—credited with the downfall of tyranny in Athens and the rise of democracy became the emblem of the city.
The earliest surviving record of the Sacred Band by name was in 324 BC, in the oration Against Demosthenes by the Athenian logographer Dinarchus.He mentions the Sacred Band as being led by the general Pelopidas and, alongside Epaminondas who commanded the army of Thebes (Boeotia), were responsible for the defeat of the Spartans at the decisive Battle of Leuctra (371 BC).
Spartan law codified under Lycurgus expressed the importance of child-bearing to Sparta. Bearing and raising children was considered the most important role for women in Spartan society; equal to male warriors in the Spartan army. [51] Spartan women were encouraged to produce many children, preferably male, to increase Sparta's military population.
The Thebans marched into Messenia, and freed it from Sparta; this was a fatal blow to Sparta, since Messenia had provided most of the helots which supported the Spartan warrior society. These events permanently reduced Spartan power and prestige, and replaced the Spartan hegemony with a Theban one.