Examples of Sparta in the following topics:
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- Sparta, known for its militaristic culture and unequaled women's rights, was a dominant military power in classical Greece.
- Sparta's defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE ended Sparta's prominent role in Greece.
- In the later
classical period, Sparta fought amongst Athens, Thebes, and Persia for
supremacy within the region.
- Sparta functioned under an oligarchy.
- Marble statue of a helmed hoplite (5th century BCE), Archaeological Museum of Sparta, Greece.
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- The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) was fought between
Athens and its empire, known as the Delian League, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.
- Sparta
also abandoned its invasion of Attica during this time, unwilling to risk
contact with their diseased enemy.
- The Athenians
supported the Argives and encouraged them to form a coalition of democratic
states within the Peloponnese and separate from Sparta.
- Meanwhile, the Syracusans petitioned Sparta for assistance in
the matter, and Sparta sent their general, Gylippus, to Sicily with reinforcements.
- By this time, Sparta was receiving support from
Persia, and Sparta bolstered rebellions in Athens’ Aegean Sea and Ionian subject
states, in order to undermine Athens empire.
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- Following the Peloponnesian War, Athens underwent a period
of harsh oligarchic governance and Sparta enjoyed a brief hegemonic period.
- The Peloponnesian War ended in victory for Sparta and its
allies, and led directly to the rising naval power of Sparta.
- As a result of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta, which had
primarily been a continental culture, became a naval power.
- At its peak, Sparta
overpowered many key Greek states, including the elite Athenian navy.
- Sparta’s
international political influence precipitated quickly after their defeat.
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- The violent actions of Spartan leader Pausanias at the siege of
Byzantium, for instance, alienated many of the Greek states from Sparta, and led
to a shift in the military command of the Delian League from Sparta to Athens.
- This set the stage for Sparta’s eventual withdrawal from the Delian League.
- Thasos allied with Persia and petitioned Sparta for assistance, but
Sparta was unable to help because it was facing the largest helot revolution in
its history.
- Nonetheless, relations between Athens and Sparta were soured by
the situation.
- Beginning in
449 BCE, the Persians attempted to aggravate the growing tensions between Athens
and Sparta, and would even bribe politicians to achieve these aims.
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- In the aftermath of the
Peloponnesian War, Sparta rose as a hegemonic power in classical Greece.
- Sparta’s dominance was challenged by many Greek city-states who had
traditionally been independent during the Corinthian War of 395-387 BCE.
- Sparta
prevailed in the conflict, but only because Persia intervened on their behalf,
demonstrating the fragility with which Sparta held its power over the other
Greek city-states.
- In the next decade, the Thebans revolted against Sparta,
successfully liberating their city-state, and later defeating the Spartans at
the Battle of Leuctra (371 BCE).
- Theban general Epaminondas then led an
invasion of the Peloponnesus in 370 BCE, invaded Messenia, and liberated the
helots, permanently crippling Sparta.
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- Sparta functioned under an
oligarchy.
- For example, the Athenian general Xenophon sent his two
sons to Sparta as trophimoi.
- Spartiates
were actually a minority within Sparta, and Helots made up the largest class of
inhabitants of the city-state.
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- With the help of an army from Sparta in 511/510 BCE, he was overthrown by Cleisthenes, a radical politician of aristocratic background who established democracy in Athens.
- Prior to the rise of Athens, Sparta, a city-state with a militaristic culture, considered itself the leader of the Greeks, and enforced an hegemony.
- These victories enabled Athens to bring most of the Aegean, and many other parts of Greece, together in the Delian League, creating an Athenian-dominated alliance from which Sparta and its allies withdrew.
- The resulting tensions brought about the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE), in which Athens was defeated by its rival, Sparta.
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- Darius sent ambassadors to all Greek cities to demand full submission in
light of the recent Persian victory, and all cities submitted, with the
exceptions of Athens and Sparta, both of which executed their respective
ambassadors.
- These actions signaled Athens’ continued defiance and brought
Sparta into the conflict.
- Historians
also speculate that Sparta was unconvinced of the ability of the Delian League
to secure long-term security for Asian Greeks.
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- To avoid fighting the Greeks themselves, the Persians attempted to set Athens against Sparta, regularly bribing politicians to achieve their aims.
- There was no open conflict between the Greeks and Persia until 396 BC, when the Spartan king Agesilaus briefly invaded Asia Minor with initial success, but he eventually returned his forces to Sparta after several military losses.
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- Many were initially established, as in Sparta, via a network of villages, with a
governance center being established in a central urban center.
- Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras.