Lacedaemonia

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Lacedaemonia
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Erotas, river god, and Lacedaemonia, his wife
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Dorians Invaders

• Descendants of Heracles moved into the Erotas
  valley and were ancestors of the Spartiate, a
  small, ruling oligarchy
• Mountain and Coastal dwellers became Perioeci,
  dwellers about, who had no political role but
  were free
• Population of the valley were enslaved and became
  Helots, the Spartan serfs
• As the state developed, helots outnumbered
  Spartans 10 to 1.

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Laconian Art
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Early Archaic Age development

• Along same lines as other poleis, state
  controlled by kings and ruling elite
• 725 BC Spartans mounted Taygetus Mts. To west and
  invaded Messenia, enslaved the inhabitants
• With aid from Argos, the Messenians revolted in
  640 BC, almost destroying the Spartan state

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Laconian Art
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Spartans developed their own system designed

• To protect their power
• To keep their helots in check
• To keep their perioeci under control
• To deal with internal threats by maintaining a
  standing militia ever ready to attack internal
  enemies
• To deal with external difficulties when necessary
  PROVIDED it does not leave them open to
  revolution at home

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Military State

• Military became the center of Spartan life
• At birth, Spartan children were assessed for
  physical weaknessthe weak were exposed
• At 7 Spartan boys were taken from their homes and
  began a harsh and painful training period (cf.
  Xenophon)
• At 20 Spartan men became soldiers. They lived in
  the state barracks and ate in a public mess for
  the next 10 years.
• At 30, a Spartan man might be allowed to live
  with his wife, but he was still on call.
• Military service ended at 60 years of age.

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Hierarchy

• 2 Kings descended from Heracles
• 5 Ephors Advisors to the King, elected
  annually, presided over the Gerousia, civil
  trials, taxation, the calendar, foreign policy,
  education, could arrest imprison a king for
  misconduct in war, could imprison or execute any
  helot on their say-so alone
• Gerousia Council of 30 (including 2 kings) 28
  had to be over 60 years of age
• Assembly All Spartiate males over 30

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Raising a Spartan It takes a village

• at 7, boys organized into herds, system called
  agoge
• All adults responsible for actions of all
  children
• Youngest in an agoge supervised by older boys
• At 12, a boy may be voted into a mess, if they
  are not so voted, they cant be citizens
• A mess is a group of 15 men of all ages who eat
  and fight together in wars throughout their lives
• Even after allowed to have own households at 30,
  men still ate main meals with their mess
• Even after leaving military at 60, they still ate
  with their mess and helped to train younger men
  and boys

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Spartan Women

• Physical training and exercise
• Unusual freedom of movement and independence from
  a
• husband

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Spartan ideal

• Discipline
• Self-denial
• Simplicity
• Indifference to pain or to fear
• Subservience to the state