Download Spartan splendour

Introduction to Greek and Roman History
Lecture 3
Meet the Spartans…
5th Century
marble statue of
a Hoplite
(Archaeological
museum at
Sparta)
Sparta, the hoplite state
Sparta, the hoplite state
The Dorians in Peloponnese (second half, X cent. B.C.)
Thuc. I.12.3
Sixty years after the capture of
Ilium the modern Boeotians
were driven out of Arne by the
Thessalians, and settled in the
present Boeotia, the former
Cadmeis; though there was a
division of them there before,
some of whom joined the
expedition to Ilium. Twenty
years later the Dorians and the
Heraclids became masters of
Peloponnese; so that much
had to be done.
Spartan splendour:
The Menelaion
Spartan splendour:
The Menelaion
Spartan splendour:
The Menelaion
Mycenean Palace:Was this the house that
launched a thousand ships?
Spartan splendour:
The temple of Artemis Orthia
Spartan splendour:
The temple of Artemis Orthia
Spartan splendour:
The temple of Artemis Orthia
Spartan splendour:
The temple of Artemis Orthia
Spartan splendour:
Bronzes of daily life: dancing & drinking
Homeric Myths of Love &War: Achilles &Penthiselia
Black Figure vase from Athens ca. 540 BC at the BM
•Homeric Myth
• Hand to Hand combat
• How is battle depicted?
• Focus on a single event
• How is writing depicted
and what is it’s function?
The Chigi vase, protocorinthian art, mid-VII cent.
The tower shield
Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς
‘With this or on
this’
Why a Spartan
should not
return without
his shield…
Golden ring from a tomb of Mycenae
Sparta, the hoplite state
A new kind of Greek man:
The hoplite
It is proper that the government
should be drawn only from those
who possess heavy armor.
Aristotle, Politics IV.1397b
• Growing supply of metal and improved
production capability, it is possible to arm larger
armies.
•Larger sections of the population can afford to
bear arms.
•Hoplite: soldier wearing the hopla, a full heavy
armoury.
• Standard equipment: bronze greaves and
corslet, bronze helmet, heavy convex circular
shield, held placing the forearm through a hoop,
long spear and short sword for close combat.
• Poor visibility and mobility, close co-ordination,
tight formation and discipline were essential.
Sparta, the hoplite state
The seizure of Amyklai (early VIII cent.) and the earliest
communities of perioikoi (around-dwellers)
Communities possessing
local autonomy, but
without separate military
organisation or foreign
policy.
They fought in the Spartan
army in separate
regiments.
Colonial Sparta: the conquest of Messenia (735-715)
Paus. IV.6.5
It was this Theopompus who
put an end to the war, and
my evidence is the lines of
Tyrtaeus, which say:—“To
our king beloved of the gods,
Theopompus, through whom
we took Messene with wide
dancing-grounds.”
Aristomenes then in my view
belongs to the time of the
second war, and I will relate
his history when I come to
this.
The enslaved populations of Messenia
Poll. Omon. III.83
Helots stand between the freemen and the
slaves.
Helots
• The land of Messenia is divided up into
kleroi (allotments) and distributed to the
Spartiates.
• The indigenous inhabitants of Messenia
were retained in the land as peasants,
working the land for and paying half their
produce to their Spartiate masters.
22
Chattel slavery, helot slavery
Chattel slaves: Slaves that can be bought and
sold, i.e. pieces of alienable property: Athenian
slavery.
Helot slaves: State-owned slaves tied to the
land they work. Spartan slavery.
23
Lycourgos and the Spartan constitution (rhetra)
1. The citizens belong to the state and
are all equal (homoioi).
2. The elders of the tribes decide whether
a newly born child should be reared or
thrown into a mountain ravine.
3. At seven, a child begins the agoge
(upbringing).
4. At twelve, the child is initiated to
common living.
5. At twenty, the agoge ends, the young
men are admitted into the sissitia, or
andreia.
The Spartan constitution (rhetra)
Laconophiles: Borrowing Spartan imagery