In the first part of our article, we already talked about the fact that Lacedaemon became "Sparta" as a result of the two Messenian wars, which led to the transformation of the Spartiat state into a "military camp".
During the First Messenian War, a strange category of unequal citizens appeared in Sparta - "children of the virgins" (Parthenia). Ephor Kimsky (a historian from Asia Minor, a contemporary of Aristotle) claims that Spartan women began to complain that even those who still have their husbands alive have been living like widows for many years - because men vowed not to return home until victory. As a result, a group of young soldiers was allegedly sent to Sparta to "share a bed" with abandoned wives and girls of marriageable age. However, the children born to them were not recognized as legal. Why? Perhaps, these young warriors, in fact, no one gave permission to "share a bed" with other people's wives and, moreover, the virgins of Sparta? According to another, less romantic version, the Parfenians were children from mixed marriages. Whoever the "children of the virgins" were, they did not receive land plots with helots attached to them, and therefore could not be considered full citizens. The uprising of the Parthenians who demanded justice was suppressed, but the problem remained. Therefore, it was decided to send the "children of the virgins" to the south of Italy, where they founded the city of Tarentum. A large settlement of the Iapig tribe, located in a place that the Parthians liked, was destroyed, its inhabitants were exterminated, which was confirmed by the discovery of a large necropolis - a mass grave site dating back to that era.
Trent on the map
The resentment of the "children of the virgins" against the homeland that actually expelled them was so great that for a long time they practically ceased all ties with Lacedaemon. The lack of bearers of tradition led to the development of the colony along a path directly opposite to the Spartan one. And, called upon by the Tarentians for the war with Rome, Pyrrhus was unpleasantly surprised to see that the descendants of the Spartiates “of their own free will were not inclined either to defend themselves or to defend anyone else, but wanted to send him into battle in order to stay at home themselves and not leave baths and feasts”(Polybius).
Coin of the city of Tarentum, 4th century BC
During the II Messenian War, the famous phalanx appeared in the Spartan army, and the Spartan youths began to patrol the night roads, hunting helots (crypti) running to the mountains or to Messenia.
After the final victory over Messenia (668 BC), a long period of Sparta dominance in Hellas began.
While other states "dumped" the "surplus" population in the colonies, actively populating the coasts of the Mediterranean and even the Black Seas, the constantly growing Sparta with its brilliantly trained army became the undisputed hegemon in Greece, for a long time neither individual policies nor their unions. But, as Aristotle noted, "it is pointless to create a culture based solely on military prowess, since there is such a thing as peace, and you have to deal with it from time to time." At times it seemed that before the creation of a single Greek state with Sparta at the head, only a step remained - but this, the last, step was never taken by Lacedaemon. Sparta was too unlike other policies, the difference between its elite and the elites of other states was too great, ideals were too different. In addition, the Spartans have traditionally been indifferent to the affairs of the rest of Greece. While the safety and well-being of Lacedaemon and the Peloponnese was not threatened, Sparta was calm, and this calmness at times bordered on selfishness. All this did not allow the creation of a common Greek aristocracy, which would be interested in the existence of a single Hellas. Centrifugal forces were constantly tearing Greece apart.
We have already said in the first part that from the age of 7 to 20, Spartan boys were brought up in agels - a kind of boarding houses, whose task was to educate the ideal citizens of the city that refused to build fortress walls. Among other things, they taught them to express their thoughts shortly, clearly and clearly - that is, to express themselves laconically. And this greatly surprised the Greeks of other policies, in whose schools, on the contrary, they were taught to hide meaning behind beautiful long phrases ("eloquence", that is, demagoguery and rhetoric). In addition to the sons of the citizens of Sparta, there were two more categories of students in the agels. The first of them - children from aristocratic families of other Greek states - the Spartan system of education and upbringing was highly valued in Hellas. But noble birth was not enough: in order to determine the son in the agela, the father had to have some kind of service to Lacedaemon. Along with the children of the Spartans and noble foreigners, the children of the Perieks also studied in agels, who later became adjutants to the Spartan warriors, and, if necessary, could replace the dead or wounded hoplites of the phalanx. It was difficult to use helots and ordinary perieks who had not undergone military training as hoplites - a poorly trained fighter in the phalanx acting as a well-oiled mechanism was not an ally, but rather a burden. It was the heavily armed hoplites (from the word "hoplon" - "shield") that were the basis of the Spartan army.
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Hoplite marble statue. 5th century BC Archaeological Museum of Sparta, Greece
And the word "shield" in the name of these soldiers is not accidental. The fact is that the shield, standing in the ranks of the hoplites, covered not only himself, but also his comrades:
“After all, every warrior, fearing for his unprotected side, tries as much as possible to hide behind the shield of his comrade on the right, and thinks that the more closely the ranks are closed, the safer his position” (Thucydides).
After the battle, the Spartans carried the dead and wounded on their shields. Therefore, the traditional parting words to the Spartiat going on a campaign were the words: "With a shield, or on a shield." The loss of the shield was a terrible crime, which could even be followed by deprivation of citizenship.
Jean-Jacques le Barbier, Spartan woman hands the shield to her son
Young perieks, who had not received training in agel, were used in the Spartan army as auxiliary light infantry. In addition, helots accompanied the Spartiats on campaigns - sometimes their number reached seven people per Spartan. They did not take part in hostilities, they were used as servants - they performed the duties of porters, cooks, orderlies. But in other policies, porters, carpenters, potters, gardeners and cooks were given weapons and put into service by hoplites: it is not surprising that in Sparta such armies, both enemy and allied, were treated with contempt.
But sometimes the Spartans had to include helots in the auxiliary infantry units. During the difficult Peloponnesian war, the number of liberated helots in the Spartan army reached 2-3 thousand people. Some of them were then even trained to act as part of a phalanx and became hoplites.
On the campaign, the Spartan army was accompanied by flutists, who played their marches during the battle:
"They have it not according to religious custom, but in order to march in step to the beat of the music and not to break the battle formation" (Thucydides).
Spartan warriors going into battle, and a flutist drawing from a Corinthian vase, VII century. BC.
The clothes of the Spartans going on a campaign were traditionally red so that no blood could be seen on it. Before the battles, the king brought the first sacrifice to the Muzam - "so that the story about us was worthy of our exploits" (Evdamid). If there was an Olympic champion in the Spartan army, he was given the right to be next to the king during the battle. Service in the cavalry in Sparta was not considered prestigious, for a long time those who could not serve as a hoplite were recruited into the cavalry. The first mention of the Spartan cavalry dates back only to 424 BC, when 400 horsemen were recruited, who were used mainly to guard the phalanx. In 394 BC. the number of cavalrymen in the Spartan army increased to 600.
Victory in Greece was determined by the arrival of a messenger from the defeated side, who passed on a request for an armistice in order to collect the corpses of the soldiers. A curious story happened during the reign of Phiraeus in 544 BC. Then, by agreement of the Spartans and Argos, 300 soldiers entered the battle: the disputed area was to remain for the victors. By the end of the day, 2 Argos and 1 Spartan survived. The Argos, considering themselves victors, left the battlefield and set out for Argos to please their fellow citizens with the news of their victory. But the Spartan warrior remained in place, and his compatriots regarded the departure of the opponents from the battlefield as a flight. The Argos, of course, did not agree with this, and the next day the battle of the main forces of Argos and Sparta took place, in which the Spartans won. Herodotus claims that from that time on, the Spartans began to wear long hair (previously they cut it short), and the Argos, on the contrary, decided to have a short haircut - until they were able to recapture Thiraea.
At the turn of the VI-V centuries. BC. Argos was Lacedaemon's main rival in the Peloponnese. King Cleomenes I finally defeated him. When, after one of the battles, the retreating Argos tried to hide in the sacred grove and the main temple of the country located in it, he without hesitation ordered the helots accompanying him to set fire to the grove. Later, Cleomenes intervened in the affairs of Athens, expelling the tyrant Hippias (510 BC), and in 506 BC. captured Eleusis and even planned to take Athens in order to include Attica in the Peloponnesian Union, but was not supported by his rival, King Euripontides Demarat. This Cleomenes Demarat never forgave: later, in order to declare him illegitimate, he forged the Delphic oracle. Having achieved the removal of Demarat, Cleomenes with the new king Leotichides conquered the island of Aegina. Demarat fled from Sparta to Persia. But all these exploits did not save Cleomenes, when the fraud with the forgery of the Delphic oracle was revealed. This was followed by the events that were described in the first part: the flight to Arcadia, the inglorious death after returning to Sparta - we will not repeat ourselves. Once again, I returned to these events to report that Leonidas, who was destined to become famous in Thermopylae, became the successor of Cleomenes.
But let's go back a little.
After the conquest of Messenia, Sparta took the next and very important step towards hegemony in Hellas: around 560 BC. she defeated Tegea, but did not turn her citizens into helots, but convinced them to become allies. So the first step was taken in the creation of the Peloponnesian Union - a powerful association of the Greek states, headed by Sparta. Lacedaemon's next ally was Elis. Unlike the Athenians, the Spartiats did not take anything from their allies, demanding from them only auxiliary troops during the war.
In 500 BC. The Greek cities of Ionia, which were under the rule of the Persian king Darius I, rebelled, in the next (499) year they turned to Athens and Sparta for help. It was impossible to quickly deliver a sufficiently large military contingent to Asia Minor. And, therefore, it was impossible to provide real help to the rebels. Therefore, the Spartan king Cleomenes I prudently refused to participate in this adventure. Athens sent 20 of its ships to help the Ionians (another 5 were sent by the Euboean city of Eritrea). This decision had tragic consequences and became the cause of the famous Greco-Persian wars, which brought a lot of grief to the citizens of Hellas, but glorified several Greek generals, the Athenian messenger Philippides, who ran a marathon distance (according to Herodotus, on the eve he also fled to Sparta, overcoming 1240 stades - over 238 km) and as many as 300 Spartans. In 498 BC. The rebels burned the capital of the Lydian satrapy - Sardis, but then were defeated at the island of Lada (495)., and in 494 BC. the Persians took Miletus. The uprising in Ionia was brutally suppressed, and the gaze of the Persian king turned to Hellas, who dared to challenge his empire.
Darius I
In 492 BC. the corps of the Persian commander Mardonius conquers Macedonia, but the Persian fleet perishes during a storm at Cape Athos, the campaign against Hellas is disrupted.
In 490 BC. the army of King Darius landed at Marathon. The Spartans, celebrating the Dorian holiday in honor of Apollo, were late for the start of the battle, but the Athenians coped without them this time, having won one of the most famous victories in world history. But these events were only the prologue of the great war. In 480 BC. the new Persian king Xerxes sent a huge army to Greece.
[center] Persian Warriors
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Relief of the head and shoulders of a Persian archer during the reign of Xerxes I
The rival of the Achaean Cleomenes, Euripontides Demarat, became a military adviser to the Persian king. Fortunately for Greece, confident in the strength of his troops, Xerxes did not listen too much to the advice of the renegade king. It must be said that, unlike the Agiads, who traditionally headed the anti-Persian party in Sparta, the Euripontids were more favorable to Persia. And it is difficult to say how the history of Hellas would have developed if Demarat, and not Cleomenes, had won in Sparta.
Xerxes I
Xerxes' army was huge, but had significant drawbacks - it was made up of heterogeneous units and it was dominated by lightly armed formations that could not fight on equal terms, with disciplined Greek hoplites who had learned to keep the formation well. In addition, the Persians had to pass through the Thermopylae pass (between Thessaly and Central Greece), the width of which at its narrowest point did not exceed 20 meters.
In the 7th book of his "Histories" ("Polyhymnia") Herodotus writes:
“So the village of Alpeny, beyond Thermopylae, has a carriageway for only one carriage … In the West of Thermopylae there will rise an inaccessible, steep and high mountain stretching to Eta. In the east, the passage goes directly to the sea and the swamp. A wall has been built in this gorge, and there was once a gate in it … The Greeks have decided now to restore this wall and thus block the path to Hellas for the barbarian."
This was a great opportunity, which the Greeks did not take full advantage of. The Spartan Dorians celebrated at this time a holiday in honor of their main god - Apollo, whose cult they once brought to Laconica. Not even part of their army was sent to Athens. The Hagiad (Achaean) king Leonidas went to Thermopylae with whom only 300 soldiers were released. Probably, it was the personal detachment of Leonidas: hippey - bodyguards, relied on to every king of Sparta. Perhaps they were the descendants of the Achaeans, for whom Apollo was an alien god. Also, about a thousand lightly armed perieks set out on the campaign. They were joined by several thousand soldiers from different cities of Greece.
Herodotus reports:
“The Hellenic forces consisted of 300 Spartan hoplites, 1000 Tegeans and Mantineans (500 each), 120 men from Orchomenes in Arcadia and 1000 from the rest of Arcadia, then 400 from Corinth, 200 from Fliunt and 80 from Mycenae. These people came from the Peloponnese. From Boeotia there were 0,700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. In addition, the Greeks called for help from the Opunt Locrians with all their militia and 1000 Phocians."
The total number of Leonidas' army as a result ranged from 7 to 10 thousand people. Further, everyone knows: hiding behind a wall built of large stones, the hoplites very successfully held back the blows of the Persian troops, periodically going over to a counterattack - until the news that the Greek detachment had been bypassed along some goat path. The man, thanks to whose betrayal the Persians bypassed the detachment of Leonidas, was called Ephialtes (this word in Greece later came to mean "Nightmare"). Without waiting for a reward, he fled from the Persian camp, was later outlawed and killed in the mountains. Blocking this path was even easier than the Thermopylae Pass, but panic seized the Spartan allies. They said that Leonidas let them go so as not to share the glorious death with anyone, but, more likely, they themselves left, not wanting to die. The Spartans did not leave, because they feared shame more than death. In addition, Leonidas was dominated by the prediction that in the coming war either the Persian king would conquer Sparta, or the Spartan king would die. And predictions were then taken more than seriously. Sending Leonidas with such small forces to Thermopylae, the Gerons and Ephors, in essence, secretly ordered him to die in battle. Judging by the orders that Leonid gave to his wife, going on a campaign (to find a good husband and give birth to sons), he understood everything correctly and even then made his choice, sacrificing himself to save Sparta.
Monument at Thermopylae
Unfortunately, Lacedaemon and Thespians, who remained with the Spartiats and also died in an unequal battle, are now practically forgotten. Diodorus reports that the Persians pelted the last Hellenic warriors with spears and arrows. In Thermopylae, archaeologists found a small hill, literally strewn with Persian arrows - apparently it became the last position of Leonidas' detachment.
Memorial sign in Thermopylae
In total, the Greeks in Thermopylae lost about 4,000 people. But the Spartans died not 300, but 299: a warrior named Aristodemus fell ill on the way and was left in the Alpenes. When he returned to Sparta, they stopped talking to him, the neighbors did not share water and food with him, since then he was known under the nickname "Aristodem the Coward". He died a year later in the battle of Plataea - and he himself sought death in battle. Herodotus estimates the loss of the Persians at 20,000.
In 480 BC. the famous naval battle at Salamis also took place. For some reason, all the glory of this victory is attributed to the Athenian Themistocles, but the united fleet of Greece in this battle was commanded by the Spartan Eurybiades. The linguistic self-PR man Themistocles (the future traitor and defector), during the laconic and businesslike Euribiade, played the role of Furmanov under Chapaev. After the defeat, Xerxes left Hellas with most of his army. In Greece, the corps of his relative Mardonius, numbering about 30,000, remained. Soon his army was replenished with fresh units, so that at the time of the battle of Plataea (a city in Boeotia) he had about 50,000 soldiers. The backbone of the Greek army consisted of about 8,000 soldiers from Athens and 5,000 Spartans. In addition, the Spartans went to attract helots to their army, who were promised release in case of victory. Pausanias became the commander of the Greek army - not the king, but the regent of Sparta.
Pausanias, bust
In this battle, the Spartan phalanx literally ground the army of the Persians.
Mardonius died, but the war continued. The fear of the invasion of a new, no less powerful, Persian army was so great that a pan-Greek alliance was created in Hellas, the leader of which was the hero of the battle of Plataea - Pausanias. However, the interests of Sparta and Athens were too different. In 477, after the inglorious death of Pausanias, whom the Ephors suspected of striving for tyranny, Sparta withdrew from the war: the Peloponnese and Greece were liberated from the Persian troops, and the Spartates no longer wanted to fight outside Hellas. Athens and the Delian (Sea) Union headed by them, which included the cities of Northern Greece, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor, continued to fight the Persians until 449 BC, when the Peace of Callias was concluded. The most prominent commander of the Delian League was the Athenian strategist Cimon. Sparta also stood at the head of the Peloponnesian Union - the confederation of the policies of southern Greece.
Peloponnesian and Delian unions
The cooling of Sparta's relations with Athens was facilitated by the tragic events of 465 BC, when, after a terrible earthquake, Sparta was almost completely destroyed, many of its citizens died. The chaos that reigned for a time in Lacedaemon caused an uprising in Messinia, during which another 300 Spartiates were killed. The uprising of the helots was suppressed only after 10 years, the scale of hostilities was such that it was even called the III Messenian War. Lacedaemon was forced to turn to Athens for help, and Sparta's great friend Cimon convinced his fellow citizens to provide this help. However, the Sparta authorities suspected the arriving Athenian troops of sympathy for the rebellious helots, and therefore refused to help. In Athens, this was considered an insult, the enemies of Lacedaemon came to power there, and Cimon was expelled from Athens.
In 459 BC. the first military clash between Sparta and Athens took place - the so-called Little Peloponnesian War began, which consisted of periodic skirmishes in disputed territories. Meanwhile, Pericles came to power in Athens, who, having finally seized the treasury of the Delian Union, used these funds to build the Long Walls - from Piraeus to Athens, and this could not but worry Sparta and its allies.
Pericles son of Xanthippus, Athenian, Roman marble copy after a Greek original
Ruling the sea, the Athenians launched a trade war against Corinth and organized a trade boycott of Megara, who dared to support the Corinthians. Defending its allies, Sparta demanded that the naval blockade be lifted. Athens responded with a mocking demand to give independence to the cities of the Perieks. As a result, the invasion of Attica by the Spartans in 446 began the First Peloponnesian War, which ended with a truce concluded at the initiative of Athens - that is, the victory of Sparta. Despite the defeat, the Athenians pursued an active expansionist policy, expanding their influence and disturbing the cities of the Peloponnesian Union. The leaders of Sparta understood how difficult it is to fight Athens without having their own strong fleet, and in every possible way delayed the war. However, yielding to the demands of their allies, in 431 BC. the Spartiats again sent their army to Athens, intending, as usual, in an open battle, to crush the army of the Delian alliance - and did not find an enemy army. By order of Pericles, more than 100,000 people from the vicinity of Athens were taken away behind the fortress walls, which the Spartans did not know how to storm. Discouraged, the Spartans returned home, but the next year they were helped by the plague, from which up to a third of the population of Athens, including Pericles, died. The shuddering Athenians offered peace, which the Spartans haughtily rejected. As a result, the war took on a protracted and extremely tedious character: 6 years of victory of one side were replaced by its defeats, the treasury of the opponents was depleted, reserves were melting, and no one could gain the upper hand. In 425, a storm brought the Athenian ships to the unprotected Messenian port of Pylos, which they captured. The approaching Spartans, in turn, occupied the small island of Sfakteria, opposite Pylos, and were blocked by other ships that came to the rescue from Athens. The garrison of Sfakteria, suffering from hunger, surrendered to the Athenians, and this not too significant incident made a huge impression throughout Hellas - because, among others, 120 Spartiates were captured. Until that day, no one - neither enemies nor friends, believed that a whole detachment of Sparta soldiers could lay down their arms. This surrender, it seemed, broke the spirit of proud Sparta, which was forced to agree to a peace treaty - beneficial for Athens and humiliating for itself (Nikiev's world). This treaty caused displeasure among the influential allies of Sparta - Boeotia, Megara and Corinth. In addition, Alcibiades, who came to power in Athens, was able to conclude an alliance with Lacedaemon's longtime rival in the Peloponnese - Argos.
Alcibiades, bust
This was already too much, and 418 BC. hostilities were resumed, and again, as during the II Messenian War, Sparta was on the verge of death, and only the victory in the Battle of Mantinea saved Lacedaemon. Thucydides wrote about this battle that the Spartans in it "brilliantly proved their ability to win with courage." The Mantineans allied to Argos put to flight the left wing of the Spartan army, where the Skirites were stationed - the highlanders-Periecs (Thucydides writes that they were "in the place to which only they alone of the Lacedaemonians have the right") and the soldiers under the command of the good commander Brasides, according to the initiative of which lightweight armor was introduced in the army. But on the right flank and in the center, “where King Agis stood with 300 bodyguards, called hippeas” (remember the 300 Spartans of King Leonidas?), The Spartans won the victory. The Athenian troops of the left flank, already almost surrounded, escaped defeat only because Agis "ordered the whole army to go to the aid of the defeated units" (Thucydides).
And the events in the Peloponnesian war suddenly went according to some completely unimaginable phantasmagoric scenario. In 415 BC. Alcibiades persuaded the citizens of Athens to organize an expensive expedition to Sicily - against the allied Sparta of Syracuse. But in Athens all the statues of Hermes were suddenly desecrated, and for some reason Alcibiades was accused of this sacrilege. For what reason, and for what sake, Alcibiades, who dreamed of military glory, had to do such things on the eve of the grandiose sea campaign organized by him with such difficulty, is completely incomprehensible. But Athenian democracy was often brutal, ruthless, and irrational. The offended Alcibiades fled to Lacedaemon and got help there for the besieged Syracuse. The Spartan commander Gylippus, who led only 4 ships to Syracuse, led the defense of the city. Under his leadership, the Sicilians destroyed the Athenian fleet of 200 ships and the invasion army, numbering about 40 thousand people. Further Alcibiades advises the Spartans to occupy Dhekeleia - an area north of Athens. 20,000 slaves belonging to the wealthy Athenians go over to the side of Sparta and the Delian League begins to disintegrate. But while the Spartan king Agis II is fighting in Attica, Alcibiades seduces his wife Timaeus (no love and nothing personal: he just wanted his son to be the king of Sparta). Fearing the wrath of a jealous husband, he flees to Persian Asia Minor. Sparta, for the final victory in the war, needs a fleet, but there is no money for its construction, and the Sparta turn to Persia for help. However, Alcibiades convinces the ruler of Asia Minor Tissaphernes that it would be beneficial for Persia to let the Greeks exhaust themselves in endless wars. The Spartans still collect the required amount, build their own fleet - and Alcibiades returns to Athens to re-take the post of commander-in-chief. In Lacedaemon, at this time, the star of the great Spartan commander Lysander rises, who in 407 BC. practically destroys the Athenian fleet in the battle at Cape Notius.
Lysander
Alcibiades was absent and the Athenian fleet was commanded by the navigator of his ship, who entered the battle without permission - but Alcibiades was again expelled from Athens. After 2 years, Lysander captured almost all the Athenian ships in the battle at Egospotamy (only 9 triremes managed to escape, the Athenian strategist Konon fled to Persia, where he was entrusted with overseeing the construction of the fleet). In 404 BC. Lysander entered Athens. Thus ended the 27-year Peloponnesian War. Athens with its "sovereign democracy" so annoyed everyone in Hellas that Corinth and Thebes demanded that the city, hated by the Greeks, be razed to the ground and the population of Attica turned into slavery. But the Spartans only ordered to tear down the Long Walls connecting Athens with Piraeus, and left only 12 ships defeated. Lacedaemon was already afraid of the strengthening of Thebes, and therefore the Spartiats spared Athens, trying to make them members of their union. Nothing good came of it, already in 403 BC. the rebellious Athenians overthrew the pro-partan government, which went down in history as "30 tyrants". And Thebes, indeed, sharply strengthened and, having concluded an alliance with Corinth and Argos, in the end, crushed the power of Sparta. The last great commander of Sparta, King Agesilaus II, was still successfully fighting in Asia Minor, defeating the Persians near the city of Sardis (the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus the Younger, who committed the famous Anabasis, and their commander Xenophon, also fought in his army). However, the Corinthian War (against Athens, Thebes, Corinth and the Aegean poleis supported by Persia - 396-387 BC) forced Agesilaus to leave Asia Minor. At the beginning of this war, his former mentor, and now his rival, Lysander, died. The Athenian Konon and the tyrant of Salamis (a city in Cyprus) Evagoras defeated the Spartan fleet at Cnidus (394 BC). After that, Konon returned to Athens and rebuilt the famous Long Walls. The Athenian strategist Iphicrates, who developed the ideas of Brasidas (he added elongated swords and spears, as well as darts to light armor: a new branch of troops - peltasts), defeated the Spartans at Corinth in 390 BC.
But Agesilaus on land and Antialkis at sea managed to achieve an acceptable result in this war, which had begun so unsuccessfully. In 386 BC. in Susa, the Tsar's Peace was concluded, which proclaimed the complete independence of all Greek city-states, which meant unconditional hegemony in Hellas of Sparta.
However, the war with the Boeotian League, whose troops were commanded by Epaminondas and Pelopidas, ended in disaster for Sparta. In the battle of Leuctra (371 BC), the previously invincible Spartan phalanx was defeated thanks to new tactics (oblique formation of troops) invented by the great Theban general Epaminondas. Until that time, all the battles of the Greeks were of a "duel" nature: the strong right flank of the opposing armies pressed on the weak left wing of the enemy. The winner was the one who was the first to overturn the left flank of the enemy army. Epaminondas strengthened his left flank by incorporating the select Sacred Corps of Thebes, while pulling his weakened right flank back. At the site of the main blow, the Theban phalanx of 50 ranks broke through the formation of the Spartan phalanx, which traditionally consisted of 12 ranks, King Cleombrotus died along with a thousand hoplites, 400 of whom were Spartans. This was so unexpected that the Spartans later justified their defeat by saying that Epaminondas "fought against the rules." The consequence of this defeat was the loss of Messenia by Sparta, which immediately undermined the resource base of Lacedaemon and, in fact, brought him out of the ranks of the great powers of Hellas. After this defeat, the enemy army laid siege to Sparta for the first time. Leading the remnants of his troops and the civilian militia, Agesilaus managed to defend the city. The Spartans were forced to conclude an alliance with Athens, the war with Thebes continued for many years. The son of Agesilaus, Archidamus, defeated the troops of the Argians and Arcadians in the battle, which the Spartans called "tearless" - because not a single Spartan died in it. Epaminondas in response, taking advantage of the fact that Agesilaus with his troops went to Arcadia, made another attempt to capture Sparta. He managed to break into the city, but was knocked out from there by the detachments of Archidamus and Agesilaus. The Thebans withdrew to Arcadia, where in 362 BC. the decisive battle of this war took place near the city of Mantinea. Epaminondas tried to repeat his famous maneuver, focusing on the blow of the left flank, built in a dense and powerful "echelon". But this time the Spartans fought to their death and did not retreat. Epaminondas, who personally led this attack, was mortally wounded, having heard that all his closest associates had also died, he ordered to retreat and make peace.
Pierre Jean David d'Ange, Death of Epaminondas, relief
This battle was the last that Agesilaus fought on the territory of Greece. He very successfully took part in the wars of the pretenders to the Egyptian throne and died of old age on the way home. At the time of his death, Agesila was already 85 years old.
Hellas was emaciated and devastated by constant wars, and, born around 380 B. C. the Greek historian Theopompus wrote a quite fair pamphlet "The Three-Headed". In all the misfortunes that befell Hellas, he blamed the "three heads" - Athens, Sparta, Thebes. Exhausted by endless wars, Greece has become an easy prey for Macedonia. The troops of Philip II defeated the combined army of Athens and Thebes at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. The Macedonian king successfully used the invention of Epaminondas: the retreat of the right flank and a decisive attack of the left, which ended with a flank attack by the phalanx and cavalry of Tsarevich Alexander. In this battle, the famous "Sacred Detachment of Thebes", which, according to Plutarch, consisted of 150 homosexual couples, was also defeated. The great homosexual legend says that lovers-Thebans fought to the end with the Macedonians, so as not to survive the death of their "husbands" (or - "wives") and all, as one, fell on the battlefield. But in a mass grave found in Chaeronea, the remains of only 254 people were found. The fate of the remaining 46 is unknown: perhaps they retreated, perhaps surrendered. This is not surprising. The word "homosexual" and the phrase "a person who is forever in love with his partner and remains faithful to him throughout his life" are not synonymous. Even if some romantic feelings at first took place in these couples, part of the soldiers of this detachment, of course, already weighed down relations with the lover "appointed" by the city authorities ("divorce" and the formation of a new pair in this military unit was hardly possible) … And, given the more than tolerant attitude of the Boeotians towards gays, it is quite possible that they already had other partners “on the side”. Nevertheless, the battle in this sector was indeed extremely fierce. that they did something wrong. " Philip clearly doubted something. Perhaps he doubted the unconventional orientation of these brave Thebans - after all, the king was not a Hellenic, but a Macedonian, while the barbarians, according to a number of Greek historians, did not approve and condemn homosexual relations. But, perhaps, he did not believe that the courage of the warriors was associated precisely with their sexual preferences, and not with their love for their homeland.
After 7 years, it was Sparta's turn: in 331 BC. the Macedonian general Antipater defeated her army at the battle of Megaloprol. In this battle, about a quarter of all full-fledged Spartiats and King Agis III were killed. And this was not the same Sparta as before. At the beginning of the 5th century BC. Sparta could exhibit from 8 to 10 thousand hoplites. In the battle of Plataea, 5 thousand Spartiats stood up against the Persians. During the war with the Boeotian Council, Sparta could mobilize just over 2,000 soldiers from among full citizens. Aristotle wrote, wrote that in his time Sparta could not exhibit even thousands of hoplites.
In 272, Sparta had to withstand the siege of Pyrrhus, who had returned from Italy: he was brought to Lacedaemon by the younger son of the former king, Cleonimus, who challenged the power of his nephew. By that time, the Spartiats did not bother to build solid walls, but women, old people and even children dug a moat and erected an earthen rampart, reinforced with carts (men did not participate in the construction of these fortifications in order to save forces for the battle). For three days Pyrrhus stormed the city, but failed to take it, and, having received an advantageous (as it seemed to him) offer from Argos, he moved north to meet his death.
Pyrrhus, bust from Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Inspired by the victory over Pyrrhus himself, the Spartiats followed him. In the rearguard battle, the son of the Epirus king, Ptolemy, died. About further events Pausanias tells the following: “Having already heard about the death of his son and shocked by grief, Pyrrhus (at the head of the Molossian cavalry) was the first to break into the ranks of the Spartans, trying to sate the thirst for revenge with murder, and although in battle he always seemed terrible and invincible,but this time, with his audacity and strength, he overshadowed everything that happened in previous battles … Jumping from the saddle, in a foot battle, he laid down next to Ewalk his entire elite detachment. After the end of the war, the excessive ambition of its rulers led Sparta to such senseless losses.
More details about this are described in the article The Shadow of the Great Alexander (Ryzhov V. A.).
In the 3rd century BC. Hellas was torn apart by three rival forces. The first was Macedonia, which had claimed power in Greece since its conquest by Alexander the Great. The second is the Achaean Union of the Peloponnesian policies (which embodied the practice of dual citizenship - the policy and the all-union), supported by the Egyptian dynasty of the Ptolemies. The third is the Aetolian Union: Central Greece, part of Thessaly and some city-states of the Peloponnese.
Macedonia, Aetolian and Achaean Unions
The collision with the Achaean Union was fatal for the losing power of Sparta. The defeat of the army of the reformer king Cleomenes III at the Battle of Selassia in 222 BC and the troops of the tyrant Nabis in 195 BC. Lacedaemon was finally finished off. A desperate attempt by Nabis to seek help from the Aetolians ended with his assassination by the "allies" in 192 BC. Weakened Sparta could no longer afford to be absolutely independent, and was forced to join the Achaean Union (in 192-191 BC) - along with Messinia and Elis. And in the II century. BC. a new, young and strong predator came to the fields of old battles - Rome. In the war against Macedonia (started in 200 BC), he was supported first by the Aetolian Union (199), then by the Achaeans (198). Having defeated Macedonia (197 BC), the Romans, during the Isthmian Games, solemnly declared all Greek cities free. As a result of this "liberation", already in 189 BC. the Aetolians were forced to submit to Rome. In 168 BC. Rome finally defeated Macedonia, and it was precisely the victory over the king of this country Perseus near the city of Pidna that Polybius called "the beginning of the world domination of the Romans" (and there was still Carthage). After 20 years (in 148 BC) Macedonia became a province of Rome. The Achaean Alliance lasted the longest, but it was ruined by "imperial" ambitions and injustice towards its neighbors. Sparta entered the Achaean Union forcibly and against its will, but retained the right not to obey the Achaean court and the right to independently send embassies to Rome. In 149 BC. The Achaeans, confident in Rome's gratitude for helping to suppress the Macedonian uprising led by an impostor posing as the son of the last king of Perseus, revoked the privileges of Sparta. In the short war that followed, their army defeated the small army of Lacedaemon (the Spartans lost 1000 people). But Rome no longer needed a rather strong unification of the policies in Greece, and, taking advantage of the occasion, he hastened to weaken his recent allies: he demanded the exclusion from the Achaean Union of "cities unrelated by blood to the Achaeans" - Sparta, Argos, Orchomenes and Corinth. This decision caused a stormy protest in the union, beatings of the Spartans and "friends of Rome" began in different cities, the ambassadors of Rome were met with ridicule and insults. The Achaeans could not have done anything more stupid, but "whom the gods want to destroy, they deprive them of reason." In the Corinthian (or Achaean) War, the Achaean Union suffered a crushing defeat - 146 BC. Taking advantage of the pretext, the Romans destroyed Corinth, whose merchants still dared to compete with the Romans. In the same year, by the way, Carthage was also destroyed. After that, the province of Achaia was formed on the territory of Greece. Together with the rest of the cities of the Achaean Union, Lacedaemon also lost its independence, for which the Romans "stood up". Sparta became an unremarkable provincial city of the Roman Empire. In the future, Sparta was seized in turn by the Goths, Heruls and Visigoths. Finally, ancient Sparta fell into decay after the IV Crusade: the new owners were not interested in it, they built their city nearby - Mystra (in 1249). The Byzantine Emperor Constantine Palaeologus was crowned in the Metropolis Church (dedicated to Saint Dmitry) of this city.
Mystra, Church of the Metropolis
After the Ottoman conquest, the last remaining Greeks were driven into the foothills of Taygetus. The now existing city of Sparta was founded in 1834 - it was built on the ruins of the ancient city according to the project of the German architect Jochmus. Currently, it is home to a little more than 16 thousand people.
Modern Sparta
Modern Sparta, archaeological museum
Modern Sparta, hall of the archaeological museum
