- Sparta is a modern town located in the Laconia Region of Greece in the Peloponnese.
Ruins of Ancient Sparta
- Greek Theatre
- Remains of the Walls
- Tomb of Leonidas
- Temple of Artemis Orthia
- Menelaion, a shrine to Menelaus.
Museums
- Archeological Museum of Sparta
- Located at Agiou Nikonos, Sparta.
- The museum holds a large collection of artefacts from the Neolithic to the Roman period, including the ‘Leonidas Statue’, a marble sculpture from c.480 BCE of a Greek Hoplite.
History of Ancient Sparta
- The city is sited next to the Ruins of Ancient Sparta, the capital City and State in Ancient Greece.
- Ancient Sparta had a powerful army and navy which put it in a position to lead the other Greek city states during the Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BCE).
- Greece was occupied by Rome in 146 BCE.
- The city of Sparta continued as a tourist destination on the Roman Grand Tour in the Province of Achaea.
- In 396 CE Sparta was sacked by the Visigoths under Alaric I, and the Spartan population was deported.
Spartan Society
- Sparta, also spelt Spatha, was the only Greek city state to focus all its institutions on the primacy of the military.
- Male citizens were trained for military service at an early age by a system called the Agoge, which concentrated on physical fitness, sport, military training and unswerving loyalty to Sparta.
- Spartan Society was stratified into Spartan citizens with full rights, free citizens descended from Spartans, free citizens and a slave class called the Helots.
- From the sixth century BCE, Sparta was governed by a Diarchy, two kings who ruled together.
Role of Sparta in the Greco-Persian Wars (490-479 BCE)
- First Persian Invasion of Greece (492-490 BCE)
- Battle of Marathon (490 BCE) and the rise of the Hoplight Phalanx.
- The Athenians and the Plataeans defeated the Persians without the Spartans, who declined to fight with them until they had finished celebrating a religious festival. It was the only battle where the Greeks succeeded without the Spartans.
- Second Persian Invasion of Greece (480-479 BCE)
- Battles of Thermopylae and Battle of Salamis (480 BCE).
- General Leonidas sent most of the Greek army south and remained to defend the Pass of Thermopylae to the death, with just 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans.
- This was the first recorded Last Stand in history, where the Spartans famously held off the Persians for two days before they were annihilated to the last man.
- However, despite losing the battle, the delay gave the Greeks time to withdraw and regroup at Salamis.
Archeological Museum of Sparta