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SPARTA: By SimoTheFinlandized - 2022 CE
(SOURCE: Wikipedia)
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Sparta (Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, Spártā; Attic
Greek: Σπάρτη, Spártē) was a prominent
city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In
antiquity, the city-state was known as
Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων, Lakedaímōn),
while the name Sparta referred to its main
settlement on the banks of the Eurotas
River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese.
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Around 650 BCE, it rose to become the
dominant military land-power in ancient
Greece. Given its military pre-eminence,
Sparta was recognized as the leading
force of the unified Greek military during
the Greco-Persian Wars, in rivalry with the
rising naval power of Athens. Sparta was
the principal enemy of Athens during the
Peloponnesian War (between 431 and
404 BCE), from which it emerged victorious.
The decisive Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE
ended the Spartan hegemony, although the
city-state maintained its political independence
until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146
BCE. After the division of the Roman Empire,
Sparta underwent a long period of decline,
especially in the Middle Ages, when many
of its citizens moved to Mystras. The modern
city of Sparta is the capital of the southern
Greek region of Laconia and is a center
for processing citrus and olives.
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Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its
social system and constitution, which
were supposedly introduced by the semi-
mythical legislator Lycurgus. His codes-of-
law configured the Spartan society to maximize
military proficiency as much as possible at all
costs, focusing all social institutions on highly
-adept and intense military-training and on
hardcore physical development. The inhabitants
of Sparta were clearly and strictly stratified as
Spartiates (full-blooded Spartan citizens with
full rights-&-responsibility that were almost
always highly-adept military-trained warrior-
men that could trace their ancestry back to
the original settlers of the city), mothakes
(free non-Spartiate people descended from
Spartans that often served as either professional
warriors or cadets being rigorously trained at
the Agoge for all things military-oriented),
perioikoi (free non-Spartiates that were
responsible for the upkeep of the Spartan
economy via their monopoly-held trading and
craftsmanship who were allowed to marry and
own property within Sparta), and helots (state-
owned enslaved non-Spartan locals who were
responsible for agriculture and animal husbandry
in Sparta that were similar to highly-oppressed
serfs elsewhere). Spartiate men underwent the
rigorous "Agoge" military-training regimen, and
Spartan phalanx brigades were widely considered
to be among the best tactics to be used in battle.
Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights
than elsewhere in classical antiquity. Sparta was
frequently a subject of fascination in its own day,
as well as in Western culture following the
revival of classical learning.
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