Sparta

Decline of Sparta.—In the course of three expeditions to the Peloponnese, conducted by Epameinondas (q.v.), the greatest soldier and statesman Thebes ever produced, Sparta was weakened by the loss of Messenia and by the foundation of Megalopolis as the capital of Arcadia. On Epameinondas's fourth expedition Sparta was again within an ace of capture, but the danger was averted; and though at Mantineia (362 B.c.) the Thebans, together with the Arcadians, Messenians and Argives, gained a victory over the combined Mantinean, Athenian and Spartan forces, yet the death of Epameinondas in the battle more than counter balanced the Theban victory. But Sparta had neither the men nor the money to recover her lost position, and the continued exist ence on her borders of an independent Messenia and Arcadia kept her in constant fear for her own safety. No Spartiate fought on the field of Chaeroneia (338 B.c.). After the battle, however, she refused to submit voluntarily to Philip of Macedon, and was forced to do so by the devastation of Laconia and the transfer ence of certain border districts to the neighbouring states of Argos, Arcadia and Messenia. During the absence of Alexander the Great in the East, Agis III. revolted, but the rising was crushed by Antipater, and a similar attempt after Alexancier's death was frustrated by Demetrius Poliorcetes in 294 B.c. Twenty-two years later the city was attacked by Pyrrhus (q.v.), but the formidable enemy was repulsed. About 244 B.C. an Aetolian army overran Laconia, carrying off, it is said, 50,000 captives.

Attempts at Social Revolution.—This and other ignomini ous defeats of Sparta showed that she had shared, but in an unusual degree, in the general decay of Greece. On the accession of Agis IV. (q.v.) in 244 B.C. the citizen body had by the con centration of wealth in a few hands shrunk to a few hundred: the rest of the inhabitants were in their debt and their power. The Lycurgan constitution was ignored and Phylarchus (Plutarch's chief authority) gives us the usual picture of luxury and degen eracy. Agis by popular agitation was able to carry a resolution through the apella for a restoration of the Lycurgan discipline, together with a redivision of lands and a cancellation of debt. His fellow-king Leonidas opposed, but a section of the wealthy landowners, led by Agis's uncle Agesilaus, were in favour of a cancellation of debts, especially mortgages. With their assist ance Agis was able to conciliate the ephors, remove Leonidas and replace him by his son-in-law Cleombrotus. The land was to be divided into "an inner ring about Sparta of 4,50o Spartan lots, and that in the outer ring into 15,00o lots for Perioeci ; as there were nothing like 4,500 Spartans he proposed to fill up the num ber from Perioeci and selected metics in sympathy with Spartan institutions" (W. W. Tarn in The Hellenistic Age, 1923, p. Agesilaus persuaded him to divide his programme into two halves, the cancellation of debts being carried through first. Immediately after this measure had been passed, Agesilaus with the other ephors sent Agis north with an army to assist the Achaean league against the Aetolian league. During his absence the two sections of the wealthy class reunited and the division of lands was pre vented. Cleombrotus was expelled and Agesilaus brought back Leonidas. Agis on his return declined to use force to prevent the reaction directed by the Ephorate, took sanctuary and was killed by a trick. To prevent a recurrence of a social revolution, Leo nidas forcibly married Agis's widow to his son Cleomenes, who was, however, converted by his wife and the Stoic Sphaerus to Agis's views. Thirteen years after Agis's death he came to the throne as Cleomenes III. (q.v.). He picked a quarrel with the Achaean league in order to be sent out in command of mer cenaries, returned to Sparta, killed 14 of his opponents and exiled eighty. He carried through the division of land as contemplated

by Agis (reserving 8o lots for the exiles), cancelled debts, and withdrew all the ephors' chairs except one, which he occupied himself. His war with the Achaean league now became a series of sensational victories, but the league finally secured the aid of Antigonus of Macedonia who forced Cleomenes to flee to Egypt.

Sparta fell back into its previous abject condition, until the rise of the tyrant Nabis, of whom we have only extremely hostile accounts. He abolished debts, redistributed land, taxed the wealthy heavily for the expense of the Lycurgan common meals, and extended the scope of the revolution by helots.

His stern reign is marked by another sudden renaissance of Sparta's military power: Sparta was indeed the only Greek power which was able to resist the legions of Flamininus the conqueror of Macedon. Flamininus failed to capture Sparta and in his final settlement left Nabis undisturbed in Laconia, though not in Argos. The experiment was brought to an end by the assassina tion of Nabis by the Aetolians : in the ensuing confusion Philo poemen (q.v.) the general of the Achaean league captured the city, destroyed the Lycurgan constitution of Nabis, and attached the state to the Achaean league. By his dexterity he was able to frustrate later attempts at revolution ; and after the annexation of Greece by Rome Sparta has no history worth recording.

Mediaeval Sparta.

In A.D. 396 Alaric (q.v.) destroyed the city and at a later period Laconia was invaded and settled by Slavonic tribes. The Franks, on their arrival in the Morea, found a fortified city named Lacedaemonia occupying part of the site of ancient Sparta, and this continued to exist, though greatly de populated, even after Guillaume de Villehardouin had in 1248-49 founded the fortress and city of Misithra, or Mistra, on a spur of Taygetus some three miles north-west of Sparta. This passed shortly afterwards into the hands of the Byzantines, who retained it until the Turks under Mohammed II. captured it in 146o. In 1687 it came into the possession of the Venetians, from whom it was wrested in 1715 by the Turks.

The Modern City.—In 1834, after the War of Independence, the modern town of Sparta was built on the ancient site from the designs of Baron Jochmus, and Mistra decayed until now it is almost deserted. Sparta is the capital of the prefecture (voile's) of Lacedaemon. Pop. (1928) 7,19o.

J. C. F. Manso, Sparta (3 vols., Leipzig, 1800–o5) ; G. Gilbert, Studien zur altspartanischen Geschichte (Gott ingen, 1872) ; G. Busolt, Die Lakedaimonier and ihre Bundesgenossen (Leipzig, 1878), for the 6th century and the Persian wars; also the Greek histories of G. Grote, E. Meyer, G. Busolt, J. Beloch, A. Holm, B. Niese, E. Abbott and J. B. Bury.

Topography and Antiquities: W. M. Leake, Morea, chs. iv. v.; E. Curtius, Peloponnesos, ii. 220 sqq.; C. Bursian, Geographie, ii. 119 sqq.; Pausanias, iii. I and the commentary in J. G. Frazer, Pausanias, iii. 322 sqq.; W. G. Clark, Peloponnesus, pp. 158 sqq.; E. P. Boblaye, Recherches, pp. 78 sqq.; W. Vischer, Erinnerungen, pp. 371 sqq.; Bory de Saint-Vincent, Relation, pp. 418 sqq.; G. A. Blouet, Architecture, ii. 61 sqq., pl. 44-52 ; for full titles and dates of publica tion of these works, see LACONIA ; H. K. Stein, Topographie des alten Sparta (Glatz, 189o) ; K. Nestorides,Tornpachia rits &pXaias Zraprns (Athens, 1892) ; N. E. Crosby, "The Topography of Sparta," in American Journal of Archaeology (Princeton, 1893), viii. 335 sqq.; and articks in the British School Annual, xii. sqq.; M. N. Tod and A. J. B. Wace, Catalogue of the Sparta Museum (1906). (M. N. T.)