SPARTA, spieta., a celebrated city of an cient Greece, the capital of Laconia and of the Spartan state, was situated on the west bank of the river Eurotas, and embraced a circuit of six miles. Sparta was irregularly built, and from this circumstance it is supposed to have got its name, signifying °scattered.° It con sisted of five separate quarters, which were not completely surrounded by walls till the time of the Romans. It was the boast of Sparta that her men were her walls. Among other remark able objects enumerated by Pausanias are the following: the market-place, containing the pub lic buildings, in which the council of the elders held their meetings, and the principal ornament of which was the Persice, a celebrated colon nade, built from the spoils taken from the Persians, its roof being supported by statues of Persians; the theatre, the remains of which constitute the principal ruins of Sparta; the Choros, or place in which the ephebi executed their dances, adorned with statues of Apollo, Artemis and Leto; the Leschai, or halls in which the popular assemblies were held, and of which there were two— the Lesche of the Crotanes, near the tombs of the Agides, and the Lesche Pcecile; the Temple of Athene Poliou chos or Chalkioikos (as the goddess was com monly called, from the bronze ornaments of her temple), on a steep hill, to which the Spar tans gave the name of the Acropolis, etc. Sparta was the name of the city during the period of its historical celebrity. Lacedmmon is found in Homer as the name both of the city and the territory, but it afterward dropped out of use, and does not appear to have been re vived till several centuries after Christ. La conia, the district in which Sparta was situated, was the southeastern division of the Pelopon nesus, bounded on the west by Messenia, from which it was separated by the chain of Tayge tns, on the north by Arcadia and Argolis atrd on the east and south by the sea. The principal towns in Laconia besides Sparta were Amyclz and Pharis, both situated like Sparta on the west bank of the Eurotas, a little lower down.
The .Spartans were the descendants of the Dorians who invaded the Peloponnesus about 80 years after the siege of Troy, and from an early period they conformed to a set of rigor ous institutions aimed at making them a purely warlike nation. These institutions they them selves ascribed to Lycurgus, who, if he was really a historical character, must have lived not later than the 9th century. It is probable that shortly after their settlement in the Peloponnesus the Spartans extended their sway over all the territory of Laconia, the inhabit ants of which they reduced partly to the con dition of Helots and partly to that of Periceci. The former were completely enslaved, bound to the land which they had to till for their masters, and required to' serve the state in war. The latter were free, possessing land of their own, and carrying on trade and practising the arts, both of which pursuits were forbidden to Spartans. The next great wars of Sparta are usually regarded as the direct consequence of their new institutions. They were waged with the Messenians in the 8th and 7th cen turies Lc., and resulted in 668 a.c., in the com plete subjugation of the Messenians, who were either compelled to leave their country or were reduced to the condition of Helots. Wars
were also carried on against their northern neighbors, the Arcadians and the Argives, against both of whom they were successful, and before the close of the 6th century B.c., they not only stood at the head of the states of the Peloponnesus, but were even recognized as the leading people in all Greece. Early in the fol lowing century began the Persian wars, in which Sparta played a conspicuous part, but the details down to the conclusion of the Pelopon nesian War in 404 B.C. belong to the common history of Greece, to which the reader is re ferred. The events of the wars with Persia led to Sparta being supplanted by Athens as the leading state in Greece; hence arose a jealousy between the two cities which ultimately brought on a war, in which the one-half of Greece was divided against the other, and this war, the Peloponnesian, ended in the ascend ency of Sparta and the entire humiliation of her •rival. The rivalry of the Spartan,general Lysander and the king Pausanias soon after produced a revolution, which delivered the Athenians from the Spartan yoke (403). A little later the Spartans became involved in a war with Persia, by joining Cyrus the Younger in his rebellion against his brother Artaxerxes Mnemon (401). The war was continued even after the failure of the enterprise of Cyrus, and the Persian throne was shaken by the victories of Agesilaus; but Athens, Thebes, Corinth and some of the Peloponnesian states took this op portunity to declare war against the Laceda monians. The latter defeated the Thebans at Coronea (394) ; but, on the other hand, the Athenian commander Conon pained. a victory over the Spartan fleet at Cnidus. This war, known as the Bceotian or Corinthian War, lasted eight years, and increased the reputation and power of Athens. To break the alliance of Athens with Persia, Sparta, in 387 B.c., con cluded with the latte'r power the peace known by the name of Antalcidas; and the designs of Sparta became apparent when she occupied, without provocation, the city of Thebes, and introduced an aristocratical constitution there. Pelopidas delivered Thebes, and the celebrated Theban War (378-363) followed, in which Sparta was much enfeebled. During the fol lowing century Sparta steadily declined, al though one or two isolated attempts were made to restore its former greatness. The principal of these was made by Cleomenes (236-222), but his endeavors failed, heeotce there were then scarcely 700 of Spa: .111 descent, and the majority of these were ii, a state of beggary. With the rest of Greece Sparta later passed under the dominion of th( TZ,)mans in 14/i The Spartans differed from the other ureek_ in manners, customs and the constitution of their state. Their kings (two of whom always reigned at once) ruled only through the popular will, acting as umpires in disputes and com manding the army. The Spartans proper, that is, the descendants of the Dorians, occupying themselves with war and the chase, left all ordinary labor to the Helots, while the class known as Periceci engaged in commerce and manufactures.