The chief strength of the Spartan forces was iu the heavy-armed infantry, which was superior to that of any other state in Greece. Cavalry service was not thought highly of amongst them, the country being not fitted for the production of horses. The horsemen of Sparta, in the Peloponnesian war, were at.fint only 400, and after wards rose to 000 men. (Muller, iii. 12, 6.) The naval service was chiefly confined to the Perked.
The Spartan institutions, though almost entirely of a military tendency, incidentally served other important ends, such as the invigoration and health of the body, and the production of physical beauty. About sic. 540 the Spartans were the most healthy of the Greeks (San., ' Rep. Lacon.; v. 9), and the handsomest men and women were found amongst them. But Sparta did not produce among her citizens the painter, the sculptor, the poet, or the historian. They were all warriors; and therefore the cultivation of the arta and sciences, and even of agriculture, was left almost entirely to the I'eriorel and the Helots. Lyrical and choral poetry indeed, for which the Dorian communities were famous, were cultivated aid encouraged, but chiefly for religious purposes. The arta of rhetoric and eloquence too were studiously discouraged among them, as being instruments of deceit and misrepresentation, and inconsistent with the COnsCLao and sententious method of expression on which the Spartans prided them selves, and which they enforced on their youth by a regular training. Trade and commerce also were alien to their character; and these were left entirely to their provincial subjects. Any extensive trade indeed was rendered almost impossible by the want of a gold and silver coinage, iron being till the latest time their only legal currency. The very possession of gold or silver money was prohibited by their laws. And yet owing probably to the teudeney of human nature to long for what is forbidden, "avarice appears to have been the vice to which the Spartan was most prone : money, for which ho scarcely had any use, was a bait which even the purest patriotism could not resist." (Third., ' Hist of Greece; "Dorian's; iii.) Spartan girls were In many respects brought up similarly to the boys. They had their own gymnasia, and practised themselves in running, wrestling, and other exercises, which contributed to their health and vigour of constitution, In ord.•r that they might prove the mothers of a healthy progeny. The Spartan virgins, even in the company of men, generally wore but a single robe, without an upper garment ; in which respect they were distinguished from married women. Bit
the most remarkable feature in the social position of the Spartan women was the indulgence and respect universally shown to them, presenting a strong coutraet with the treatment of the female sex among the Athenians and other nations of the Ionian race. So great was the influence of the women at Sparta, that the Spartans were often censured by other nations for submitting to their yoke.
The Spartans, and the Dorians generally, also differed from the rest of the Greeks in the freedom of intercourse which they allowed in public between the youth of both sexes, who were especially brought into contact at religious festivals and choruses. Hence at Sparta it was very possible for marriage to bo the result of affection and love, which was seldom the case iu the Ionian states of Greece. But still in this, as in everything else, private feelings and wishes were made subordinate to the interests of the community ; and mar riage was not considered merely as a private relation, but as a public inaVtution, the chief end of which was to supply the state with a atron4 and healthy progeny. Intermarriage with foreign women was forbidden to sll the Spartans, and to the Herseleids, or royal family, by a particular rhetra, or constitutional ordinance.
History.—The occupation of Laconia by the Spartans dates, accord ing to the received chronology, from the year B.C. 1104, the 80th year after the Trojan war : but some writers place that event in B.C. 1048. About one of those periods the Dorians migrated from Doris, a district lying between the chains of Mount (Eta ou the north and Parnassus on the south, and, under the command of three leaders, Aristodemus, Temenus, and Cresphontes, reputed descendants of Hercules, invaded the Peloponnesus ; they were accompanied and guided in their expe dition by Oxylus, an chief, and soon succeeded, according to the poetical legend, in making themselves masters of the country. In the division which took place, Laconia was assigned to Aristodemus, Argos to Temenus, Measenia to Cresphontes, while Elia was given to Oxylus as a reward for his assistance. Till the conquest of Laconia was thoroughly effected, the Spartans were probably too much occupied at home to engage in foreign wars. Their earliest expeditions were into Arcadia and Argos. Against Tegca, the capital of the former country, they continued to wage war, and always unsuccessfully, for many generations. The first of the Armenian wars commenced about B.C. 743, and terminated in the defeat and subjection of Messenia. The struggle was renewed in B.C. 685, but ended in a like result e.c. 668.