Sparta

Sparta, or LACEDAEMON, a cluster of villages occupying a plain on the west of the river Eurotas between the heights of Taygetus and Parnon, and almost in the centre of the Peloponnesus. The rise of this rustic city to be the head of Laconia, the supreme power of the peninsula, and the rival first of Argos and then of Athens, dates from the reforms of Lycurgus in the 9th century, but was due also to certain racial characteristics which it is impossible to trace to their source. The Spartans represented throughout history the aristocratic and agricultural interests as opposed to democracy and commerce. To push these principles she colonised, and meddled in the affairs of other states; but selfish isolation was the keynote of her policy. To secure her influence she could temporise with Persia, massacre her helots, and stamp out liberty in neighbouring states. Now and then she seemed to be inspired with national enthusiasm, but the fit was short-lived, and usually ended in petty oppression. The periods of her greatest influence were in the 6th century, when she took the lead in crushing out the popular tyrannies, in the 4th century, when Athens was ruined by the defeat at OEgospotami, and in the 3rd century, when she resisted Pyrrhus and endeavoured to form the Achaean League. Nabis, a low freebooter, then made himself master of the city of Menelaus, and Philopoemen razed the walls to the ground. In the middle of the 2nd century Rome stepped in, and a few ruins near Mistra, the present capital, are all that is left of one of the most famous of human communities.