Sparta after the Peloponnesian War
After the Peloponnesian War, Spartan hegemony of Greece would seem to have been assured. A single generation, though, would have seen Sparta at the peak of its power, and its defeat by the Thebans at Leuctra, effectively turning it into a second rate power. The victory in the Peloponnesian War was a significant factor in bringing about this change in fortune, but other long term factors have also been identified which suggest that Spartan undoing had long been in the pipeline. Victory in the Peloponnesian War brought about Spartan hegemony and the establishment of a "Spartan Empire". The Spartan slogan of "liberation" was dropped. Around 400, for example, King Agis led an army north to punish Elis for earlier disloyalty. Lysander's puppet oligarchies were tied to Sparta far more firmly than any of Athens' subjects had been during the time of her empire. They were hated in their states both as puppets and as oligarchs, and Sparta came to be hated through them. This power of Sparta bred fear among her more independent and stronger allies. The Corinthians and Boiotians who would have welcomed Athens' destruction in 404, saw oligarchic Athens as just the Spartan satellite they feared, and so Boiotia assists the returning Athenian
This suggests that power was slowly shifting away from the traditional families and towards others, who, although Spartiate, were not of the "inner circle". This was what really made Sparta fall to the position of a second rate power, because when they lost Messenia, they lost most of their best farmland and a huge portion of their Helot population. During the Peloponessian War, other states had begun using formations of up to twenty five ranks deep, and at Leuctra the Thebans drew up in a formation fifty ranks deep. Before, such as at First Mantinea, superior courage and soldiery had made up for failures in command. According to Nepos and Plutarch describe how the Thebans under Epaminondas set about military training with Spartan zeal. Since non-Spartiates fought alongside them, the non-Spartiates must have had a great deal more military training than was usual elsewhere during the fifth century. A number of helots also began to undertake military service, and those who did formed a new class of Neodamodeis. The problem of the inferior classes, particularly the Helots had been a longstanding one. Xenophon and Aristotle say that at Leuctra in 371, only seven hundred Spartiate hoplites could be mustered. Then Sparta, in 400, remembered her slogan of liberation and began a war with Persia on behalf of the Asian Greeks. Furthermore, the Arcadians of the fourth century would not have tolerated Spartan expansion as their disorganised eighth century ancestors had, and they established the fortified town of Megalopolis between Sparta and Messenia, although the Spartans did attack this later, with some success. As the number of Spartiates dropped, more and more Inferiors had to be recruited into the army - Herodotus had only recorded the presence of Spartiates and Perioikoi in the Spartan army during the Persian Wars. There was also unrest at higher levels of Spartan society. This was a distraction which encouraged Sparta's enemies at home, and, three years later, she was at war with Athens, Corinth and Boiotia. The success in the Peloponnesian War seems, therefore, to have turned their minds.
Common topics in this essay:
Messenian Helots,
Peloponnesian War,
Aristotle Leuctra,
Spartan Empire,
Xenophon Thebans,
Boiotia Lysander,
Agis Mantinea,
King Agis,
Helots Perioikoi,
Pathos Lechaeum,
peloponnesian war,
fourth century,
fifth century,
ranks deep,
spartan army,
establishment spartan empire,
half thousand,
term factors,
spartan hegemony,
cinadon inferior,
victory peloponnesian war,
thousand spartiates,
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Acceptance Essays
