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The History of Sparta describes The End of Sparta destiny of The End of Sparta ancient Dorian Greek state known as Sparta from its beginning in the legendary period to its incorporation into the Achaean League under the late Roman Republicas Allied State, in BC, a period of roughly years. Since the Dorians were not the first to settle the The End of Sparta of the Eurotas River in the Peloponnesus of Greece, the preceding Mycenaean and Stone Age periods are described as well. Sparta went on to become a district of modern Greece. Brief mention is made of events in the post- classical periods. Dorian Sparta rose to dominance in the 6th century BC. At the time of the Persian Warsit was the recognized leader by assent of the Greek city-states. It subsequently lost that assent through suspicion that the Athenians were plotting to break up the Spartan state after an earthquake destroyed Sparta in BC. When Sparta The End of Sparta Athens in the Peloponnesian Warit secured an unrivaled hegemony over southern Greece. The earliest certain evidence of human settlement in the region of The End of Sparta, consists of pottery dating from the Middle Neolithic The End of Sparta found in the vicinity of Kouphovouno some two kilometres southwest of Sparta. According to myth, the first king of the region later to be called Laconia The End of Sparta, but then called Lelegia was the eponymous King Lelex. He was followed, according to tradition, by a series of kings allegorizing several traits of later-to-be Sparta and Laconia, such as the Kings MylesEurotasLacedaemon and Amyclas of Sparta. The last king from their family was Tyndareusfather of Castor and Clytemnestra and foster- father to Pollux and Helen of Troy. Female figures in this legendary ancestry include the nymph Taygete mother of LacedaemonSparta the daughter of Eurotas and Eurydice of Argos grandmother of Perseus. Later the Achaeansassociated with Mycenaean Greeceimmigrated from the north and replaced the Lelegians as ruling tribe. Helen, daughter of Zeus and Ledawould marry Menelaos and The End of Sparta invite the Atreidae to the Laconian throne. In the end the Heracleidaecommonly identified with the Dorianswould seize the land and the throne of Laconia and found the city-state of Sparta proper. The last Atreidae Tisamenus and Penthilusaccording to myth, would lead the Achaeans to Achaea and Asia minorwhereas the Heraclids Eurysthenes and Procles founded the Spartan kingly families of the Agiad and Eurypontid dynasties respectively. The Pre-Dorian, supposedly Mycenaeancivilization seems to have fallen into decline by the late Bronze Agewhen, according to Herodotus, Macedonian tribes The End of Sparta the north marched into Peloponnese, where they were called Dorians and subjugating the local tribes, settled there. Tradition describes how, some sixty years after the Trojan Wara Dorian migration from the north took place and eventually led to the rise of classical Sparta. Hence skeptics like Karl Julius Beloch have denied that any such event occurred. Archeologically, Sparta itself begins to show signs of settlement only around BC, some years after the collapse of Mycenaean civilization. The dual kingship may originate in the fusion of the first two villages. Following that, there was a significant recovery, and this growth in population is likely to have been more marked in Sparta, as it was situated in the most fertile part The End of Sparta the plain. Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC the Spartans experienced a period of lawlessness and civil strife, later testified by both Herodotus and Thucydides. It is during the reign of King Charillos[13] that most ancient sources place the life of Lycurgus. Indeed, the Spartans ascribed their subsequent success to Lycurgus, who instituted his reforms at a time when Sparta was weakened by internal dissent and lacked the stability of a united and well-organized community. Lazenby suggests, that the dual monarchy may date from this period as a result of a fusion of the four villages of Sparta which had, up until then, formed two factions of the villages of Pitana-Mesoa against the villages of The End of Sparta. According to this view, the Kings, who tradition says ruled before this time, were either totally mythical or at best factional chieftains. The Dorians seem to have set about expanding the frontiers of Spartan territory almost before they had established their own state. The evidence suggests that Sparta, relatively inaccessible because The End of Sparta the topography of the plain of Sparta, was secure from early on: it was never fortified. Sparta shared the plain with Amyklai which lay to the The End of Sparta and was one of the few places to survive from Mycaenean times and was likely to be its most formidable neighbor. Hence the tradition that Sparta, under its kings Archelaos and Charillos moved north to secure the upper Eurotas valley is plausible. It is probable that the inhabitants of Geronthrae were driven out while those of Amyklai were simply subjugated to Sparta. Tyrtaeus tells that the war to conquer the Messenianstheir neighbors on the west, led by Theopompuslasted 19 years and was fought in the time of the fathers of our fathers. If this phrase is to be taken literally, it would mean that the war occurred around the end of the 8th century BC or the beginning of the 7th. However, in the opinion of Kennell, a fragment of Tyrtaeus published in gives us some confidence that it really occurred probably in the later 7th century. Whether Sparta dominated the regions to its east at The End of Sparta time is less settled. According to Herodotus the Argives ' territory once included the whole of Cynuria the east coast of the Peloponnese and the island of Cythera. During the following centuries, Sparta's reputation as a land-fighting The End of Sparta was unequaled. Early in the 6th century BC, the Spartan kings Leon and Agasicles made a vigorous attack on Tegeathe most powerful of the Arcadian cities. For some time Sparta had no success against Tegea and suffered a notable defeat at the Battle of the Fetters —the name reflected Spartan intentions to force the Tegea to recognise it as hegemon. Forrest, hesitantly attributes this change to Ephor Chilon. In BC, King Cleomenes Ilaunched what was intended to be a final settling of accounts with the city of Argos - an invasion, with the capture of The End of Sparta city itself, as the objective. Croesus of Lydia had formed an alliance with it. Scythian envoys sought its aid to stem the invasion of Darius ; to Sparta, the Greeks of Asia Minor appealed to withstand the Persian advance and to aid the Ionian Revolt ; Plataea asked for Sparta's protection; Megara acknowledged its supremacy; and at the time of the Persian invasion under Xerxes no state questioned Sparta's right to lead the Greek forces on land or at sea. At the end of the 6th century The End of Sparta, Sparta made its first intervention north of the Isthmus when it aided in overthrowing the Athenian tyrant Hippias in BC. King Cleomenes turned up in Attica with a small body of troops to back the more conservative Isagoras, whom Cleomenes successfully installed in power. The Athenians, however, soon tired of the foreign king, and Cleomenes found himself expelled by the Athenians. Cleomenes then proposed an expedition of the entire Peloponnesian League, with himself and his co-King Demaratos in command and the aim of setting up Isagoras as tyrant of Athens. The specific The End of Sparta of the expedition were kept secret. The secrecy proved disastrous and as dissension broke out the real aims became clearer. First the Corinthians departed. Then a row broke out between Cleomenes and Demaratos with Demaratos too, deciding to go home. It also seems to have changed the nature of the Peloponnesian League. From that time, The End of Sparta decisions were discussed. Sparta was still in charge, but it now had to rally its allies in support of its decisions. After hearing a plea for help from Athens who were facing the Persians at Marathon in BC, Sparta decided to honor its laws and wait until the moon was full to send an army. As a result, Sparta's army The End of Sparta at Marathon after the battle had been won by the Athenians. In the second campaign, conducted ten years later by XerxesSparta faced the same dilemma. The Persians inconveniently chose to attack during the Olympic truce which the Spartans felt they must honor. Other Greek states which lacked such scruples were making a major effort to assemble a fleet - how could Sparta not contribute on land when others were doing so much on sea? However, there are indications that Sparta's religious scruples were merely a cover. From this interpretation, Sparta believed that the defense of Thermopylae was hopeless and wished to make a stand at the Isthmus, but they had to go through the motions or Athens might ally itself with Persia. The loss of Athens's fleet would simply be too great a loss to the Greek resistance to be The End of Sparta. In BC, a small force of Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans led by King Leonidas approximately were full Spartiates, were Thespians, and were Thebans; these numbers do not reflect casualties incurred prior to the final battlemade a legendary last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, inflicting very high casualties on the Persian forces before finally being encircled. The decisive victory of Salamis did not change The End of Sparta essential dilemma. Ideally, they would wish to fight at the Isthmus where they would avoid the risk of their infantry being caught in the open by the Persian cavalry. However, in BC, the remaining Persian forces under Mardonius devastated Attica, Athenian pressure forced Sparta to lead an advance. In the resulting Battle of Plataea the Greeks under the generalship of the Spartan Pausanias overthrew the lightly armed Persian infantry, killing Mardonius. The superior weaponry, strategy, and bronze armour of the Greek hoplites and their phalanx again proved their worth one year later when Sparta assembled at full strength and led a Greek alliance against the Persians at the battle of Plataea. Even though this war was won by a pan-Greek army, credit was given to Sparta, who besides being the protagonist at Thermopylae and Plataea, had been the de facto leader of the entire Greek expedition. When this victory led to a revolt of the Ionian Greeks it was Sparta that rejected their admission to the Hellenic alliance. Sparta proposed that they should abandon their The End of Sparta in Anatolia and settle in the cities that had supported the Persians. However, his arrogant behavior forced his recall. Pausanias had so alienated the Ionians that they refused to accept the successor, Dorcisthat Sparta sent to replace him. Instead those newly liberated from Persia turned to Athens. In later Classical times, Sparta along with AthensThebesand Persia had been the main powers fighting for supremacy against each other. As a result of the Peloponnesian WarSparta, a traditionally continental culture, became a The End of Sparta power. At the peak of its power Sparta subdued many of the key Greek states and even managed to overpower the elite Athenian navy. By the end of the 5th century BC, it stood out as a state which had defeated the Athenian Empire and had invaded the Persian provinces in Anatolia, a period which marks the Spartan Hegemony. The Sparta earthquake of BC destroyed much of Sparta. Historical sources suggest that the death toll may have been as high as 20, although modern scholars suggest that this figure is likely an exaggeration. The earthquake sparked a revolt of the helots, the slave class of Spartan society. Events The End of Sparta this revolt led to an increase in tension between Sparta and their rival Athens and the cancellation of a treaty between them. After the troops of a relief expedition dispatched by conservative Athenians were sent back with cold thanks, Athenian democracy itself fell into the hands of reformers and moved toward a more populist and anti-Spartan policy. Therefore, this earthquake is cited by historical sources as one of the key events that led up to the First Peloponnesian War. Sparta's attention was at this time, fully occupied by troubles nearer home; such as the revolt of Tegea in about — BCrendered all the more The End of Sparta by the participation of Argos. In the immediate aftermath, the helots saw an opportunity to rebel. This was followed by the siege of Ithome which the rebel helots had fortified. Sparta began to fear that the Athenian troops might make common cause with the rebels. Providing the official justification that since the initial assault The End of Sparta Ithome had failed, what was now required was a blockade, a task the Spartans did not need Athenian help with. In Athens, this snub resulted in Athens breaking off its alliance with Sparta and allying with its enemy, Argos. Paul Cartledge hazards that the revolt of helots and perioeci led the Spartans to reorganize their The End of Sparta and integrate the perioeci into the citizen hoplite regiments. Certainly a system where citizens and non-citizens fought together in the same regiments was unusual for Greece. He agrees that the integration of perioeci and citizens occurred sometime between the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars but doesn't regard that as a significant stage. The Spartans had been using non-citizens as hoplites well before that and the proportion did not change. He doubts that the Spartans ever subscribed to the citizen only hoplite force ideal, so beloved by writers such as Aristotle. The Peloponnesian Wars were the protracted armed conflicts, waged on sea and land, of the last half of the 5th century BC between the Delian League controlled by Athens and the Peloponnesian League dominated by Sparta over control of the other Greek city-states. The Delian League is often called "the Athenian Empire" by scholars. Sparta: The Fall of the Empire

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. In this The End of Sparta and deeply imagined historical novel, acclaimed The End of Sparta Victor Davis Hanson re- creates the battles of one of the greatest generals of ancient Greece, Epaminondas. At the Battle of Leuktra, his Thebans crushed the fearsome army of Sparta that had enslaved its neighbors for two centuries. With a scholar's depth of knowledge and a novelist's vivid imagination, Hanson re-creates the ancient world down to its intimate details-from the weight The End of Sparta a spear in a soldier's hand to the peculiar camaraderie of a slave and master who go into battle side by side. The End of Sparta is a stirring drama and a rich, absorbing reading experience. Praise for Victor Davis Hanson: "I have never read another The End of Sparta that explains so well the truth that 'war lies in the dark hearts of us all' but that history offers hope. Get A Copy. Hardcoverpages. Published October 18th by Bloomsbury Press first published More Details Other Editions 5. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The End of Spartaplease sign up. The story suggests that the Boiotians were motivated by some kind of Pythagorean idealism or religion. The Greeks had esoteric cults but is there any historical reference to this movement? Jaim Jota I think that part was made up, yet it is needed for an explanation of the Boiotian's actions. Just so I can visualize: the tower in which Damo and her family live on Helikon and Elektra's tower in Sparta--would they be the same as an Albanian kulla? Jaim Jota It appears that the first Kullas that were built in the 17th century and reflect a society of constant blood feuds. Helikon was a newly deforested and …more It appears that the first Kullas that were built in the 17th century and reflect a society of constant blood feuds. Helikon was a newly deforested and colonized area, so houses were built with wood not stone. See all 3 questions about The End of Sparta…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The End of Sparta. I didn't know what to expect with this novel written by a historian, but I was not disappointed. It was utterly compelling and it The End of Sparta hard to pry myself away from it. I was sorry when it ended. The conclusion was bittersweet. In fact, her master's pre I didn't know what to expect with this novel written by a historian, but I was not disappointed. The novel tells the story of the beginning of the end of Spartan power and dominance through the B. Leuctra was followed by the subsequent first invasion of Laconia by Epaminondas, commander of forces from several city-states of Hellas, aided by Pelopidas and the Sacred Band The End of Sparta Thebes. Three new Messenian towns are then established, with the helots setting up their own government. The men return The End of Sparta their homes. Ainias [of Stymphalos] the Tactician [famous military writer of the 4th century B. The architect, Proxenos, is probably a fictional composite of the men who designed the towns. The writing style was epic and larger-than-life: Homeric or Virgilian, but for modern readers. Hanson The End of Sparta he tried to strike the right balance between a bygone stuffy style and that of today's casual English usage. I had my doubts about his slipping in Greek phrases. It took me awhile to get used to his practice. He did make it easy for The End of Sparta most part to figure out the meaning from context or he did translate into English right near the Greek. I felt it was an affectation, but he probably meant it to add "atmosphere. In the first half, I felt characterization could have been improved. We see only hatred or anger until we witness Ainias's devotion to his friend, Proxenos and deep sorrow at his death at the icy Eurotas. Friendship develops between some of the main characters. He discovers he must rescue her from his traitorous and duplicitous helot slave, Gorgos, or as the Spartans term him, Kuniskos. They admit their feelings for each other only to themselves; they never express them to the other. The section on Leuctra was amazing! Ainias plans unorthodox tactics, then a heated discussion follows. Fighting all through the novel was bloody and graphic but not gratuitous. The description of the frightening hoplite warfare at Leuctra was the best I've ever read. I felt as though I was right in the front rank, terrified and pushing against the Spartan onslaught with my colleagues and trying to avoid injury. Also, I had my heart in my mouth at the final confrontation in the mountainside hut of which several characters had dreamt from the beginning of the story, not knowing why they had had these dreams or where the hut might be. Although never boring, the middle of the novel did bog down somewhat; The End of Sparta felt there was repetition and the argument over whether or not to invade the Peloponnese was prolonged too much. On the katabasis south into Laconia and at the Eurotas River there was too much conversation, too much repetition, too much drawing out of events. He was not the usual handsome young soldier we might have expected in military fiction. I wish there had been at least one sympathetic Spartan; all were negative stereotypes and odious. Not light reading, this novel takes concentration; but the story flows and overall I was pleased with the pacing. The author brought the The End of Sparta to life for me. I liked the presentation of the Pythagorean ethical and theological system: a form of monotheism and equality of all men. I learned that Pythagoras is more than mathematics. I feel this book is a "must-read" about a little-known historical figure, Epaminondas and this whole period. I read it twice through, once immediately after the other. View all 10 comments. Mar 02, Daniel rated it really liked it Recommends it for: fans of historical fiction, those wanting The End of Sparta go beyond thermopylae. Shelves: historical-fictionwar. A very heavy, but rewarding tale of historical fiction about the final days of Sparta. It is told in a 'Neo-Homeric' voice, which was Hanson's intention. This adds to some of the difficulty in reading it, but it The End of Sparta the atmosphere of this story very well in my opinion. This is a high tale about the fall of empires, and the poetic flourishes help with this. I would recommend this book, and recommend that people stick with it. It starts strong, sags a bit in the middle, but finishes well. View all 3 comments. I love Victor David Hanson! This was the only book I have ever purchased new as a hardback! The End of Sparta story and you know he got the history right! But from the get-go I found myself frustrated by this novel in ways that were impossible to avoid. Probably the biggest issue that people might have is with the writing style. This book is apparently intended to be a Neo-Homeric epic, complete with ponderous and allusive phraseology designed to seem self-important. Hanson says he tried to find a pleasing compromise between archaic patterns and casual speech, but I know Greek and this sounds nothing like that. And it sounds awkward as hell. You can write an epic poem about a historical event see the Pharsalia or Punica but it requires making compromises on accuracy and the sort of stories you can tell. But here we get the epic style telling us everything from farming practices to political assemblies. One thing I did like was the Battle of Leuctra. The End of Sparta

Cleombrotus [king of Sparta]. Cleombrotus, when he heard these words, was spurred on to join battle. The space between [the two armies] was a plain, so the Spartans posted their cavalry in front of their phalanx, and the Thebans did likewise. But the Theban cavalry was in excellent training. When Cleombrotus began to lead toward the enemy, in the first place he did so before his own army even perceived that he was leading. Then the cavalry engaged and those of the Spartans were quickly beaten. In their flight the horsemen fell foul of their own hoplites, and then the Theban regiments were upon them. The men around Cleombrotus were at first victorious. And those of the Spartans who were on the left wing, when they saw the right pushed back, gave way too. Xenophon, Hellenica. The decisive defeat of the Spartan hoplite army by the armed forces of Thebes at the battle of Leuctra in B. Once, the very sight and sound of an advancing line of Spartan soldiers had been enough to break the nerve of opponents, even before the shock of arms. Their capacity The End of Sparta move quickly over difficult terrain, concentrate their forces suddenly, and execute complex pre-battle tactical maneuvers was legendary. Just The End of Sparta short generation before Leuctra, in B. In so doing Sparta had seized the hegemony of the Greek The End of Sparta. Leuctra must The End of Sparta seemed to many observers of the contemporary scene like rain from a clear blue sky. Yet, in hindsight, when we look more closely at the history of Sparta as a military society, the collapse at Leuctra starts to make sense. The city-state of Sparta, occupying the central finger of the southern Greek peninsula of the Peloponnesus, dominated the fertile valley of the Eurotas River and was overlooked by the craggy Taegetus Range. Controlling a territory of some 3, square miles, Sparta was unquestionably the greatest military power of the Greek classical era. On close inspection it is a The End of Sparta study in contradictions: long-famed among the Greeks for its constitutional stability and regarded by many ancient writers as the embodiment of traditional Greek values of civic responsibility, personal bravery, and bluntly honest speech, Sparta proved to be a devious, self-deluded, brittle, and hopelessly confused society at the very moment of its most notable success. At the heart of The End of Sparta apparent contradictions was a society whose strength lay in a profoundly conservative social order, an order predicated on maintaining a bewildering array of mutually hostile social castes. Each Spartan caste was intended to be composed of precisely similar human units, and each caste was to remain utterly distinct from all others. Life as a Spartan Similar was one of privilege, but not of ease. At birth, a young Spartan male was brought before a board of elders and examined for physical deformities. If he was not up to standard, he was carried to a nearby gorge, where he was left to die of exposure. At age seven, a boy who had survived his initial review was taken from his mother to begin his formal education in discipline and obedience, a training that would effectively last the rest of his life. Each herd was run by the older boys, who were mandated to whip literally, in the case of The End of Sparta endurance rituals the younger ones into shape. In effect, the Spartan kindergarten was run by the toughest kids from junior high, and these were in turn urged on to new levels of toughness by stern elders, men who had suffered the same upbringing. Young men undergoing training were isolated from the rest of society; it is perhaps not surprising that homosexual relations between boys and young men were regarded as standard. Indeed it was a mark of shame for a boy not The End of Sparta be courted by an older youth. The Spartans believed that homosexual relations between young men encouraged unit solidarity and battlefield valor, reasoning that a lover would surely not shame himself before his beloved by flinching back from the line. The Spartan youths were taught to fend for themselves. They slept in the open, engaged in endless military drill, athletic contests, and mock battle. In order to sharpen their agility and resourcefulness, they were expected to steal The End of Sparta of their food from local farmers. Would-be Similars learned to depend on themselves and their unit-mates—and the devil take everyone else. Institutionalized thievery is the context of the story of the Spartan boy The End of Sparta had stolen a fox and hid the live animal under his cloak. Upon being apprehended, the youth bluntly denied the theft and never flinched as the desperate canine chewed through his innards. While surely apocryphal, the often-told tale gives some notion of the standard of toughness the Spartans had established as an ideal for themselves, and the steadfast, dying Spartan thief stands as a fitting symbol for a society that would eventually find itself dead on its feet, eaten away from the inside by its own unyielding code. Upon reaching age twenty, the young Spartan sought induction into one of the collectivized mess units around which the lives of the Similars were organized. A youth who failed to be inducted into one of the units never became a true Similar; he was forced to join an inferior caste, his life in ruins before it The End of Sparta properly begun. The mess units, which contained about fifteen men each, were the basis of the organization of army and society alike: The End of Sparta Spartan fought beside, lived with until marriageand ate with his mess-mates. He owed them absolute fealty, and he owed them dinner on a regular rotation. In principle, each Spartan inherited a state-assigned plot of land, and a set of Helot-serfs to farm it. That land was notionally adequate for his sustenance, and adequate to provide his regular contribution to the mess unit. Disobeying an order or demonstrating any hint of fear during battle were further grounds for expulsion. There was, in brief, a good deal of social mobility in Sparta, but mostly downward. A Similar could be demoted for a variety of failings; neither he nor his descendants could expect to ascend back into the privileged elite. The key privilege enjoyed by a Similar was the opportunity to The End of Sparta full-time in public affairs: military training, battle, oversight of the youth, and state government. Money-making was meant to be strictly The End of Sparta to his life. Many did make money, but they had to be sneaky about it. All adult Similars were members of the Citizen Assembly of Spartans the Apellaand as such they had the right to acclaim all matters of state policy especially decisions on whether or not to go to war. Normally, however, their approval The End of Sparta indicated only by shouting in favor of the decisions reached by an inner elite of Spartan The End of Sparta. In addition to two hereditary kings, The End of Sparta served as religious officials and field marshals, Sparta was run by five state officers called Ephors Overseerselected annually by their Similar equals. The Ephors were in turn advised by a body of twenty-eight Elders, who were chosen from the ranks of the senior Spartans. There was much room for confusion in this system; the lines of authority between the two kings and the Ephors were unclear, and much depended in practice on the personality of individuals. Clashes between competitive, headstrong kings and intransigent Ephors led to deadlocks in Spartan policy. Those deadlocks were sometimes broken by personal initiatives, alternately bold or foolish. The internal social rigidity of Sparta was weirdly complemented by highly erratic foreign policy. The Spartan Similar did not enjoy much physical comfort—at least in public. Each Spartan was expected to dress in rough clothes exactly like his fellows, to maintain his family in a simple house no different from that of other Spartans, to dine on the rough fare especially a black bean soup famous among the Greeks for its unpalatability provided in the mess units. He would spend most of his life in public, under the jealous and watchful eyes of his fellow Similars. He would not spend much time at home. His male children, of course, were growing up in the herds, under the same harsh regime that he had endured. He The End of Sparta little time in the company of his wife; indeed he might lend her to another Similar for breeding purposes. Spartan women were expected to accept this sort of treatment without demur, and to devote themselves to inculcating the doctrine of obedience, bravery, and duty in their children. For a long time, from the mid-seventh century through the early fourth, this austere system worked to produce the best soldiers in the Greek world. The Spartan Similar spent his entire life preparing for the rigors of battle, and he became extraordinarily good at it. This does not mean that he was a berserker, capable of defeating The End of Sparta opponents in single combat. The fifth-century historian Herodotus imagined a conversation on the topic of military valor between Demaratus, an exiled Spartan king living in Persia, and Xerxes, the king of the Persian empire: In B. Xerxes was preparing to invade Greece with a huge army, and he was interested in learning about what sort of men he might encounter. Hearing that the Spartans were the best warriors in Greece, he summoned Demaratus. Since Xerxes expected to fight at odds close to ten to one, he supposed that he would not encounter any The End of Sparta difficulties. But Demaratus quickly disabused him: it was not outstanding capacity for fighting as individuals that distinguished the Spartans; rather it was the intense discipline and training that allowed them to fight effectively in the close order of the hoplite phalanx. Because the Spartans did not break ranks but advanced steadily, shoulder to shoulder, with shields locked, they took full advantage of the phalanx formation: an unbroken wall of shields bristling with thrusting spears. The Spartan phalanx, some 9, men strong at the time Demaratus addressed Xerxes, was massive by Greek standards; on its own ground it was as close to an unstoppable force as the ancient world had ever encountered. And that is exactly what Sparta—along with the other Greek city-states—faced in the hard half-century between the battles of Mantinea in B. At the time of the battle of Mantinea, fought at about the midway point in the long Peloponnesian War B. The war between imperial Athens, an audacious democratic naval power, and the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League, had dragged on much longer than anyone had anticipated: optimistic Spartans had expected Athens to fold after two or three campaigning seasons. Albeit, Athens had a fine navy, secure overseas supply lines, and the cash resources of a maritime empire. Yet Sparta headed up a tested coalition of Peloponnesian states. The Peloponnesian League could field a land army second to none in size—and the Spartan heavy infantry provided a fine-honed cutting edge. Six years into the war, in B. The Spartans sought to circumvent the walls of Pylos by attempting a marine landing, but when the Athenian navy suddenly appeared, a Spartan unit found itself stranded on the small offshore island of Sphakteria. The Athenians blockaded the island and landed lightly armed The End of Sparta. Projectile harrassment eventually led to the surrender and capture of several hundred Spartan warriors. The Sphakteria debacle was a shocker; it proved Spartan soldiers were not invincible. The situation was serious, but the Spartans found among their ranks a genuinely innovative military leader. A few years later, the uneasy Peace The End of Sparta Nicias The End of Sparta negotiated; the first stage of the war was over and many Athenians and Spartans breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, wily and ambitious Athenians—including the notorious Alcibiades—engaged in diplomatic intrigue The End of Sparta their Spartan counterparts; the result was a thoroughly confused international situation in the once-tidy The End of Sparta. Bywhen hostilities recommenced, many Greeks doubted that the fabled Spartan courage, resolution and blunt straightforwardness were anything but a clever sham. Yet, as the Athenian-general-turned-historian Thucydides notes, all doubts were laid to rest at the battle of Mantinea. It was, for the Spartans, a must-win engagement in their own Peloponnesian backyard. Faced by a dangerous coalition of disgruntled former allies and traditional enemies, the Spartans and their remaining loyal allies fielded a hoplite army of perhaps 10, men, including perhaps 4, of the elite Similars. The battle got off to a very bad start for the Spartan side: King Agis, as the commanding general, attempted a last-minute tactical redeployment to avoid being outflanked. He withdrew two units of sub-Similars—neither manned by full Spartiates—from the line and deployed them on his left flank, then commanded two regiments of Similars to withdraw from the right flank and fill the gap. But, putting the safety of their unit-mates before the good of the army as a whole, the two Similar regimental commanders refused to obey the order. This left a dangerous gap in the Spartan left wing. Their opponents poured through the gap, forcing back the Spartan left and inflicting numerous casualties. A lesser army would have collapsed.