50 Fun Facts About Sparta

In which region of the Peloponnese was Sparta located?

The state was officially called Lacedaemon; 'Sparta' strictly meant the cluster of villages by the Eurotas River.

On the banks of which river was ancient Sparta built?

The valley was walled in by Mount Taygetus to the west and Mount Parnon to the east, natural defences so good the city was never fortified in its prime.

How many kings ruled Sparta at the same time?

They came from the Agiad and Eurypontid families, both claiming descent from Heracles, and neither could override the other.

What was the name of the semi-mythical lawgiver credited with Sparta's constitution?

Herodotus, Xenophon and Plutarch all tried to explain Spartan exceptionalism through the 'Lycurgan reforms', which followed a period of civil strife.

What was the name of the state-owned enslaved population that made up most of Sparta's inhabitants?

They were originally free Greeks from Messenia and Laconia; Thucydides said Spartan policy was always governed by the need to guard against them.

What were the free non-citizen inhabitants of Spartan territory called?

They handled trade and manufacture, which full citizens were barred from, and increasingly fought as hoplites as the citizen body shrank.

What was the Spartan military education system called?

Boys entered at seven, lived in communal messes, and were punished if they failed to answer questions 'laconically'.

At what age did Spartan boys begin the agoge?

They were deliberately underfed and expected to steal to survive, according to Xenophon, whose own sons went through it.

How many elders sat on the Gerousia, Sparta's council, alongside the two kings?

Members had to be over 60 and served for life; they proposed policies that the citizen assembly then voted on.

What were the annually elected Spartan officials called who eventually eclipsed the kings in power?

Two of them accompanied the king on campaign, and on taking office each year they ritually declared war on the helots.

According to legend, what did Spartan currency consist of, to discourage hoarding?

Spartans were allegedly banned from owning gold and silver coins, though archaeology shows they made fine bronze, ivory and jewellery.

Which Spartan king led the last stand at Thermopylae in 480 BC?

An oracle had said either a king must die or Sparta would fall; his force included around 300 Spartiates, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans.

Which Persian king led the invasion that the Spartans faced at Thermopylae?

The Spartans had been warned of the invasion by their own deposed king Demaratus, who was living at the Persian court.

What did the Spartan king reply at Thermopylae when the Persians demanded the Greeks surrender their weapons?

Literally 'having come, take them'; the phrase is now on the emblem of the Greek First Army Corps.

Who revealed the mountain path that let the Persians outflank the Greeks at Thermopylae?

He was a local from Trachis; his name became a Greek byword for traitor.

Why is Thermopylae known as the 'Hot Gates'?

The narrow coastal pass sat between the mountains and the sea, cancelling out the Persians' numbers.

At which battle in 479 BC did Sparta lead the Greek alliance to the decisive land victory over Persia?

The Spartan regent Pausanias commanded; the Spartans brought 35,000 helots with them, suggesting they trusted them more than legend allows.

What natural disaster struck Sparta in 464 BC, triggering a helot revolt?

The Messenian rebels held out for years and were finally allowed to leave the Peloponnese on condition they never returned.

Which alliance, founded by Sparta in the 6th century BC, gave it hegemony over most of the Peloponnese?

Sparta led it against Athens' Delian League in the Peloponnesian War of 431-404 BC.

Which naval battle in 405 BC, won by the Spartan Lysander, effectively ended the Peloponnesian War?

A traditional land power, Sparta had built a fleet with Persian gold to beat Athens at sea.

Which Spartan king campaigned in Persian Anatolia during the brief Spartan hegemony after 404 BC?

His sister Cynisca became the first woman to win an Olympic chariot race, in 396 BC.

At which battle in 371 BC did Thebes end Spartan military supremacy?

Epaminondas' victory freed Messenia, and losing that helot labour sent Sparta into terminal decline as a military power.

Which Theban general defeated Sparta in 371 BC?

Aristotle noted the alarming decline in the number of Spartan citizens, which meant losses could not be replaced.

What one-word reply did Sparta send when Philip II threatened to turn them out if he invaded?

The Spartans then refused to join Philip's League of Corinth, so Alexander's later dedication read 'all the Greeks except the Spartans'.

Which Spartan king died on his knees fighting Antipater's Macedonians at Megalopolis in 331 BC?

Wounded and unable to stand, he ordered his men to retreat and killed several enemies before a javelin finished him; Alexander then merely forced Sparta into the League of Corinth.

Which famous general failed to take Sparta by siege in 272 BC?

Sparta only built a city wall after 184 BC, having long believed walls made men soft.

Sparta lost its independence in 192 BC when forced into which federation after Nabis fell?

Under Rome it became a free city and a tourist attraction where the elite came to watch exotic Spartan customs.

Which Roman emperor recruited a 500-man Spartan cohort in AD 214 for his Parthian campaign?

A gravestone of one of them, Marcus Aurelius Alexys, shows him lightly armed with a cap and a wooden club rather than as a hoplite.

Which Visigothic king sacked Sparta in AD 396?

In the Middle Ages the region's centre shifted to nearby Mystras, and modern Sparta was only refounded in 1834 by King Otto.

Which Bavarian-born king of Greece re-founded the modern town of Sparta in 1834?

It is now the capital of the Laconia region; the Tsakonian language nearby is the last descendant of ancient Doric.

What was the secret Spartan institution whose young graduates hunted and killed enslaved locals?

Thucydides tells of 2,000 helots invited to claim their freedom for bravery, then quietly killed, nobody knowing how each died.

What were the compulsory Spartan dining messes called, which citizens joined at 20?

Each had about fifteen members and every citizen had to contribute produce from his kleros to stay in one.

Until what age did Spartan men remain in the active military reserve?

They could marry at 20 but were not allowed to live with their families until they finished active service at 30.

According to Thucydides, what did a Spartan wife say when handing her husband his shield?

It is almost certainly propaganda: Spartans buried their dead on the battlefield rather than carrying them home on shields.

According to Plutarch, in what liquid did Spartan mothers bathe newborns to test their strength?

Plutarch is the only source for the story that weak babies were thrown into the Apothetae chasm; excavations there found only adult remains.

What term did Spartan citizens use for themselves, meaning 'equals'?

The name pointed to their shared lifestyle and the discipline of the phalanx, though land soon concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite.

Which Spartan queen, wife of the king who died at Thermopylae, is credited with decoding a wax-covered tablet warning of the Persian invasion?

Asked why Spartan women alone could rule men, she supposedly replied, 'Because we are the only women who are mothers of men'.

Which Spartan princess became the first woman to win an Olympic chariot race, in 396 BC?

She won again in 392 and put up bronze equestrian statues at the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

Roughly what share of all land in later classical Sparta is estimated to have been owned by women?

Spartan women controlled their own property and their husbands', were literate, and could not be married before their late teens.

According to Plutarch's account of Spartan weddings, what did the 'bridesmaid' do to the bride?

The groom then slipped in secretly after dinner at his mess, and kept visiting in secret for some time after.

How many equal land portions did the Lycurgan reforms allegedly divide Spartan territory into?

By Aristotle's day the citizen body had shrunk from 9,000 to under 1,000, and to just 700 by 244 BC.

What is the modern term for the admiration of Sparta and its way of life?

French classicist Francois Ollier coined 'the Spartan mirage' for the idealised picture painted by non-Spartan writers; no Spartan account survives.

Which sanctuary at Sparta hosted the flogging ordeal of Spartan boys known as the diamastigosis?

A theatre-like building was put up around its altar soon after AD 200 so Roman tourists could watch.

The Menelaion east of Sparta was believed by Spartans to be the former home of which Homeric king?

Offerings to him and to Helen have been found there, and Mycenaean mansions lie beneath it.

According to Thucydides, Sparta looked less like a great city and more like what?

He predicted future ages would never believe from the ruins that Spartan power matched its fame; the city had no splendid temples.

Which Athenian general and writer sent his own two sons to be educated in the Spartan agoge?

Foreign students admitted this way were called trophimoi, 'foster sons'.

Who directed the 2006 film 300, based on Frank Miller's comic about Thermopylae?

Gerard Butler played Leonidas and Lena Headey Queen Gorgo; the film grossed over $468 million.

Who played the Spartan king in the film 300?

Rodrigo Santoro played the towering 'God-King' Xerxes and David Wenham narrated as Dilios.

In classical antiquity, the Spartan state as a whole was known by what name?

Homer, Herodotus and Thucydides all use this name, and the people were often called Lacedaemonians; 'Sparta' strictly referred to the capital villages.

Which Spartan king, allied with Ptolemaic Egypt, was defeated at Sellasia in 222 BC?

He had tried to make Sparta the dominant power of the Peloponnese against the Achaean League before a Macedonian-Achaean alliance under Antigonus Doson crushed him.