Did Sparta deserve its military reputation?

Topic 5: The Spartan education system (the agoge)

Enquiry question: Did Sparta deserve its military reputation?

Birth and the Apothetae

• Plutarch, Lycurgus 16:
  • A newborn was not reared at the father's discretion. He brought it to a place called the Lesche, where the elders of the tribe examined it.
  • If it was sturdy, they ordered it to be reared and assigned it one of the 9,000 lots.
  • If it was puny or deformed, it was taken to the Apothetae ("place of rejection"), a chasm near Mount Taygetus.
• Evaluating the evidence:
  • Archaeological work at the Keadas chasm found remains of adolescents and adults, not infants. This casts doubt on the story. (This was a 2007 study by Theodoros Pitsios.)
  • Infant exposure was common across Greece. What was distinctive in Plutarch's account is that the state made the decision.

The agoge (from about age 7 to 20)

• Enrolment: at seven, boys left home and were enrolled in "herds" (agelai) under the overall supervision of the paidonomos, a high-ranking official (Xenophon, Lak. Pol. 2.2). He was assisted by whip-bearers.
• Hardship:
  • Barefoot, to toughen the feet.
  • One cloak a year, to endure cold and heat (Xenophon 2.3–4; Plutarch, Lyc. 16).
  • Slept on rushes they gathered from the Eurotas by hand, without knives (Plutarch, Lyc. 16).
• Food and stealing:
  • Rations were deliberately limited, so boys learned to steal food.
  • Boys who were caught were flogged for stealing badly, not for stealing (Xenophon 2.6–9).
  • The fox story (Plutarch, Lyc. 18): a boy hid a stolen fox cub under his cloak and let it tear at his insides rather than be detected. It is a moral anecdote.
• Endurance rituals:
  • Altar of Artemis Orthia: Xenophon (2.9) describes boys trying to steal as many cheeses as possible from the altar while others whipped them.
  • In the Roman period this became an endurance contest of flogging (the diamastigosis), watched by tourists, and a theatre was built for spectators. This illustrates how later evidence can distort the classical picture.
• Literacy and speech:
  • Boys learned only as much reading and writing as necessary (Plutarch, Lyc. 16).
  • They were trained in laconic speech: short and witty.
  • They learned music, choral dance and Tyrtaeus' martial poems.
• Leadership: the eirenes (young men of about 20) led groups of boys. They trained them, tested them with questions and punished failure.
• Pederasty: Xenophon (Lak. Pol. 2.12–14) insists relationships were chaste mentoring. Plutarch describes "inspirers" (eispnelas) and "listeners" (aitas). Other Greeks doubted the chastity, and Xenophon admits this.
• After the agoge:
  • At about 20, a young man could be elected to a syssition and served in the army.
  • At about 30, he gained full rights (e.g. living at home with a wife, holding office).
  • The hippeis: an elite unit of 300 young men, selected by officials called hippagretai (Xenophon, Lak. Pol. 4). This fostered competition.
• Girls' education: see Topic 4.
• Values the agoge was meant to develop:
  • obedience and discipline;
  • endurance;
  • courage;
  • cunning and resourcefulness;
  • modesty (aidos): boys walked in silence with hands inside their cloaks, eyes down (Xenophon 3.4–5);
  • loyalty to the group and the state rather than the family;
  • competition for honour.

Evaluating the evidence

• Xenophon:
  • He was an insider-outsider: according to Plutarch (Agesilaus 20), Agesilaus advised Xenophon to have his sons educated at Sparta.
  • He was idealising and laconophile, and he describes the early 4th century.
• Plutarch wrote much later. Some "Lycurgan" features may be Hellenistic revivals: the agoge was reinstituted after Cleomenes III (227 BC) and again in the Roman period.
  • Nigel Kennell (The Gymnasium of Virtue, 1995) argues that much of the agoge as described in our sources (including names for age grades) is a later reconstruction. Treat details with caution.
• Was the agoge compulsory for all? Plutarch (Agesilaus 1, E82) notes that heirs apparent were exempt. Agesilaus went through the agoge because he was not expected to become king.

Glossary

Term	Definition
Apothetae	The "place of rejection" near Taygetus where unfit infants were allegedly exposed.
Lesche	The place where the tribal elders inspected newborns.
Agoge	The Spartan state education and training system for boys aged about 7 to 20.
Agelai	The "herds" or "packs" into which boys were grouped.
Paidonomos	The official in overall charge of the boys' education.
Eiren	A young man (about 20) who led a group of boys.
Artemis Orthia	The sanctuary where boys tried to steal cheeses under the lash (Xenophon).
Laconic	Brief, pithy speech, from Laconia.
Hippeis	The 300 elite young Spartiates (Xenophon, Lak. Pol. 4).

Self-test

Q1: Who inspected Spartan newborns according to Plutarch, and what happened to weak infants? A: The elders of the tribe inspected them at the Lesche. Weak or deformed babies were taken to the Apothetae, a chasm near Mount Taygetus.

Q2: Why were boys punished for stealing, according to Xenophon? A: For stealing badly (being caught), not for stealing itself. The aim was to develop resourcefulness and cunning for war.

Q3: What does Kennell argue about the agoge? A: That much of the agoge as described in our sources is a later (Hellenistic or Roman) reconstruction, so we should be cautious applying those details to the 5th century.

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Topic 6: The development of the Spartan military

The syssition (common mess)

• Membership: each Spartiate belonged to a mess of about 15 men.
  • Membership was by unanimous vote. Plutarch, Lyc. 12: each member threw a ball of bread into a bowl; a squashed piece meant rejection, so one rejection was enough to exclude a candidate.
• Contributions: Plutarch (Lyc. 12) says each member contributed monthly:
  • barley meal;
  • wine;
  • cheese;
  • figs;
  • a little money for extras.
  • Failure to pay meant loss of citizen status, which links the syssition to oliganthropia.
• Food: the famous black broth.
• Purposes:
  • bonding;
  • equality (in theory);
  • training in conversation;
  • keeping men together as fighting units.

Organisation of the army and the phalanx

• The hoplite phalanx:
  • Hoplites were heavily armed infantry with a large round shield (hoplon / aspis), spear and helmet.
  • They fought in close-packed ranks, usually eight deep. Each man's shield partly protected the man to his left.
  • Success depended on cohesion and discipline: Sparta's specialty.
• Spartan distinctiveness:
  • A chain of command: Thucydides 5.66 says the Spartan army consisted almost entirely of "officers under officers", so orders passed quickly down the line.
  • Units (Thucydides 5.68; Xenophon, Lak. Pol. 11): the lochos, pentekostys and enomotia. (Xenophon describes the 4th-century mora.)
  • Advancing to the music of pipers (Thuc. 5.70) to keep in step, so the line did not break.
  • Red cloaks and long hair.
  • Sacrifice before battle (Xenophon, Lak. Pol. 13).
  • Training: Spartans drilled while other Greeks were amateur citizen-soldiers. Aristotle (Pol. 8.4) notes that Spartan superiority came from training when others did not.
• The social groups in the army:
  • Spartiates: the core of the hoplites.
  • Perioikoi: a growing share of the hoplites.
  • Helots: light-armed troops and attendants, and later freed as hoplites (neodamodeis, Brasideioi).
  • The Skiritai: troops from the Skiritis region who took the left wing (Thuc. 5.67).
• The navy:
  • Sparta was weak at sea until the end of the Peloponnesian War, when Persian money funded a fleet.
  • The navarch: an annual admiral; the same man could not be navarch twice.
  • Lysander was made epistoleus (secretary / vice-admiral) in 405, with Aracus as nominal navarch, to get round this rule (Xenophon, Hellenica 2.1.7, E125).
  • Aegospotami (405) destroyed the Athenian fleet.

Successes and failures (OCR list)

Event	Outcome	Evidence and significance
Helot revolt, 465–464	Sparta could not take Mount Ithome; called for allies; dismissed the Athenians	Thuc. 1.101–103. Revealed weakness at siege warfare and vulnerability to the helots.
Pylos and Sphacteria (425)	292 men surrendered, about 120 of them Spartiates (Thuc. 4.38)	Shattered the myth that Spartans never surrender. Thuc. 4.40: the Greeks were astonished. Sparta sued for peace, and a helot base was planted in Messenia.
Brasidas in Thrace (424–423)	Took Amphipolis (424); won over Athens' allies	Thuc. 4.80–81. Bold, unconventional; used helots and mercenaries. Thucydides praises his "justice and moderation".
Mantinea (418)	A major Spartan victory under Agis II over Argos, Mantinea and Athens	Thuc. 5.63–74. Restored Spartan prestige after Pylos ("they were judged by the Greeks to be the same men", Thuc. 5.75, paraphrased).
The navy (412–404)	Early defeats (e.g. Cyzicus, 410; Arginusae, 406), then victory at Aegospotami (405)	Persian gold and Lysander's leadership were decisive.

Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC): the core of the Spartan reputation

• Forces:
  • Leonidas led 300 Spartiates, all fathers of living sons, plus several thousand allied Greeks.
  • They held the narrow pass at Thermopylae, while the Greek fleet fought simultaneously at Artemisium.
• The fighting:
  • Days 1–2: the Greeks repulsed waves of Persians, including the elite Immortals.
  • Feigned retreat: Herodotus 7.211 says the Spartans would turn their backs as if fleeing. When the Persians pursued, they turned and cut them down.
  • Betrayal: Ephialtes of Trachis showed Xerxes the Anopaea path, and the Phocian guard abandoned it.
• Day 3:
  • Leonidas dismissed most of the allies.
  • He stayed with the Spartans, the Thespians (who chose to stay) and the Thebans (who, Herodotus says, were kept as hostages, and later surrendered).
  • Herodotus 7.220: an oracle had said that either Sparta would be destroyed or a king would die.
  • All were killed.
  • The epitaph (Hdt. 7.228, attributed to Simonides): "Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here, obedient to their words."
• Significance:
  • Militarily a defeat, but a huge propaganda victory.
  • It created the ideal of fighting to the death and became central to the Spartan mirage.
  • Modern debate: was Leonidas' last stand to protect the retreating allies or the fleet, to obey Spartan law, or to fulfil the oracle? (See Topic 13.)

Glossary

Term	Definition
Syssition (pl. syssitia)	The common mess to which every Spartiate belonged and contributed.
Phalanx	The close formation of heavily armed hoplites.
Hoplite	A heavily armed infantryman.
Enomotia / pentekostys / lochos	Spartan army units (from smallest to larger).
Navarch	An annual Spartan admiral.
Epistoleus	Secretary / vice-admiral (Lysander's title in 405).
Skiritai	Troops from the Skiritis who formed the left wing.
Feigned retreat	Pretending to flee to draw the enemy out of formation, then turning to attack.

Self-test

Q1: How many men surrendered at Sphacteria, and why was it significant? A: 292, about 120 of them Spartiates (Thuc. 4.38). It shocked Greece because Spartans were thought never to surrender. It gave Athens hostages and leverage for peace.

Q2: Give two features that made the Spartan phalanx effective, with sources. A: A clear chain of command, "officers under officers" (Thuc. 5.66), and disciplined advance in step to pipers (Thuc. 5.70). It was backed by constant training (Aristotle).

Q3: Why did Lysander hold the title of epistoleus in 405? A: Spartan law prevented the same man being navarch twice, so Aracus was nominal navarch while Lysander held real command (Xenophon, Hellenica 2.1.7).

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Topic 7: The Spartan Mirage and evaluating ancient evidence

Key ideas

• The "Spartan mirage" (le mirage spartiate) is the term coined by the French scholar François Ollier (Le Mirage spartiate, 1933). It describes the distorted, idealised (and sometimes hostile) image of Sparta created by outsiders and later writers. As a result, the "real" Sparta is very hard to recover.
• Why the mirage arose:
  1. Spartan secrecy and silence:
     • Spartans wrote little.
     • They practised xenelasia, periodic expulsions of foreigners.
     • Thucydides (5.68) notes that their numbers were kept secret.
  2. Outsider authors with agendas:
     • Athenian oligarchs and philosophers idealised Sparta as an alternative to democracy: Xenophon, Kritias, Plato.
     • Athenian democrats and comedians mocked or criticised it: Aristophanes, Euripides, Pericles' Funeral Oration (Thuc. 2.39), which contrasts open Athens with Sparta's compulsory training.
  3. Later reconstruction:
     • Plutarch and the Hellenistic and Roman "revivals" of Lycurgan customs (e.g. at Artemis Orthia) projected later practices back onto the classical period.
  4. Thermopylae: became an ideal of heroic self-sacrifice that defined Sparta's reputation.
• Thucydides 1.10 (paraphrased): if Sparta were deserted and only its temples and foundations remained, later generations would doubt its power matched its fame. It was a collection of villages without grand buildings. Athens, by contrast, would seem twice as powerful as it was. This is a useful warning about appearance versus reality.

Historians

• Ollier (1933): coined the "mirage".
• Cartledge: much of Sparta's reputation reflects outsiders' perceptions, but its military excellence was real.
• Kennell: the agoge was largely a later reconstruction.
• Hodkinson: property and wealth were unequal; the ideal of "equality" was a mirage.
• Michael Flower: explored the "invention of tradition" in classical and Hellenistic Sparta (2002).

Debate: Did Sparta deserve its military reputation?

Yes:

• Plataea (479) and Mantinea (418).
• Dominance in the Peloponnese for centuries.
• Thermopylae.
• Ultimate victory in 404.
• Professional training and discipline (Aristotle; Thuc. 5.66–70).
• Other Greeks accepted Spartan leadership in 480 (Hdt. 8.2–3: the allies refused to follow an Athenian commander, so the Spartan Eurybiades commanded even at sea).

No / qualified:

• Slowness: late for Marathon (Hdt. 6.106, 6.120); reluctant to fight north of the Isthmus in 480–479 (Hdt. 9.6–11).
• Failures: at siege warfare (Ithome); the surrender at Sphacteria.
• Dependence on allies and helots.
• Weakness at sea until Persian gold.
• Manpower decline (oliganthropia) and the loss at Leuctra (371).
• Brasidas and Lysander succeeded through unconventional methods.
• Victory in 404 depended on Persian money and Athenian errors (e.g. Sicily).

Judgement: its reputation for land battle in the phalanx was well deserved. Its broader reputation (invincible, never surrendering, decisive) was partly a mirage, built on Thermopylae and on idealising outsider sources.

Exam technique (36-mark: Spartan military)

• Thesis: the reputation was deserved for hoplite warfare, but exaggerated overall.
• Paragraphs:
  • training and the agoge (Xenophon/Plutarch, evaluated);
  • organisation and discipline (Thuc. 5.66–70; Thucydides is a reliable contemporary);
  • Thermopylae (Herodotus; the epitaph; the mirage);
  • failures: Ithome, Pylos (Thuc. 1.101–103, 4.38–40);
  • dependence on helots and the navy; Persian gold (Xenophon, Hellenica);
  • conclusion.
• Evaluate every source: e.g. "Thucydides, an Athenian exile writing contemporaneously and seeking accuracy (1.22), is a strong witness to Spartan discipline at Mantinea, and also frank about Sphacteria. His account is therefore more balanced than Plutarch's idealised biographies."

Self-test

Q1: Who coined the phrase "the Spartan mirage", and when? A: François Ollier, in Le Mirage spartiate (1933).

Q2: Give three reasons why the evidence for Sparta is distorted. A: Spartans wrote little and were secretive (xenelasia). Most sources are outsiders with agendas (Athenian admirers or critics). Many sources are much later (Plutarch) and reflect Hellenistic or Roman reconstructions.

Q3: What point does Thucydides 1.10 make? A: Sparta's physical remains (a group of villages without grand buildings) would make later generations underestimate its power. This warns against judging from appearances.

Assessment checkpoints: 12-mark question on education (homework); 36-mark essay on the Spartan military.

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