Sparta - Sparta (English spelling)

Japanese: スパルタ - すぱるた（英語表記）Sparta

A representative Dorian city-state of ancient Greece. It was also called Lakedaimon. The central city was located on the right bank of the Eurotas River, which flows from north to south through the Laconia region in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese Peninsula.

[Shoji Kiyonaga]

Establishment and development

In the 13th century BC, the Achaeans lived in Laconia, and there was probably a Mycenaean kingdom, but it collapsed around 1200 BC due to invasions by foreign enemies, and then around 1000 BC, the Dorians invaded and occupied various parts of the city. Four Dorian villages were established in the 10th century BC in the central city of Sparta, and the conquered Achaeans became helotai (farmers with slave status). These four villages fought for supremacy for a long time, but eventually, around 800 BC, they formed a polis by congregation (sinoikismos), and order was restored. A two-king system was created, with kings from the Agis and Euryphon families, and the citizens were called Spartans (Spartiates), but the sovereignty of the polis was returned to the hands of the aristocrats based on the elders. It is said that the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus played a leading role in the establishment of the polis.

Sparta soon began to expand its influence in the surrounding areas, and among the peoples it subjugated, it made some of the Achaeans perioikoi (semi-free people) and the rest helots, and the Dorians perioikoi. However, it accepted the Achaean village of Amyklai, about 8 km south of the city center, which it had occupied around 750 BC, as the fifth village in the city center. The whole of Laconia, except for the eastern coastal area, was conquered by 700 BC at the latest, but Sparta invaded the neighboring Messenia region to the west around 725 BC and started the First Messenian War, and spent about 20 years occupying the fertile central plain and making the Messenians there helots. During this war, the Spartan nobles also established a group of officials called ephoroi to keep the king in check. At the end of the 8th century BC, they established a colony at Tarentum in southern Italy, but suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Hissiae at the hands of Argos around 669 BC, and shortly thereafter the Messenians rebelled, starting the Second Messenian War. Sparta struggled, and there were calls from within the country for land redistribution, but around 650 BC, Sparta conquered all of Messenia, turned all Messenians, except for a few who were made perioikoi, into helots, and redistributed the land, so that all the Spartans became landowners.

In the second half of the 7th century BC, Sparta welcomed foreigners and prospered culturally and materially, but at the end of the century, it launched a war of conquest in neighboring Arcadia to the north, and repeatedly failed in battles with Tegea. This caused unrest within the country as commoners sought to participate in the government, so in 556/555 BC, Chiron, the leader of the ephors, changed the foreign policy from conquest to alliance, and formed an alliance with Tegea in which Sparta had the upper hand, laying the foundation for the Peloponnesian League. Domestically, he carried out a transformation of the state from aristocracy to democracy, realizing political participation of all citizens as equals, and initiating the so-called "lycurgus system" that regulated every aspect of Spartan life. This gradually took shape and became a unique system that included prohibitions on the transfer and sale of land, prohibitions on productive labor by citizens, restrictions on the use of precious metal currency and the use of iron coins, expulsion of foreigners, citizens' common meals every evening, and strict collective training for boys from the age of six. In the collective training system known as "Spartan education," boys who reached the age of six left home to live in boarding schools, where they were assigned to one of four age-based groups and received various training until they reached the age of 29. The aim was to train strong warriors indispensable to the polis state, and for this reason, learning to read and write was kept to a bare minimum, rigorous physical training was repeated, a life of simple clothing and food was forced, and even stealing to supplement food shortages was part of the training.

Thus, around 500 BC, Sparta had an exceptionally large territory for a polis, covering about 8,500 square kilometers, and about 8,000 Spartans, as well as several times that number of perioikoi and over ten times as many helots. It gained the status of leader of the Peloponnesian League which covered most of the Peloponnesian Peninsula. It based its government on a democracy in which the ephors, representing all Spartans, were the highest official body, and the lycurgus system to prevent the disintegration of the citizen body. It tried to suppress the perioikoi and especially the helots, but on the other hand, it rapidly declined culturally and became a polis with no notable culture.

[Shoji Kiyonaga]

Dominance and decline

From the middle of the 6th century BC, Sparta sent troops to overthrow tyrants in various parts of Greece, seizing the eastern coast of Laconia and the island of Kythera from Argos around 545 BC, and annihilated the Argive army at the Battle of Sepeia around 494 BC. After expelling the Athenian tyrant Hippias in 510 BC, Sparta attempted to interfere in Athens three times, but in the Persian Wars at the beginning of the 5th century BC, it took command of the Hellas coalition forces and fought against the Persian army together with Athens and others. The Messenians, who had also rebelled in the early 5th century BC, rose up in a major revolt when Sparta was hit by a major earthquake in 464 BC. This revolt continued for several years before being put down, but during that process, Sparta asked Athens for help but rejected the Athenian reinforcements that arrived. The conflict with Athens, which had already arisen during the Persian Wars, intensified as a result of this incident, and the two armies clashed directly at the Battle of Tanagra in 457 BC, but it did not escalate into all-out war between the two countries, and a five-year truce was concluded in 451 BC, followed by a 30-year peace treaty in 446 BC. However, fear and jealousy of the ever-developing Athens, triggered by this series of incidents, drove Sparta into the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC.

Sparta won the war in 404 BC and gained hegemony over Greece, but its oppressive actions caused resentment among the other city-states, and its alliance with Persia at the end of the Peloponnesian War was broken, leading to the Corinthian War in the early 4th century BC. Sparta managed to get through this crisis by signing the "Peace of the Great King" with Persia, but was defeated by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC and lost its hegemony over Greece. The following year, Messenia regained its independence, and Sparta's territory was halved. In addition, the lycurgus system collapsed after the Peloponnesian War, which led to the dissolution of citizen groups, the concentration of land ownership, and a rapid decline in the Spartan population in the 4th century BC. In the Battle of Mantinea in 362 BC, Thebes defeated Sparta again.

Sparta did not join the Corinthian League in 337 BC, and organized a Greek resistance against Macedonia in 333-331 BC, but failed. Around the middle of the 3rd century BC, the number of Spartans had dropped to 700, of which only 100 were landowners. Agis IV and Cleomenes III, who ascended to the throne in succession in the second half of the 3rd century BC, attempted to restore their homeland through bold reforms, but both ended in failure. Lycurgus, the first person from outside the two royal houses to ascend the throne in 220 BC, expelled Agesipolis, the king of the Agis family, and abolished the two king system. After his death in 211 BC, Macanidas, a former mercenary from Tarentum, took power as protector of Lycurgus's minor son and successor, Pelops, and ruled like a tyrant, but was defeated and killed in a battle with the Achaean league at Mantinea in 207 BC. Next, Nabis, probably of the Euryphon family, became Pelops' protector, and ascended to the throne upon Pelops' death in the same year. As the last king of Sparta, he ruled tyrannically and implemented various policies aimed at repeating the reforms of Cleomenes III, but was assassinated in 192 BC. In the same year, Sparta was forced to join the Achaean League, but soon left it and, after frequent conflicts with it, came under Roman control after 146 BC. However, it was granted autonomy as a free city, and it recovered quite a bit of prosperity, especially in the 2nd century AD, but in 395 it was devastated by the ravages of the Visigoths led by Alaric.

Medieval Sparta fell into ruins around the middle of the 13th century and was rebuilt in 1834. Today, Sparti (its modern Greek name) has a population of 15,100 (2001 estimate), is a regional city where agricultural products from the Laconian Plain are distributed, and is the capital of the Laconia prefecture. A low hill 22 meters above sea level to the north-northwest of the city is the ancient acropolis, and the flat land to the south of that is the remains of the agora, but nothing remains to remind us of Sparta's prosperity up until the classical period.

[Shoji Kiyonaga]

"Plutarch's Lives, translated by Kono Yoichi (Iwanami Bunko)" ▽ "Sparta and Athens, by Ota Hidemichi (Iwanami Shinsho)" ▽ "The Constitutional Systems of Athens and Sparta, by Iwata Takuro (included in "Iwanami Lecture Series: World History 1: Ancient 1", 1969, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "Spartan Life and Its Collapse, by Furuyama Masato (included in "Western History 2: The Mediterranean World", 1979, Yuhikaku Shinsho)"

[References] | Dorians | Peloponnesian War

Spartan territories and allies
©Shogakukan ">

Spartan territories and allies

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

古代ギリシアの代表的なドーリス人のポリス（都市国家）。ラケダイモンLakedaimonともいわれた。中心市は、ペロポネソス半島の南東部ラコニア地方を北から南に貫流するエウロータス川の中流右岸にあった。

［清永昭次］

成立と発展

紀元前13世紀のラコニアLaconiaにはアカイア人が住み、たぶん一つのミケーネ王国があったが、それは前1200年ごろ外敵の侵入を受けて崩壊し、ついで前1000年ごろドーリス人が侵入して各地を占拠した。スパルタの中心市の地には、前10世紀中にドーリス人の四つの村がつくられ、征服されたアカイア人は、ヘイロタイheilotai（奴隷身分の農民）となった。この4村は長期にわたり覇権を争ったが、結局、前800年ごろ集住（シノイキスモス）によってポリスを形成し、秩序を回復した。アギス家、エウリポン家からそれぞれ王を出す二王制度が生まれ、市民はスパルタ人（スパルティアタイ）とよばれたが、ポリスの主権は、長老会に拠(よ)る貴族の手に帰した。ポリスの成立の際に、伝説的な立法者リクルゴスが指導的な役割を演じたといわれる。

　スパルタは、まもなく周辺に勢力を伸ばし始め、屈服させた人々のうち、アカイア人を、一部ペリオイコイperioikoi（半自由民）としたほかは、ヘイロタイとし、ドーリス人をペリオイコイとした。しかし前750年ごろに占領した、中心市の南方約8キロメートルのアカイア人の村アミクライは、中心市を構成する第五の村として受け入れた。東部海岸地帯を除くラコニア全域は、遅くとも前700年までには征服されたが、スパルタは、それより早く前725年ごろ、西隣のメッセニアMessenia地方に侵入して第一次メッセニア戦争を起こし、約20年をかけて肥沃(ひよく)な中央平野を占領し、その地のメッセニア人をヘイロタイとした。またこの戦争中、スパルタの貴族は、王を抑えるためにエフォロイephoroiとよばれる役人団を設置した。前8世紀末には南イタリアのタラスに植民市を建設したが、前669年ごろヒシアイの戦いでアルゴスに大敗し、その後まもなくメッセニア人が反乱を起こして第二次メッセニア戦争となった。スパルタは苦戦し、国内からは土地の再分配を求める声があがったが、前650年ごろメッセニア全土を征服して、ペリオイコイとした一部を除くメッセニア人すべてをヘイロタイ化し、土地の再分配も実施して、スパルタ人はすべて土地所有者となった。

　前7世紀後半のスパルタは、外人を歓迎し、文化的にも物質的にも繁栄したが、同世紀末に北隣のアルカディア地方の征服戦争に乗り出して、テゲアとの戦いに失敗を重ね、国内でも平民が政権への参加を求めて動揺が生じたため、前556／555年の筆頭エフォロスephorosのキロンが、対外政策を従来の征服から同盟に転換し、テゲアとはスパルタ優位の同盟を結んで、ペロポネソス同盟の基礎を置いた。国内では貴族政から民主政への国制の変革を断行して、同等者としての全市民の政治参加を実現し、またスパルタ人の生活を隅々まで規制する、いわゆる「リクルゴス制度」を始めた。これはしだいに形を整えて、土地の譲渡・売買の禁止、市民の生産労働の禁止、貴金属貨幣の使用抑制と鉄銭の使用、外人追い払い、市民の毎夕の共同食事、満6歳になったときからの男子の厳しい集団訓練などを内容とする、独特の制度となった。「スパルタ教育」とよばれる集団訓練の制度では、満6歳に達した少年は、家庭を離れて寄宿生活に入り、以後、満29歳の年を終わるまで、順次年齢別の四つのグループに所属して種々の訓練を受けた。ポリス国家にとって不可欠の強い戦士の養成が目的とされ、そのために、読み書きの学習は必要最小限にとどめられて厳しい体育訓練が繰り返され、また粗衣粗食の生活が強制され、不足の食料を補うための盗みさえも訓練のひとつとして行われた。

　こうして前500年ごろのスパルタは、ポリスとしては例外的に広い約8500平方キロメートルの領土と約8000のスパルタ人、その数倍のペリオイコイと十数倍のヘイロタイを擁し、ペロポネソス半島の大半を覆うペロポネソス同盟の盟主の地位を得、全スパルタ人を代表するエフォロイを最高役人団とする民主政、市民団の分解を阻止するためのリクルゴス制度を土台とし、ペリオイコイと、とくにヘイロタイの抑圧に努めたが、他方、文化的には急速に衰え、みるべき文化のないポリスとなった。

［清永昭次］

覇権と衰退

スパルタは、前6世紀のなかばごろ以降、ギリシア各地の僭主(せんしゅ)政打倒のために軍隊を送り、前545年ごろ、ラコニアの東部海岸地帯とキティラ島をアルゴスから奪い、前494年ごろセペイアの戦いでアルゴス軍を壊滅させた。前510年にアテネの僭主ヒッピアスを追放したのちも、三度アテネへの干渉を試みたが、前5世紀初めのペルシア戦争では、ヘラス連合軍の総指揮権を握り、アテネなどとともにペルシア軍と戦った。前5世紀初めにも反乱を起こしたメッセニア人は、前464年にスパルタが大地震にみまわれたのを機会に大反乱に立ち上がった。この反乱は、その後数年続いて鎮圧されたが、その過程でスパルタはアテネに援助を求めながら、到着したアテネの援軍を拒絶した。すでにペルシア戦争中から生じていたアテネとの対立関係は、この事件で一段と激化し、前457年のタナグラの戦いでは直接両軍の衝突が起こったが、両国の全面戦争には至らず、前451年には5年間の休戦条約、前446年には期間30年の和約が結ばれた。しかし、発展を続けるアテネに対する恐怖心と嫉妬(しっと)心は、一連の事件を誘因として、前431年スパルタをペロポネソス戦争に追い込んだ。

　スパルタは、前404年に勝利を収め、ギリシアの覇権を握ったが、その抑圧的な行動は諸ポリスの反感を招き、またペロポネソス戦争末期のペルシアとの同盟関係も破れて、前4世紀初めにコリント戦争が起こった。スパルタはペルシアと「大王の和約」を結んで、この危機を切り抜けたが、前371年のレウクトラの戦いでテーベに敗れて、ギリシアの覇権を失い、翌年メッセニアが独立を回復して、スパルタの領土は半減した。また、ペロポネソス戦争後、リクルゴス制度が崩れたことから、前4世紀に市民団の解体、土地所有の集中、スパルタ人の減少が急速に進んだ。前362年のマンティネイアの戦いで、テーベはふたたびスパルタを撃破した。

　スパルタは、前337年のコリント同盟に参加せず、前333～前331年にマケドニアに対するギリシアの抵抗運動を組織したが、失敗した。前3世紀なかばごろ、スパルタ人の数は700人、そのうち土地所有者はわずかに100人に減じた。前3世紀の後半に相次いで即位したアギス4世とクレオメネス3世は、思いきった改革によって祖国の復興を企てたが、ともに挫折(ざせつ)に終わった。前220年に初めて二王家の外から即位したリクルゴスは、アギス家の王アゲシポリスを追放して、二王制度を廃した。彼が前211年に死ぬと、タレントゥムの傭兵(ようへい)あがりのマカニダスが、リクルゴスの未成年の子でその後を継いだペロプスの保護者として政権を握り、僭主的支配を行ったが、前207年にアカイア同盟軍とマンティネイアに戦って敗死した。ついで、おそらくエウリポン家の出のナビスがペロプスの保護者となり、同年ペロプスの死とともに即位し、スパルタの最後の王として僭主的支配を行い、クレオメネス3世の改革の再現を目ざして種々の政策を強行したが、前192年に暗殺された。同年スパルタはアカイア同盟に加盟させられたが、まもなく離脱してしばしばこれと抗争したすえ、前146年以後はローマの支配下に入った。しかし自由市として自治を認められ、とくに紀元後2世紀にはかなり繁栄を回復したが、395年、アラリックの率いる西ゴート人の略奪によって荒廃した。

　中世のスパルタは、13世紀なかばごろから廃墟(はいきょ)と化し、1834年に再建された。現在のスパルティSpárti（現代ギリシア語名）は、人口1万5100（2001推計）、ラコニア平野の農産物が集散する地方都市で、ラコニア県の県庁所在地である。市街の北北西、周辺との標高差22メートルの低い丘が古代のアクロポリス、その南の平坦(へいたん)地がアゴラの跡であるが、古典期までのスパルタの繁栄をしのばせるものは残っていない。

［清永昭次］

『プルタルコス著、河野与一訳『プルターク英雄伝』（岩波文庫）』▽『太田秀通著『スパルタとアテネ』（岩波新書）』▽『岩田拓郎著「アテナイとスパルタの国制」（『岩波講座　世界歴史 1　古代 1』所収・1969・岩波書店）』▽『古山正人著「スパルタ的生活とその崩壊」（『西洋史 2　地中海世界』所収・1979・有斐閣新書）』

[参照項目] | ドーリス人 | ペロポネソス戦争

スパルタの領土および同盟国

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