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Sparta

Sparta (Sparti) was a Greek city-state located on the Eurotras River in southern Laconia on the Peloponnesian peninsula. Situated between two mountain ranges, Sparta was cut off geographically from the rest of the Greek city-states, even Messina, which is also located on the same peninsula. This geographical isolation acted as a natural barrier, which affected the development of the Spartan State.

Eventually Sparta was transformed in to a military state. The lives of Spartans were rigidly organised and controlled by the state. At birth children were examined by officials to see if it would live or die. Those that were determined to be too weak were taken into the mountains and left to die from exposure. Males, upon reaching the age of seven, were sent to live in community barracks and be trained in both military and athletic abilities.

The schools taught the endurance of extreme pain, wilderness survival skills, and discipline. After 13 years of training, a soldier began service in the standing army. He continued to serve until the age of sixty, all the while being supported by a plot of land given to him and farmed by helots. Although they were allowed to marry, they remained eating and living in the barracks until they were sixty. At thirty they were recognized as adults and were allowed to participate in the Assembly. Raised from birth to believe that total loyalty to the state was the sole reason for living, Sparta was able to remain at the forefront of Greek culture.

Ancient Sparta had been created by the Dorians in 1100 BC as a state with a special regime. It was the terror of Athens, which explains why clashes between them had been permanent, culminating into the Peloponnesian War, out of which it emerged victorious. Until the time of Alexander the Great, Sparta and Athens were the biggest city states in ancient Greece.

In 146 BC, the Sparta region was conquered by the Romans. Known as Lacedaemon in Byzantine years, it fell to the Franks after the Fall of Constantinople in 1204, becoming the seat of a Catholic bishopric. In 1266, although the fort of Mystras had already been built and the Franks handed it over to the Byzantines, its inhabitants abandoned it and the city became deserted.

Only a few ruins remain of once mighty and powerful Sparta. Odd remnants of the shrine of Chalkioikou Athinas worshipped up to the 4th century BC, the Wall and the Roman Arcade. To the west of the temple, excavations led to the discovery of the church of Christ the Saviour with which chaste Nikon had an association (10th century).

Sparta has its own archaeological museum, a neoclassical building in the centre of the town, with rich exhibits, belonging mainly to archaic years. Around Sparta you may visit the picturesque village of Anavryti with the monastery of Faneromeni, Loganikos, Georgitsi and Chrysafa with its Byzantine churches of Chrysafiotisa (1290), Agion Panton (All Saints) (1367) and Agios Dimitrios (1641).

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