CLASS280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Tegea, First Messenian War, Helots
5 Apr 2016
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Development during archaic period of unique militaristic society. Sparta = physical city; lacedaemon (political unit of duty and territory); laconia (territory) Conquest of laconian plain (before md 8th c. ) results in 2 subject classes. Stay on land, and work land for spartans. Turn over xed percentage of product to spartans. Spartans take over fertile plain to the west when experiencing a land shortage. Division of land after war results in con ict within spartan society = only overseas settlement (taras) Sparta (trying to expand to northeast) was defeated by argos (pheidon) Late 7th century poet tyrtaeus associated with messenian war, hints at internal problems, calls for obedience to low and order. Spartans now have larges territory of all city-states, but also large number of helots. All literary evidence is late and tendentious, written by conservatives (non-spartans) to idealize spartan way of life (spartan mirage) Spartans were extremely secretive; periodic expulsions of foreigners, kept few written records.
