Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Economy
• Land Ownership
◦ Plutarch writes that each newborn boy and future citizen was given an equal plot of land
by the state known as a kleros
◦ It is thought that the kleros may have been given to a young man once he had completed
the agoge
◦ There were supposedly 9000 equal kleroi distributed among the citizens
◦ Lykourgos is credited with seeking to avoid social and economic inequalities that might
lead to social unrest
◦ The ideal, clearly admired by Plutarch, is of an equality of land and goods where the
only competition between citizens is in striving for virtue
◦ For many years this neat picture of kleroi was accepted by scholars but historians now
suspect that the kleros is merely part of the myth of equality in Sparta
◦ Nowadays many scholars believe a significant land re-distribution occurred in the 3rd
Century BC in the time of the kings Agis IV and Kleomenes III.
◦ The measures of Agis and Kleomenes were indeed revolutionary and short-lived,
however this land re-distribution may have been attributed to Lykourgos to make it seem
legitimate.
◦ The kleros is a late invention and should not be accepted as factual due to little reliable
evidence on the subject
◦ The many instances of inequality in Spartan society call into question the very existence
of kleroi as the basis for material equality – it would seem that some people had more
land and that there were rich and poor Spartiates.
◦ Altogether, there is sufficient reason to doubt the existence of kleroi as it is mentioned
only by Plutarch who is a late and often unreliable source.
◦ Neither Herodotos nor Xenophon nor Aristotle mention the kleroi and no ancient writer
claims that they existed in his own day
◦ Thomas J. Figueira, on the other hand, argues for a modified kleros model stating that
“for the majority of Spartiates c.500, the kleros represented the main component of their
assets”
◦ The baseline of the Spartan economy was the exploitation of the land in an intensive
agriculture
◦ It can be assumed that the Spartan agricultural economy produced a surplus that could be
traded outside Sparta by boat
• Technology
◦ Corinthian style helmet provided protection for head but made it difficult to see and hear
◦ Upper body protected by a padded corselet worn over a cloth tunic
◦ Red Spartan cape
◦ Bronze greaves protected the shins, the lower leg, knee to ankle
◦ Three metre long thrusting spear
◦ Round shield emblazoned with the greek letter lambda for Lakedaimon
◦ Short iron stabbing sword tied to waist
◦ Spartan metalworkers employed the ancient technology of smelting and casting metals
◦ Forging technology was hit and miss as the scientific basis of the process was not
understood
◦ Sometimes a smith would produce a sword with a strength and character that was almost
magical – the carbon and carbon monoxide from the charcoal fire was coming into
contact with the iron and 'steeling' the sword – only two survive in archaeological record
◦ The Spartans had come to dominate the original inhabitants of Lakonia and Messenia
through their possession of iron weapons, which were stronger than those of bronze
◦ The clay that potters used came from within the area of the city of Sparta itself and is
still found along the banks of the river Eurotas
◦ In ancient Sparta we have evidence of potteries in the Kynosoura and Mesoa quarters of
the town
◦ Lakonian pottery was painted with a redish clay 'slip' rich in iron which turned black in
the firing process and made a kind of glaze
◦ Details within the outline would be incised to created lines that cut through the area to be
black glazed and revealed the clay below
◦ Fired using a simple up-draught wood kiln
◦ From mistakes and successes, together with a knowledge of the clay and the kiln,
remarkable pottery was made in Lakonia
◦ A kiln was discovered by the Greek archaeologist Chr. Christou in the Mesoa quarter of
the city of Sparta in 1964 and dated to around 600 BC
◦ Christou suggested that the large relief amphora found at the site was made there by a
group of potters who may have been Spartan citizens
• Economic roles of the perioikoi and helots
◦ Under the laws of Lykourgos, Spartiates were forbidden from engaging in craftwork,
trade and commerce
◦ By the 5th Century BC, presumably only the perioikoi were involved in such activities
◦ The helots worked the land and produced agricultural goods for use in trade and to be
provided in the syssitia
• Economic exchange
◦ According to Plutarch, Lykourgos actively discouraged the Spartans from trading
amongst themselves or with other peoples by forbidding the use of all gold or silver
coinage
◦ Plutarch would have us believe that iron bars were used as a substitute for coinage
◦ In early Sparta, coinage was not essential for trade as goods were exchanged in a barter
economy
◦ The so-called Lykourgan ban on precious metals and the introduction of iron bars is
most probably to be dated to the late 6th Century BC
◦ The iron bars were heated red hot and then quenched in vinegar making them brittle and
useless for refashioning into something of value – this was intended to isolate the
Spartan economy
◦ It is worth noting that we have not one reference, in any source, of any person using an
iron bar in a transaction. On the other hand, we have many instances where Spartans are
either using gold or silver coinage or speaking in terms that suggest their use
◦ We might doubt that foreign coinage was completely eradicated from Sparta
◦ They had diplomatic relations with the Lydian King Kroisos so Lydian gold coins would
have been known, but the Spartans most probably used the currency of Aigina
◦ The evidence for this is strangely Plutarch for while he claims that Sparta only had
Lykourgos' iron currency, he incidentally tells us that mess contributions in Sparta
included a small monthly payment in coin for fish or meat
◦ Dikaiarkos gives the value as 10 Aiginetan bronze obols
◦ Figueira argues that Spartans held secret stocks of precious metals in their homes and as
late as the 5th Century BC commonly evaluated goods in terms of the monetary units of
Aigina and that these were standard among their allies
◦ There are many examples gathered by Figueira from the ancient sources to show that
coinage was used
◦ Bribes to Spartans were paid in coins and that corrupt officials might hide coins at home
◦ Figueira suggests that there were two Spartan economies — the ideal 'white' one and the
real 'black' one
Cultural Life
• Art
◦ Spartan cultural life can be clearly traced through the sequence of Lakonian painted
pottery vessels
◦ Painted vessels from the 7th Century BC are characterised by geometric decoration –
occasionally animal or human figures are depicted but they are always part of a larger
decorative scheme
◦ Painted vessels from the early 6th Century BC are characterised by the predominance of
friezes, decorative bands, made up of animals or birds, or a decorative patterning made
up of fish and dolphins
◦ Painted vessels from the late 6th Century BC are characterised by a scene or narrative
story taken from life or mythology – these decorations are valuable to the historian
because they are archaeological sources that record banquets and scenes showing riding,
hunting and fighting
◦ The carving of ivory and bone was highly developed in Sparta and objects of great
beauty were produced in the 7th Century BC
◦ The ivory for these objects had to be imported and it was sourced from traders in Syria
◦ Archaeologists examining the style of Spartan ivory carvings have commented on what
often appears to be a strong artistic influence from the East
◦ Used as brooches or pieces of decoration on furniture or boxes
◦ Spartans were excellent bronze workers as can be shown from the Grächwil hydria, the
Pesaro hydria, the Vix krater and a vast number of smaller works
◦ There are many reliefs in limestone and in the marble of Lakonia that have been
discovered such as a pyramidal stone with depictions of Menelaos and Helen as well as
reliefs of the Dioskouroi – stone sculpture in the round is less common
• Architecture
◦ Two temples to Artemis Orthia
▪ First, 700 BC, was a small structure, long and only 4.5m wide – bricks and wood on
a stone foundation with a gabled roof structure
▪ Second, 580BC, sited over the earlier one with built up land to protect against
flooding – R.M. Dawkins concluded that the second temple had Doric columns and a
gabled roof with a painted stone lion on top of the pediment
◦ Menelaion shrine was a rather small but still monumental building – the earliest of its
kind in Lakonia – with a pedimental roof which was tiled with terracottas
◦ Early in the 5th Century BC this building was demolished and was rebuilt to a height of
8m with a parapet faced with blue limestone and white marble
◦ The Ionian architect Bathykles, who came from Asian Minor, is credited by Pausanias
with a massive reconstruction of the already existing shrine of Apollo at Amyklai
◦ Pausanias provides a detailed but confusing description of the building, stating that its
primary function was to serve as a throne for an ancient cult statue of Apollo
◦ Pausanias also mentions various other statues such as two Graces, two Seasons, Echidna,
Typhon and a number of Tritons
◦ Pausanias notes that the base of the statue of Apollo was shaped like an altar, suggesting
a block, in which Hyakinthos was believed to be buried
◦ There is not enough surviving material to indicate what the building as a whole actually
looked like and while there have been a number of attempts at theoretically
reconstructing what the building looked like based on Pausanias' description, these are
all merely hypotheses
• Writing and Literature
◦ Music was a socialising influence because through blending their voices and playing set
parts the singers learned to co-operate and fit in with others
◦ Music and dancing were important occupations for Spartan soldiers for they were related
to hoplite drill and to psychological preparation for battle
◦ Tyrtaios, most probably a native Spartan, lived in the second half of the 7th Century BC
and wrote poetry that was sung by the men of Sparta in the army
◦ His purpose was to teach the young men and boys the correct attitudes as they were
endorsed by the state
◦ The key virtues that he stresses for the young are courage, discipline and manliness
◦ Tyrtaios' poetry has not come down to us complete – it is mostly pieced together from
quotations of his lines by other ancient writers
◦ Alkman, who lived in the middle of the 7th Century BC, was the first Greek choral poet
whose works have come down to us – one tradition says he came from Sardis while
others state that he was a Spartan born in Lakonia
◦ His lines beautifully evoke the towering mountains of Sparta, the seasons of the year and
the twittering of the bloggers... oh I mean birds
◦ Alkman was a choir-master who wrote works for girls to sing in their maiden chorus as
he accompanied them on the lyre
◦ He playfully refers to the choir girls by name and creates a persona for himself within
the poem and in this way we are able to see a Spartan poet as he would like to be seen by
his audience