Sparta

The city-state of Sparta: its constitution, helots and army, and its wars and leagues.

Category: States

Compare with other topics →

1. c. 800 BCE
   Lycurgus gives Sparta its laws (legendary)

   Spartans credited the lawgiver Lycurgus with their constitution and way of life. Many historians doubt he existed, and ancient dates range from 885 to 776 BCE. Institutions such as the agoge probably developed later, from the 7th century.

   Greek city-statesSparta📍 Sparta
2. c. 743 BCE
   First Messenian War (traditional dates)

   Sparta conquers neighbouring Messenia. Pausanias dates the war 743-724 BCE, Coldstream about 730-710. Messenia loses its sovereignty and its people are reduced to helots, serfs who feed Sparta's citizens. Our sources are late and fragmentary.

   Greek city-statesSparta📍 Messenia📍 Sparta
3. 510 BCE
   Hippias is expelled from Athens

   In 510 BCE Spartan hoplites help the Athenians overthrow the tyrant Hippias. The Spartan king Cleomenes I then backs Isagoras in the struggle for power that follows.

   Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPolitics📍 Athens📍 Sparta
4. 481 BCE
   The Hellenic League is formed

   In late autumn 481 BCE a congress at Corinth unites the Greek states resisting Persia, Athens and Sparta among them. The Spartan Eurybiades is given command of the fleet.

   Persian WarsGreek city-statesAthensSpartaAchaemenid Persia📍 Corinth
5. 480 BCE
   Battle of Thermopylae

   A Greek force of about 7,000 under the Spartan king Leonidas holds the pass at Thermopylae for three days of fighting until a mountain path reveals their rear. Leonidas stays with his 300 Spartans and Thespians and dies. Sources differ on the date, from July to September 480.

   Persian WarsAchaemenid PersiaGreek city-statesSparta📍 Thermopylae
6. September 480 BCE
   Battle of Salamis

   On 26 or 27 September 480 BCE, Themistocles lures the Persian fleet into the narrow strait off Salamis, where its numbers count for less. The Greeks win decisively and Xerxes withdraws to Asia, leaving Mardonius in Greece.

   Persian WarsAchaemenid PersiaGreek city-statesAthensSparta📍 Salamis
7. August 479 BCE
   Battle of Plataea

   On 27 or 28 August 479 BCE a Greek army under the Spartan regent Pausanias defeats Mardonius at Plataea, and Mardonius is killed. The Persians lose control of Attica and Boeotia and withdraw from Greece. Herodotus's casualty figures are not credited.

   Persian WarsAchaemenid PersiaGreek city-statesSpartaAthens📍 Plataea
8. 460 BCE
   First Peloponnesian War

   Athens fights Sparta and its allies, mostly Corinth, from about 460 to 445 BCE. Sparta wins at Tanagra (458 or 457), and Athens wins at Oenophyta and takes most of Boeotia. A truce in 451 holds only a few years before the Thirty Years' Peace.

   Greek city-statesAthensSparta📍 Athens📍 Sparta
9. c. 446 BCE
   The Thirty Years' Peace

   In winter 446-445 BCE Athens and Sparta make a peace meant to last thirty years. Athens keeps the sea and Sparta the land, Megara returns to the Peloponnesian League, and disputes are to go to arbitration. It lasts about fifteen.

   Greek city-statesAthensSparta📍 Athens📍 Sparta
10. 431 BCE
    Peloponnesian War

    Athens and Sparta and their allies fight from 431 to 404 BCE. Thucydides blames Athens's growth and Spartan fear. Persia's support for Sparta from 413 and Lysander's victory at Aegospotami end it. Athens surrenders in 404 and the Delian League is dissolved.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian War📍 Athens📍 Sparta
11. April 4, 431 BCE
    The Peloponnesian War breaks out

    On 4 April 431 BCE Thebes attacks Plataea, an Athenian ally. Sparta then votes that Athens has broken the Thirty Years' Peace and King Archidamus II invades Attica, starting the Archidamian War. Athenians shelter inside their walls.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian WarThebes📍 Plataea
12. 425 BCE
    Pylos and Sphacteria

    In 425 BCE Demosthenes fortifies Pylos, and Athens traps about 420 Spartan hoplites, 120 of them Spartiates, on Sphacteria and takes them to Athens. Cleon rejects Spartan peace offers. The capture shakes Sparta, whose elite class is small.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian War📍 Pylos
13. 422 BCE
    Battle of Amphipolis

    In 422 BCE the Spartan Brasidas, who had taken Amphipolis, and the Athenian Cleon, trying to retake it, both die in the fighting. Both sides are exhausted, and the Peace of Nicias follows.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian War📍 Amphipolis
14. March 421 BCE
    Peace of Nicias

    In March 421 BCE Athens and Sparta end the first half of the war, restoring prewar conditions with exceptions. It is meant to last fifty years, but Sparta's allies reject it and militants take over in both cities. Thucydides counts about seven years.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian War📍 Athens📍 Sparta
15. 415 BCE
    The Sicilian Expedition

    From 415 to 413 BCE Athens sends a great force against Syracuse under Nicias, Alcibiades and Lamachus. Alcibiades is recalled and defects to Sparta. Spartan help under Gylippus turns the siege, and the Athenian army and fleet are destroyed.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian War📍 Syracuse
16. 413 BCE
    Sparta fortifies Decelea; Persia backs Sparta

    In 413 BCE Sparta fortifies Decelea, a short march from Athens, and Persia begins supporting it. The Decelean (Ionian) War follows.

    Greek city-statesSpartaPeloponnesian WarAchaemenid Persia📍 Decelea
17. 406 BCE
    Arginusae and the trial of the generals

    In 406 BCE Athens beats the Spartan fleet at Arginusae, but a storm prevents the rescue of drowning sailors. Six of the eight generals are tried together by the assembly and executed. Socrates, presiding, refuses to put the motion to a vote.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian WarSocrates📍 Athens
18. 405 BCE
    Battle of Aegospotami

    In 405 BCE the Spartan Lysander destroys or captures nearly the whole Athenian fleet on the Hellespont and has about 3,000 prisoners executed. Conon escapes with nine ships. Athens, cut off from its grain supply, is starved into surrender.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian War📍 Hellespont (Dardanelles)
19. 404 BCE
    Athens surrenders to Sparta

    Starved and without a fleet, Athens surrenders in spring 404 BCE: March by one source, 25 April by another. Sparta spares the city but the Delian League is dissolved and the city's walls are demolished.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPeloponnesian War📍 Athens
20. 404 BCE
    The Thirty Tyrants rule Athens

    Installed by Sparta after the surrender, the Thirty rule Athens for about eight months in 404-403 BCE. Led by Critias, they execute some 1,500 people without trial by Aristotle's and Isocrates's count, and force Theramenes to drink hemlock.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPolitics📍 Athens
21. 403 BCE
    Athenian democracy is restored

    In 403 BCE Thrasybulus leads exiles against the Thirty, and Critias dies in the fighting. The Spartan king Pausanias brokers the Amnesty of 403, which restores democracy and pardons most citizens.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaPolitics📍 Athens
22. 396 BCE
    Agesilaus campaigns against Persia

    The Spartan king Agesilaus invades Persian Asia Minor in 396-394 BCE and beats Persian cavalry near Sardis in 395. Persian gold funds anti-Spartan Greek states, which forces his recall.

    Greek city-statesSpartaAchaemenid Persia📍 Sardis📍 Sparta
23. 395 BCE
    Corinthian War

    From 395 to 387 BCE Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos, funded by Persian gold, fight Sparta. Sparta wins at Nemea and Coronea (394), but Persia's fleet destroys the Spartan navy at Cnidus. The war ends with the King's Peace.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaThebesAchaemenid Persia📍 Sparta📍 Thebes
24. 394 BCE
    Battle of Cnidus

    In 394 BCE the Athenian Conon and the Persian satrap Pharnabazus destroy the Spartan fleet at Cnidus, ending Sparta's naval ambitions. Next year Conon, with Persian money and ships, helps Athens rebuild its Long Walls.

    Greek city-statesAthensSpartaAchaemenid Persia📍 Cnidus
25. 387 BCE
    The King's Peace

    In 387 BCE Artaxerxes II imposes a peace negotiated by the Spartan Antalcidas. Persia gets the Greek cities of Asia and Cyprus, other Greek cities are declared autonomous, and Thebes must dissolve the Boeotian League. Sparta enforces it.

    Greek city-statesSpartaThebesAchaemenid Persia📍 Susa
26. 382 BCE
    Sparta seizes the Cadmea at Thebes

    In 382 BCE the Spartan Phoebidas, passing through Boeotia, takes Thebes's citadel, the Cadmea, with the help of local oligarchs. Sparta backs a pro-Spartan regime there. Some sources date it to 383.

    Greek city-statesSpartaThebes📍 Thebes
27. 379 BCE
    Thebes is liberated

    In 379-378 BCE Pelopidas, Epaminondas and other exiles slip back into Thebes and free it from its Spartan garrison. Later Spartan expeditions fail, and Sparta suffers a symbolic defeat at Tegyra in 375.

    Greek city-statesSpartaThebes📍 Thebes
28. July 6, 371 BCE
    Battle of Leuctra

    On 6 July 371 BCE Epaminondas defeats the Spartans under King Cleombrotus at Leuctra, massing his deepest force on the left. Cleombrotus dies and Sparta loses about a quarter of its full citizens. Aristotle calls it the blow that ended Spartan dominance.

    Greek city-statesSpartaThebes📍 Thebes
29. c. 370 BCE
    Epaminondas invades the Peloponnese; Messenia freed

    In 370-369 BCE Epaminondas leads Theban forces into Laconia and frees the Messenian helots and rebuilds Messene. He also encourages an Arcadian league and the founding of Megalopolis as a counterweight to Sparta.

    Greek city-statesSpartaThebes📍 Messene📍 Megalopolis📍 Messenia
30. July 4, 362 BCE
    Battle of Mantinea

    On 4 July 362 BCE Thebes and its allies beat Sparta and its allies at Mantinea, but Epaminondas is mortally wounded and Thebes cannot follow up. Theban hegemony ends, and Greece is left open to Macedon.

    Greek city-statesSpartaThebes📍 Thebes