Sparta

Sparta was one of the most famous city-states of the ancient world. It not only left a mark in our historic records, but its very culture at the heart of modern language, with the English word ‘Spartan‘ reflecting their very way of life – simple, basic, severe.

Today, the ruins of Sparta are on the outskirts of the city of Sparti, Laconia, Greece, and provide visitors with a fascinating insight into the personal and political lives of such a famous and ancient culture.

History of Sparta

Rising to power in the late 7th Century BC, Sparta produced the most powerful land-army of the Hellenic world. Spartan soldiers led the Greek coalition during the Greco-Persian War, becoming legendary in their heroic last stand at Thermopylae and the eventual victory of the Greeks at Plataea.

Sparta’s star continued to rise in the following century, with victory over Athens in the long-running Peloponnesian War and a brief spell of hegemony over all Greece and even parts of Asia Minor.

However, it was their constant military involvements combined with their elitist, purist approach to citizenry which led to their downfall.

Sparta’s conflict with a resurgent Thebes, particularly their defeat at the Battle of Leuctra, crippled Spartan power, a blow from which they never recovered. Their own discriminatory nature left Sparta without the capacity to suffer losses, and therefore one or two severe defeats crippled Sparta’s military manpower.

Sparta did live on as an independent power for the next two centuries, but the city never wielded real power again. Sparta had no part in the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the city was eventually conquered, along with the rest of Greece, by the Romans in the mid-second century BC.

Sparta Today

Today, the ruins of ancient Sparta exist on the outskirts of the modern city of Sparti – founded by King Otto of Greece in 1834. A good proportion of the remains you see today are actually from the Roman period and few are well preserved.

Unlike Athens, Spartan culture never led to grand building projects and consequently few historic structures remain. Visitors to Sparta can see the remains of the ancient theatre of Sparta, the nearby Roman shops, the partially-preserved sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, and the site that is said to be the tomb of Spartan King Leonidas.

The Sparta Archaeological Museum is also worth a visit and contains artefacts from various archaeological digs.

Getting to Sparta

From the centre of Laconia, the ruins of Sparta are reachable in around 20 minutes by car via Epar.Od. Spartis-Agiou Dimitriou. For the more intrepid traveller, the ruins are reachable by foot in around 3 hours via the same route.