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SPARTA (LAKEDAIMŌN) In Mycenaean times Laconia was an area of secondary importance, in spite to the central role attributed to Menelaos in the Illiad. According to later tradition, the Dorians, led by the descendants of Hēraklēs invaded the area in the third generation after the Trojan War. In the division of the spoils Laconia was assigned to Eurysthenēs and Proklēs, the twin sons of Aristodēmos, who became the ancestors of the two lines of Spartan kings, the Agiads and Eurypontids. But even the unrealistically long reigns assigned by the ancient chronographers to early Spartan kings fail to reach c1200, and the historical Trojan War had taken place within a decade or two of c1250. This suggests that if there is any truth to the traditional story about the establishment of the Hērakleid double kingship in Sparta, some five generations were omitted in the traditional genealogies. These missing generations may well belong between the twins Eurysthenēs and Proklēs and their respective ‘sons’ Agis and Eurypōn, who became the actual eponyms of Sparta’s two royal houses. Archaeological evidence suggests Sparta may not have been settled until the mid-10th century. It is also unclear at what point the double kingship began, and the Eurypontids may not have been co-opted into it until the 8th century. While the Spartans restricted the executive powers of their kings like many other Greek states, they did not eliminate the kingship, which remained vested with important military functions. The militaristic regimen imposed upon the Spartans in the Lykourgan constitution allowed Sparta to maintain its control over subjected populations in Laconia and Messenia and to make itself the leader of a Peloponnesian League. From the beginning of the 5th century, Sparta competed with Athens in leading Greek opposition to Persian invasions and for hegemony in Greece. After winning the long drawn-out Peloponnesian War in 404, Sparta was torn between its desire to impose its hegemony over Greece and its promise to turn over Greek communities in Asia Minor to the Persian Empire (the price for Persian support). In the process Sparta antagonized most Greek states, and found itself repeatedly opposed. An anti-Spartan alliance headed by Thebes defeated Sparta in the battles of Leuktra (371) and Mantineia (362). Deprived of its control and exploitation of Messenia, and with a significant depletion of its full-status citizen population, Sparta sank to the status of a purely regional power, and its refusal to join Greek alliances and leagues kept it isolated and hostile. Spartan attempts to assert their power against Greece’s new hegemon, the kingdom of Macedon, repeatedly backfired with heavy losses in 331 and 222. Attempts to strengthen the state by rigorous conservative reforms under Agis IV and Kleomenēs III led to intensive civil strife and the end of the double kingship in a time of Macedonian and Greek aggression. The true monarchy that succeeded was unable to turn Sparta into a major power, and the kingdom perished in the inevitable conflict between Rome and the Akhaian and Aitolian Leagues. After the murder of king Nabis in 192, Sparta was annexed by the Akhaian League. Under Roman rule, Sparta was patronized by the emperors and became something of a theme park dedicated to its own brutal traditions.
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