Sparte or Lacédémone, in Greek Spartê, or Lakedaimôn. Greek city of the Peloponnese, located on Eurotas, in the plain of Laconie, between Taygète and Parnon.

Sparte was, with Athens, one of the two great political centers of the Greek history. Occupied since the beginning of the Mycenaean time, the area of Sparte was described by Homère like a powerful kingdom, controlled by Tyndare, then by his/her Ménélas son-in-law. There however exists little of certainty concerning the history of Sparte before the IV ^E front century J. - C., because of the lack of inscriptions and of the absence of works written on their city by Spartans. Most information which we have today come ancient authors like Hérodote or Xénophon, which were admirors of the city lacédémonienne and who contributed at the same time to forge the “miracle Spartan” of a military and levelling city.

During the VII E century, Sparte knew a brilliance rise and became the intellectual center of the dorism; it accommodated artists and poets (Alcman, Tyrtée, Terpandre) and saw flowering the dance, the music, the choir singing, arts of bronze and ceramics. But, the shortly after the second war of Messénie, the city was folded up on itself and started to adopt the laws allotted by the tradition to Lycurgue. The war of Messénie having largely extended the territory dominated by the Spartans, of new batches (kleroi) were allotted to the citizens. At this point in time the concern of the equality within the people (demonstrations) would have appeared, the Spartans becoming consequently of the “equal ones” (homoioi).  

Under the instigation of the éphore Chilon, Sparte endeavoured to perpetuate its social structures, refusing any innovation, being affirmed xenophobe and going even until discrediting the artisanal and artistic activities. This opposition to progress, single in the Greek history, was due mainly to a stiffening of the attitude of the aristocrats, who, always fewer compared to the population, felt threatened in their prerogatives. The Spartans were made the champions of the oligarchical and preserving modes then, and often fought the democratic tyrannies and States.  
 

Three classes
The company Spartan understood three classes: at the top, the small number of the citizens, homoioi (“equal”); descendants of the Dorian conquerors, they had the monopoly of the power and devoted the essence of their existence to the military life; with the number of several thousands at the time of the medic wars, they were not any more that seven hundreds in the middle of the IV E front century J. - C. (It is them the true Spartans, the term of Lacédémoniens designating in old Greek the inhabitants of the State Spartan in opposition to those of the city even.)  

The Spartans formed a levelling company of Community type (meal taken jointly, barracks for the citizens from twenty to thirty years), in which the citizens were dealt with by the State as of their childhood. They underwent a first selection with their birth: weakest and the deformed ones were eliminated. At the seven years age, they left their family to receive a military education of character (agogê). Especially cultivating the virile virtues, the endurance and bravery, to the detriment of the mental activities, the young Spartans, were subjected to sporting trainings and intensive physical exercises, the purpose of which were above all to develop their warlike qualities; the young girls also underwent a physical training and took part in the sporting tests.  

Below citizens, the périèques ones, free men, inhabitants of the surrounding campaigns, devoted themselves especially to the artisanal and commercial activities, prohibited with the homoioi.  

To the bottom of the social scale, the hilotes probably went down from the populations controlled (Achaens) or conquered (Messéniens); they belonged to the State and were charged to cultivate the grounds of the Spartans, to which they were to pay a yearly rental. They were maintained in a state of absolute political control, did not have the right to be dressed that haillons, the such famous bonnet in skin of dog, and were the victims of the cryptie, kind of rite of consistent passage in a hunting for the hilotes practiced by the young Spartans. Thucydide tells even a massive massacre of hilotes during the Peloponnesian War: the Spartans being afraid of a revolt stated to want to free those from the hilotes which were ready to fight the Athenians; the two thousand hilotes which accepted the offer were regarded as the leaders of a possible rebellion and disappeared purely and simply (History of the Peloponnesian War).  

The model of oligarchy
Sparte had a single system of government in Greece. It reconciled a double monarchy, hereditary (a king resulting from the family of Agides, the other of that of Eurypontides), whose power was limited to the religious and military field, with a basically oligarchical mode. This one was incarnated by the gerousia, kind of council of Old the compound of thirty members (two kings and twenty-eight gérontes, chosen among the citizens of more than sixty years). Lastly, the éphores (supervisors) were elected each year by the people; these magistrates exerted a right of control on all the citizens, including on the kings. The assembly of the people (called), which understood all the citizens of more than thirty years, had only reduced powers.  
 
The apogee and decline

Strong of its military power, Sparte more and more frequently intervened in the Hellenic business. In charge of the league of the Peloponnese, it imposed soon its preeminence on all the peninsula. It took part only with reserve in the first medic war, but accepted the command of the Greek forces during the second phase of the conflict. Having given up the profits of the victory to the Athenians, the Spartans folded up themselves on the Peloponnese, where they had to defend their supremacy vis-a-vis their old united (Tégée, Elis), and especially vis-a-vis Argos, supported by Athens, then to subdue a revolt of the hilotes of Messénie (464-458). But Sparte could not avoid early or to run up late against the imperialist policy of Athens. During the long Peloponnesian War which opposed the two large cities (431-404), Sparte often seemed the only power guarantor of Greek freedoms.  

The victory of Lysandre over Athens made it possible Sparte to exert its hegemony on the whole of the Greek world: it installed everywhere oligarchical modes under the surveillance of governors Spartans (harmostes), overcame a coalition of Athenians, Corinthians, of Thébains and Argiens with Coronée (394), and made sure the support of Persians by the peace of Antalcidas (386). The victories of Thébain Epaminondas in Leuctres (371), then its campaigns in Messénie and Arcadie reflect fine with hegemony lacédémonienne by cutting down military supremacy Spartan. Mined by the corruption, weakened by a serious lack of citizens, Sparte did not play any more since one secondary historical role. Reforms from Acted IV and Cléomène III (IIIe front century J. - C.) to restore the interior order - redistribution of the grounds, suppression of the éphores, integration the périèques ones among the citizens, release of thousands of hilotes - offered only one short respite to him. Beaten in Sellasie (222) by the Achaens and the Macedonians, Sparte passed under the cut of tyrants, then was occupied by Etoliens (192), before entering the Achaean league (188 av. J. - C.). Under the Romans, Sparte had the statute of free and federate city. She knew a certain prosperity then, until the cruel invasions. The ruins of the Sparte antique are today close to the borough of Magula.