Spartan Constitution
Encyclopedia
The Spartan Constitution, or Politeia
, refers to the government and laws of the Dorian city-state
of Sparta
from the time of Lycurgus, the legendary law-giver, to the incorporation of Sparta into the Roman Empire
: approximately the 8th century BC to the 2nd century BC, Every city-state of Greece had a politeia at all times of its sovereign life, including the preceding Achaean
Sparta and the subsequent Roman Sparta. The politeia of Dorian Sparta, however, was noted by many classical authors for its unique features, which supported a rigidly layered social system and a strong military.
it spoke. For example, where the Athenian population called itself the dēmos in the Attic-Ionic dialect, the Spartan word was Dāmos, retaining the long a prevalent in an earlier stage of Greek. On the whole Dorian states everywhere could count on mutual identification and support.
and the other, beginning with the innovation of the Greek alphabet
about 775 BC, within the Iron Age
. From the earlier period only diurnal administrative records survive in a syllabary
called Linear B
. They were in a dialect called variously Mycenaean Greek or Achaean, the ancestor of the Attic-Ionic dialect. After 775 alphabetic inscriptions of all sorts began to appear: tombstones, laws, decrees, making possible analysis of their dialects.
To date only fragments of three Linear B inscriptions have turned up in Laconia
, at Agios Vasileios
. A few words survive, such as e-pi-zo-ta, "short swords," nothing to distinguish them from the other Linear B tablets. The earliest inscriptions from Sparta are a dedication by one Deinis "to Helen wife of Menelaos" on a meathook and writing on a jar dated by style to about 650 BC, both found at the Menelaion, a shrine to Helen at the site of ancient Therapne
across the river from Sparti.
All the evidence points to a Mycenaean Greek occupation of major Mycenaean sites; that is, walled cities on high places, citadels with cyclopean walls, palaces or villas featuring a megaron
, Linear B tablets, large storage jars and other appropriate Late Bronze Age pottery. The central Eurotas valley has two candidates for the capital of the Atreid state: the citadel at Pellana
and the Bronze Age town with villas on Menelaon Hill in Therapnes
. The latter has the advantage of being the site of a shrine to Helen and Menelaus
. The circumstantial evidence all points to an occupation of the Eurotas valley by Achaeans. If any Dorians were present they left no trace.
Therapne appears to have been abandoned or reduced to a small population at the end of the Bronze Age. A dark age
ensued; evidently the administrations that employed Linear B scribes were not present in that capacity any longer. When alphabetic literacy appeared, the population employing it was Dorian. A remnant of the Achaeans comprised the population of Arcadia
. Their dialect, Arcadian, with that of Cyprus
(Arcado-Cypriote) is the closest of the dialects to Mycenaean Greek. The Dorians that now occupied the valley had superseded the Mycenaean Greeks.
The newly ascendant population of Sparta identified with other traditions than the ones associated with Mycenaean Greece. They had come, they believed, from central and northern Greece. As allies of the Heracleidae
they had fought their way into southern Greece and gone on to Crete and the islands. Their tradition was that of warriors. They valued instant readiness for battle above all else. Escaping from them the Mycenaean Greeks had abandoned their homes to go into exile in Athens and then on to augment the colonies on the coast of Asia Minor
as Ionians
.
Beyond these circumstances no evidence for the entry of Dorians into the Peloponnesus exists. The association of the destruction of Mycenaean palaces with a "Dorian invasion" is somewhat strained by the compression of events requiring decades into a month or two in a single spring season. And yet, there is no question that Dorian culture superseded Mycenaean culture in the Eurotas valley. This circumstance requires either an invasive population or a revolution of a hitherto unknown and unattested resident population. The Spartan constitution recognizing a socially layered society hints very strongly that this layering came about through invasion and resistance. If that is true, then the Spartan constitution is native to Sparta and did not exist as such elsewhere.
records, literature
, or written law
s, which were, according to tradition
, expressly prohibited by an ordinance of Lycurgus, excluding the Great Rhetra.
Issuance of coinage was forbidden. Spartans were obliged to use iron obol
s (bars or spits), meant to encourage self-sufficiency and discourage avarice and the hoarding of wealth. A Spartan citizen in good standing was one who maintained his fighting skills, showed bravery in battle, ensured that his farms were productive, was married and had healthy children. Spartan women were the only Greek women to hold property rights on their own, and were required to practise sports before marriage. Although they had no formal political rights, they were expected to speak their minds boldly and their opinions were heard.
, were eligible. However, usually the only people eligible to receive the agoge
were Spartiates, or people who could trace their ancestry to the original inhabitants of the city although there were two exceptions. Trophimoi
or "foster sons" were foreign teenagers invited to study. This was meant as a supreme honor. The pro-Spartan Athenian magnate Xenophon
sent his two sons to Sparta for their education as trophimoi. Alcibiades
, being an Alcmaeonid and thus a member of a family with old and strong connections to Sparta, was admitted as a trophimos and famously excelled in the agoge as well as otherwise (he was rumoured to have seduced one of the two queen consorts with his exceptional looks). The other exception was that sons of helots could be enrolled as syntrophoi (comrades, literally "the ones fed, or reared, together") if a Spartiate formally adopted him and paid his way. If a syntrophos did exceptionally well in training, he might be sponsored to become a Spartiate himself. A free-born Spartan who had successfully completed the agoge became a "peer" (ὅμοιος, hómoios, literally "similar") with full civil rights at the age of 20, and remained one as long as he could contribute his equal share of grain to the common military mess in which he was obliged to dine every evening for as long as he was battle-worthy (usually until the age of 60). This was meant as assurance that every peer took good care of his estates and patrimony. Such hómoioi were also required to sleep in the barracks until the age of 30, regardless of whether they were married or not.
, instituted a mixed governmental state
: it was composed of elements of monarchical, oligarchical, and democratic systems. Isocrates
refers to the Spartans as "subject to an oligarchy
at home, to a kingship on campaign" (iii. 24).
of the Agiad and the Eurypontid families, both descendants of Heracles
and equal in authority so that one could not act against the veto
of his colleague, though the Agiad king received greater honour by virtue of seniority of his family for being the "oldest extant" (Herod. vi. 5).
There are several legend
ary explanations for this unusual dual kingship, which differ only slightly; for example, that King Aristodemus
had twin sons
, who agreed to share the kingship, and this became perpetual. Modern scholars have advanced various theories
to account for the anomaly. Some theorize that this system was created in order to prevent absolutism
, and is paralleled by the analogous instance of the dual consuls of Rome
. Others believe that it points to a compromise arrived at to end the struggle between two families or communities
. Other theories suggest that this was an arrangement that was met when a community of villages combined to form the city of Sparta. Subsequently the two chiefs from the largest villages became kings. Another theory suggests that the two royal houses represent respectively the Spartan conquerors and their Achaean predecessors: those who hold this last view appeal to the words attributed by Herodotus
(v. 72) to Cleomenes I
: "I am no Dorian, but an Achaean"; although this is usually explained by the (equally legendary) descent of Aristodemus from Heracles
. Either way, kingship in Sparta was hereditary and thus every king Sparta had was a descendant of the Agiad and the Eurypontid families. Accession was given to the male child who was first born after a king's accession.
The duties of the kings were primarily religious
, judicial, and militaristic. They were the chief priest
s of the state, and performed certain sacrifice
s and also maintained communication
with the Delphi
c sanctuary, which always exercised great authority in Spartan politics
. In the time of Herodotus (about 450 BC
), their judicial functions had been restricted to cases dealing with heiress
es, adoption
s and the public roads. Civil cases were decided by the ephors, and criminal
jurisdiction had been passed to the ephor
s, as well as to a council of elders
. By 500 BC the Spartans had become increasingly involved in the political affairs of the surrounding city-states, often putting their weight behind pro-Spartan candidates. Shortly before 500 BC, as described by Herodotus, such an action fueled a confrontation between Sparta and Athens, when the two kings, Demaratus and Cleomenes, took their troops to Athens. However, just before the heat of battle, King Demaratus changed his mind about attacking the Athenians and abandoned his co-king. For this reason, Demaratus was banished, and eventually found himself at the side of Persian King Xerxes
for his invasion of Greece twenty years later (480 BC), after which the Spartans enacted a law demanding that one king remain behind in Sparta while the other commanded the troops in battle.
Aristotle
describes the kingship at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship" (Pol. iii. I285a), Here also, however, the royal prerogatives were curtailed over time. Dating from the period of the Persian wars, the king lost the right to declare war
, and was accompanied in the field by two ephors. He was supplanted also by the ephors in the control of foreign policy. Over time, the kings became mere figureheads except in their capacity as general
s. Real power was transferred to the ephors and to the gerousia
.
from the whole body of citizens, represented a democratic element in the constitution
.
After the ephors were introduced, they, together with the two kings, were the executive branch of the state. Ephors themselves had more power than anyone in Sparta, although the fact that they only stayed in power for a single year reduced their ability to conflict with already established powers in the state. Since reelection was not possible, an ephor who abused his power, or confronted an established power center, would have to suffer retaliation. Although the five ephors were the only officials with regular legitimization by popular vote, in practice they were often the most conservative force in Spartan politics.
(Senate), a council consisting of 28 elders over the age of 60, elected for life and usually part of the royal households, and the two kings. High state policy decisions were discussed by this council who could then propose action alternatives to the Damos.
. Unlike most Greek poleis, the Spartan citizen assembly could neither set the agenda of issues to be decided, nor debate them, merely vote on the alternatives presented to them. Neither could foreign embassies or emissaries address the assembly; they had to present their case to the Senate, which would then consult with the Ephors. Sparta considered all discourse from outside as a potential threat and all other states as past, present, or future enemies, to be treated with caution in the very least, even when bound with alliance treaties.
Politeia
Politeia is an Ancient Greek word with no single English translation. Derived from the word polis , it is an important term in Ancient Greek political thought, especially that of Plato and Aristotle....
, refers to the government and laws of the Dorian city-state
City-state
A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...
of Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
from the time of Lycurgus, the legendary law-giver, to the incorporation of Sparta into the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
: approximately the 8th century BC to the 2nd century BC, Every city-state of Greece had a politeia at all times of its sovereign life, including the preceding Achaean
Achaeans (tribe)
The Achaeans were one of the four major tribes into which the people of Classical Greece divided themselves. According to the foundation myth formalized by Hesiod, their name comes from Achaeus, the mythical founder of the Achaean tribe, who was supposedly one of the sons of Xuthus, and brother of...
Sparta and the subsequent Roman Sparta. The politeia of Dorian Sparta, however, was noted by many classical authors for its unique features, which supported a rigidly layered social system and a strong military.
The Dorian affiliation
Spartan society prided itself on being members of a broad ethnic group termed the Dorians, Dōrieis, in their language. This ethnic group self-identified on family and tribal tradition but also was identifiable by the Dorian dialectDoric Greek
Doric or Dorian was a dialect of ancient Greek. Its variants were spoken in the southern and eastern Peloponnese, Crete, Rhodes, some islands in the southern Aegean Sea, some cities on the coasts of Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, Epirus and Macedon. Together with Northwest Greek, it forms the...
it spoke. For example, where the Athenian population called itself the dēmos in the Attic-Ionic dialect, the Spartan word was Dāmos, retaining the long a prevalent in an earlier stage of Greek. On the whole Dorian states everywhere could count on mutual identification and support.
Cultural supersession in the mid-Eurotas valley
Ancient Greece, or Hellas, had two non-continuous periods of native literacy: one, dated approximately 1400 BC-1200 BC, falling within the Late Bronze Age, or Mycenaean PeriodMycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites...
and the other, beginning with the innovation of the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
about 775 BC, within the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. From the earlier period only diurnal administrative records survive in a syllabary
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
called Linear B
Linear B
Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, an early form of Greek. It pre-dated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean civilization...
. They were in a dialect called variously Mycenaean Greek or Achaean, the ancestor of the Attic-Ionic dialect. After 775 alphabetic inscriptions of all sorts began to appear: tombstones, laws, decrees, making possible analysis of their dialects.
To date only fragments of three Linear B inscriptions have turned up in Laconia
Laconia
Laconia , also known as Lacedaemonia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti...
, at Agios Vasileios
Agios Vasileios
Agios Vasileios may refer to the following places:in Greece:* Agios Vasileios, Crete, a municipality near Rethymno* Agios Vasileios, Achaea, a village near Patras* Agios Vasileios, Corinthia, a village near Corinth...
. A few words survive, such as e-pi-zo-ta, "short swords," nothing to distinguish them from the other Linear B tablets. The earliest inscriptions from Sparta are a dedication by one Deinis "to Helen wife of Menelaos" on a meathook and writing on a jar dated by style to about 650 BC, both found at the Menelaion, a shrine to Helen at the site of ancient Therapne
Therapnes
Therapnes , in ancient times Therapne , is a Municipal Unit of the municipality of Sparti within the Regional Unit of Lakonia in the Region of Peloponnēsos, one of 7 Regions into which the Hellenic Republic has been divided by the Kallikratis plan, authorized by Law 3852, Issue 1 of 7 June 2010...
across the river from Sparti.
All the evidence points to a Mycenaean Greek occupation of major Mycenaean sites; that is, walled cities on high places, citadels with cyclopean walls, palaces or villas featuring a megaron
Megaron
The megaron is the great hall of the Grecian palace complexes. It was a rectangular hall, fronted by an open, two-columned porch, and a more or less central, open hearth vented though an oculus in the roof above it and surrounded by four columns. It is the architectural predecessor of the...
, Linear B tablets, large storage jars and other appropriate Late Bronze Age pottery. The central Eurotas valley has two candidates for the capital of the Atreid state: the citadel at Pellana
Pellana
Pellana , was a city of Laconia, on the Eurotas river, and on the road from Sparta to Arcadia....
and the Bronze Age town with villas on Menelaon Hill in Therapnes
Therapnes
Therapnes , in ancient times Therapne , is a Municipal Unit of the municipality of Sparti within the Regional Unit of Lakonia in the Region of Peloponnēsos, one of 7 Regions into which the Hellenic Republic has been divided by the Kallikratis plan, authorized by Law 3852, Issue 1 of 7 June 2010...
. The latter has the advantage of being the site of a shrine to Helen and Menelaus
Menelaus
Menelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria.*Menelaus , brother of Ptolemy I Soter...
. The circumstantial evidence all points to an occupation of the Eurotas valley by Achaeans. If any Dorians were present they left no trace.
Therapne appears to have been abandoned or reduced to a small population at the end of the Bronze Age. A dark age
Greek Dark Ages
The Greek Dark Age or Ages also known as Geometric or Homeric Age are terms which have regularly been used to refer to the period of Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean Palatial civilization around 1200 BC, to the first signs of the Greek city-states in the 9th...
ensued; evidently the administrations that employed Linear B scribes were not present in that capacity any longer. When alphabetic literacy appeared, the population employing it was Dorian. A remnant of the Achaeans comprised the population of Arcadia
Arcadia
Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
. Their dialect, Arcadian, with that of Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
(Arcado-Cypriote) is the closest of the dialects to Mycenaean Greek. The Dorians that now occupied the valley had superseded the Mycenaean Greeks.
The newly ascendant population of Sparta identified with other traditions than the ones associated with Mycenaean Greece. They had come, they believed, from central and northern Greece. As allies of the Heracleidae
Heracleidae
In Greek mythology, the Heracleidae or Heraclids were the numerous descendants of Heracles , especially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira Other Heracleidae included Macaria, Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus...
they had fought their way into southern Greece and gone on to Crete and the islands. Their tradition was that of warriors. They valued instant readiness for battle above all else. Escaping from them the Mycenaean Greeks had abandoned their homes to go into exile in Athens and then on to augment the colonies on the coast of Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
as Ionians
Ionians
The Ionians were one of the four major tribes into which the Classical Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been divided...
.
Beyond these circumstances no evidence for the entry of Dorians into the Peloponnesus exists. The association of the destruction of Mycenaean palaces with a "Dorian invasion" is somewhat strained by the compression of events requiring decades into a month or two in a single spring season. And yet, there is no question that Dorian culture superseded Mycenaean culture in the Eurotas valley. This circumstance requires either an invasive population or a revolution of a hitherto unknown and unattested resident population. The Spartan constitution recognizing a socially layered society hints very strongly that this layering came about through invasion and resistance. If that is true, then the Spartan constitution is native to Sparta and did not exist as such elsewhere.
Laws of Lycurgus
The Spartans had no historicalHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
records, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, or written law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
s, which were, according to tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
, expressly prohibited by an ordinance of Lycurgus, excluding the Great Rhetra.
Issuance of coinage was forbidden. Spartans were obliged to use iron obol
Obol
Obol may refer to:* Obolus, a type of silver coin used in Ancient Greece* Obol , a programming language* Obol Investment, a Swedish company involved in a major fraud scandal...
s (bars or spits), meant to encourage self-sufficiency and discourage avarice and the hoarding of wealth. A Spartan citizen in good standing was one who maintained his fighting skills, showed bravery in battle, ensured that his farms were productive, was married and had healthy children. Spartan women were the only Greek women to hold property rights on their own, and were required to practise sports before marriage. Although they had no formal political rights, they were expected to speak their minds boldly and their opinions were heard.
Structure of Spartan society and government
Spartan society can be represented by a three-layer pyramid ruled by the government.Spartiates
Not all inhabitants of the Spartan state were considered citizens (part of the Damos). Only those who had successfully undertaken military training, called the agogeAgoge
The agōgē was the rigorous education and training regimen mandated for all male Spartan citizens, except for the firstborn son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad. The training involved learning stealth, cultivating loyalty to one's group, military training The agōgē (Greek: ἀγωγή in Attic...
, were eligible. However, usually the only people eligible to receive the agoge
Agoge
The agōgē was the rigorous education and training regimen mandated for all male Spartan citizens, except for the firstborn son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad. The training involved learning stealth, cultivating loyalty to one's group, military training The agōgē (Greek: ἀγωγή in Attic...
were Spartiates, or people who could trace their ancestry to the original inhabitants of the city although there were two exceptions. Trophimoi
Trophimoi
The Trophimoi were children of non-Spartiatae - Perioeci or foreigners - who underwent Spartan education.The trophimoi are temporarily adopted by a Spartan oikos...
or "foster sons" were foreign teenagers invited to study. This was meant as a supreme honor. The pro-Spartan Athenian magnate Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
sent his two sons to Sparta for their education as trophimoi. Alcibiades
Alcibiades
Alcibiades, son of Clinias, from the deme of Scambonidae , was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War...
, being an Alcmaeonid and thus a member of a family with old and strong connections to Sparta, was admitted as a trophimos and famously excelled in the agoge as well as otherwise (he was rumoured to have seduced one of the two queen consorts with his exceptional looks). The other exception was that sons of helots could be enrolled as syntrophoi (comrades, literally "the ones fed, or reared, together") if a Spartiate formally adopted him and paid his way. If a syntrophos did exceptionally well in training, he might be sponsored to become a Spartiate himself. A free-born Spartan who had successfully completed the agoge became a "peer" (ὅμοιος, hómoios, literally "similar") with full civil rights at the age of 20, and remained one as long as he could contribute his equal share of grain to the common military mess in which he was obliged to dine every evening for as long as he was battle-worthy (usually until the age of 60). This was meant as assurance that every peer took good care of his estates and patrimony. Such hómoioi were also required to sleep in the barracks until the age of 30, regardless of whether they were married or not.
Government
The Doric state of Sparta, copying the Doric CretansCrete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, instituted a mixed governmental state
Mixed government
Mixed government, also known as a mixed constitution, is a form of government that integrates elements of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. In a mixed government, some issues are decided by the majority of the people, some other issues by few, and some other issues by a single person...
: it was composed of elements of monarchical, oligarchical, and democratic systems. Isocrates
Isocrates
Isocrates , an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works....
refers to the Spartans as "subject to an oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
at home, to a kingship on campaign" (iii. 24).
Dual Kingship
The state was ruled by two hereditary kingsDynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
of the Agiad and the Eurypontid families, both descendants of Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
and equal in authority so that one could not act against the veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
of his colleague, though the Agiad king received greater honour by virtue of seniority of his family for being the "oldest extant" (Herod. vi. 5).
There are several legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
ary explanations for this unusual dual kingship, which differ only slightly; for example, that King Aristodemus
Aristodemus
In Greek mythology, Aristodemus was an Heracleidae, son of Aristomachus and brother of Cresphontes and Temenus. He was a great-great-grandson of Heracles and helped lead the fifth and final attack on Mycenae in the Peloponnesus....
had twin sons
TWINS
Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers are a pair of NASA instruments aboard two United States National Reconnaissance Office satellites in Molniya orbits. TWINS was designed to provide stereo images of the Earth's ring current. The first instrument, TWINS-1, was launched aboard USA-184...
, who agreed to share the kingship, and this became perpetual. Modern scholars have advanced various theories
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
to account for the anomaly. Some theorize that this system was created in order to prevent absolutism
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...
, and is paralleled by the analogous instance of the dual consuls of Rome
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
. Others believe that it points to a compromise arrived at to end the struggle between two families or communities
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
. Other theories suggest that this was an arrangement that was met when a community of villages combined to form the city of Sparta. Subsequently the two chiefs from the largest villages became kings. Another theory suggests that the two royal houses represent respectively the Spartan conquerors and their Achaean predecessors: those who hold this last view appeal to the words attributed by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
(v. 72) to Cleomenes I
Cleomenes I
Cleomenes or Kleomenes was an Agiad King of Sparta in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. During his reign, which started around 520 BC, he pursued an adventurous and at times unscrupulous foreign policy aimed at crushing Argos and extending Sparta's influence both inside and outside the...
: "I am no Dorian, but an Achaean"; although this is usually explained by the (equally legendary) descent of Aristodemus from Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
. Either way, kingship in Sparta was hereditary and thus every king Sparta had was a descendant of the Agiad and the Eurypontid families. Accession was given to the male child who was first born after a king's accession.
The duties of the kings were primarily religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, judicial, and militaristic. They were the chief priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
s of the state, and performed certain sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
s and also maintained communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
with the Delphi
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
c sanctuary, which always exercised great authority in Spartan politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
. In the time of Herodotus (about 450 BC
450 BC
Year 450 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Second year of the decemviri...
), their judicial functions had been restricted to cases dealing with heiress
Beneficiary
A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...
es, adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
s and the public roads. Civil cases were decided by the ephors, and criminal
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
jurisdiction had been passed to the ephor
Ephor
An ephor was the leader of ancient Sparta and shared power with the Spartan king...
s, as well as to a council of elders
Elder (administrative title)
The term Elder is used in several different countries and organizations to indicate a position of authority...
. By 500 BC the Spartans had become increasingly involved in the political affairs of the surrounding city-states, often putting their weight behind pro-Spartan candidates. Shortly before 500 BC, as described by Herodotus, such an action fueled a confrontation between Sparta and Athens, when the two kings, Demaratus and Cleomenes, took their troops to Athens. However, just before the heat of battle, King Demaratus changed his mind about attacking the Athenians and abandoned his co-king. For this reason, Demaratus was banished, and eventually found himself at the side of Persian King Xerxes
Xerxes I of Persia
Xerxes I of Persia , Ḫšayāršā, ), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.-Youth and rise to power:...
for his invasion of Greece twenty years later (480 BC), after which the Spartans enacted a law demanding that one king remain behind in Sparta while the other commanded the troops in battle.
Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
describes the kingship at Sparta as "a kind of unlimited and perpetual generalship" (Pol. iii. I285a), Here also, however, the royal prerogatives were curtailed over time. Dating from the period of the Persian wars, the king lost the right to declare war
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
, and was accompanied in the field by two ephors. He was supplanted also by the ephors in the control of foreign policy. Over time, the kings became mere figureheads except in their capacity as general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
s. Real power was transferred to the ephors and to the gerousia
Gerousia
The Gerousia was the Spartan senate . It was made up of 60 year old Spartan males. It was created by the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus in the seventh century BC, in his Great Rhetra...
.
Ephors
The ephors, chosen by popular electionElection
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
from the whole body of citizens, represented a democratic element in the constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
.
After the ephors were introduced, they, together with the two kings, were the executive branch of the state. Ephors themselves had more power than anyone in Sparta, although the fact that they only stayed in power for a single year reduced their ability to conflict with already established powers in the state. Since reelection was not possible, an ephor who abused his power, or confronted an established power center, would have to suffer retaliation. Although the five ephors were the only officials with regular legitimization by popular vote, in practice they were often the most conservative force in Spartan politics.
Gerousia
The difference with today's states is that Sparta had a special policy maker, the gerousiaGerousia
The Gerousia was the Spartan senate . It was made up of 60 year old Spartan males. It was created by the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus in the seventh century BC, in his Great Rhetra...
(Senate), a council consisting of 28 elders over the age of 60, elected for life and usually part of the royal households, and the two kings. High state policy decisions were discussed by this council who could then propose action alternatives to the Damos.
Apella
The collective body of Spartan citizenry would select one of the alternatives by votingGreat Rhetra
The Great Rhetra was used in two senses by the classical authors. On the one hand it was the Spartan Constitution, believed to have been formulated and established by the legendary lawgiver, Lycurgus. In the legend Lycurgus forbade any written constitution...
. Unlike most Greek poleis, the Spartan citizen assembly could neither set the agenda of issues to be decided, nor debate them, merely vote on the alternatives presented to them. Neither could foreign embassies or emissaries address the assembly; they had to present their case to the Senate, which would then consult with the Ephors. Sparta considered all discourse from outside as a potential threat and all other states as past, present, or future enemies, to be treated with caution in the very least, even when bound with alliance treaties.