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Sparta's Fall (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter KaraLea
- Start date
there are many reasons why sarta fell...
You could argue that its political makeup with the older members of society brought it down..
there is also the issue of a declining and then almost extinction of the spartiate class..
also the impact of helots from nearby poleis..
The declining numbers in the army..thus losing its impact and the war at the battle of leuctra in 371,,
The lack of a navy also contributes..
Sparta fell because it failed to adapt to the times..
As other colonies progressed and found new ways of doing things Sparta stuck to their traditions, numbers lessened and they failed then to live inthe same way after the battle of Leuctra.. they did still exist asa polis afterwards but a very different one at that..
hope it helps
You could argue that its political makeup with the older members of society brought it down..
there is also the issue of a declining and then almost extinction of the spartiate class..
also the impact of helots from nearby poleis..
The declining numbers in the army..thus losing its impact and the war at the battle of leuctra in 371,,
The lack of a navy also contributes..
Sparta fell because it failed to adapt to the times..
As other colonies progressed and found new ways of doing things Sparta stuck to their traditions, numbers lessened and they failed then to live inthe same way after the battle of Leuctra.. they did still exist asa polis afterwards but a very different one at that..
hope it helps
lauraa2407
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Sparta was no longer a major power in Greece after the Battle of Leuctra (the battle between Sparta and Thebes + the Boetian League in 173BC).
They fought as bravely as they always did, but they were defeated. They lost more than half of their Spartiate soldiers, and after the battle, the Theban general invaded Sparta and freed the Messenians.
With Spartas now low birthrate and loss of so many Spartiates in battle, her population was drastically reduced.
Also, once the Thebans freed the Helots, the economic foundation of the Spartan system was destroyed.
hope this helps : )
They fought as bravely as they always did, but they were defeated. They lost more than half of their Spartiate soldiers, and after the battle, the Theban general invaded Sparta and freed the Messenians.
With Spartas now low birthrate and loss of so many Spartiates in battle, her population was drastically reduced.
Also, once the Thebans freed the Helots, the economic foundation of the Spartan system was destroyed.
hope this helps : )
lauraa2407
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- Sep 30, 2008
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most definitely. anything is a possibility...which is so annoying! haha, but this is easy to remember, so its okay.
i dont have notes but i could write an essay on that, hell i didnt even study the fall and i still could. 
but in short the fall was of 3 main reasons.
The spartan society, the way in which it was structured couldnt support the empire that they gained after the pelo wars. With the influences of the outside world, sparta could no longer maintain their ways, where as before they were able to keep their people discaplined because of a smaller society and set groups. (Helots spartiates perioci etc) So once they had gained control of an empire that covered the whole of the peloponnese (spelling?) they no longer had the means, and the pre set up class structures to put lycurgus's teachings into practice.
Reason two. There were sever losses in the pelo wars, the battle of lutra wasnt actually a disasterous loss for them in a numbers way. The problem with lutra was it was a loss to their moral for in lutra their soldiers surrendered. The reason for the surrender was first and foremost that the soldiers that fought were inexperianced because of the heavy losses that had happened before hand, they were not instilled with the entire teachings of spartan society and they chose life in shame instead of death, we have numerous quotes from perious periods that speak of people rather dying, or mothers rather having their son's killed as opposed to having them surrender in battle and shame their name. The perfect situation to compare this to is when... my god i cant remember his name.... thats embarassing, but the guy from 300, who fought at thermopolye (i can remember the name of the bloody battle, but not him jesus christ). They rather died then surrender, because of all the deaths of the older spartans, the soldiers at lutra didnt have the same appropriate ratio of older verteran spartan soldiers.
The excuises given for the surrender by the spartans were mainly that the enemy didnt fight like men, and were abusing ranged attacks with bow and arrow.
The battle of Lutra caused damage to the moral and the legend of sparta, however it was because of the pelo wars that spartas army had declined, the surrender at lutra just made it public.
The third reason was that the spartan kings because corrupt, in tradition they were supposed to live as spartans do, admitedly they were given slight special treatments with their sysittia (more food, and better food, they didnt have to contribute as much) but in essence they lived modestly for kings. The spartan kingsd after the peloponnses wars were showered with the riches from the spoils of war and greed got the better of men who had ruled over a society that lacked even coinage.
hope that helped
but in short the fall was of 3 main reasons.
The spartan society, the way in which it was structured couldnt support the empire that they gained after the pelo wars. With the influences of the outside world, sparta could no longer maintain their ways, where as before they were able to keep their people discaplined because of a smaller society and set groups. (Helots spartiates perioci etc) So once they had gained control of an empire that covered the whole of the peloponnese (spelling?) they no longer had the means, and the pre set up class structures to put lycurgus's teachings into practice.
Reason two. There were sever losses in the pelo wars, the battle of lutra wasnt actually a disasterous loss for them in a numbers way. The problem with lutra was it was a loss to their moral for in lutra their soldiers surrendered. The reason for the surrender was first and foremost that the soldiers that fought were inexperianced because of the heavy losses that had happened before hand, they were not instilled with the entire teachings of spartan society and they chose life in shame instead of death, we have numerous quotes from perious periods that speak of people rather dying, or mothers rather having their son's killed as opposed to having them surrender in battle and shame their name. The perfect situation to compare this to is when... my god i cant remember his name.... thats embarassing, but the guy from 300, who fought at thermopolye (i can remember the name of the bloody battle, but not him jesus christ). They rather died then surrender, because of all the deaths of the older spartans, the soldiers at lutra didnt have the same appropriate ratio of older verteran spartan soldiers.
The excuises given for the surrender by the spartans were mainly that the enemy didnt fight like men, and were abusing ranged attacks with bow and arrow.
The battle of Lutra caused damage to the moral and the legend of sparta, however it was because of the pelo wars that spartas army had declined, the surrender at lutra just made it public.
The third reason was that the spartan kings because corrupt, in tradition they were supposed to live as spartans do, admitedly they were given slight special treatments with their sysittia (more food, and better food, they didnt have to contribute as much) but in essence they lived modestly for kings. The spartan kingsd after the peloponnses wars were showered with the riches from the spoils of war and greed got the better of men who had ruled over a society that lacked even coinage.
hope that helped