The Metropolis (cathedral) dedicated to St. Demetrios at Mistra, ruined Byzantine city near Sparta, Greece. © Mairani—CLICK/ChicagoReputedly founded in the 9th century bce with a rigid oligarchic constitution, the state of Sparta for centuries retained as lifetime corulers two kings who arbitrated in time of war. In time of peace, power was concentrated in a Senate of 30 members. Between the 8th and 5th century bce, Sparta subdued, reducing the inhabitants to serflike status. From the 5th century the ruling class of Sparta devoted itself to war and diplomacy, deliberately neglecting the arts, philosophy, and literature, and forged the most powerful army standing in Greece.Sparta’s single-minded dedication to rule by a militarized precluded any hope of a political unification of Classical Greece, but it performed a great service in 480 bce by its heroic stand at Thermopylae and its subsequent leadership in the Greco-Persian wars. The (480) revealed the magnitude of naval power and set in motion the deadly struggle between the two powers that ended in Athenian defeat at the close of the in 404 and the emergence of Sparta as the most powerful state in Greece.

417 BCE - 415 BCE Melos, after supporting Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, is attacked by Athens. 412 BCE Sparta becomes allies with Persia. 404 BCE End of the Peloponnesian war, Athens defeated, Rule of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens. 398 BCE Xenophon works as mercenary for Sparta. 396 BCE Spartan Agesilaus II's campaign into Ionia.

In the (395–387) Sparta had two land victories over Athenian allied states and a severe naval defeat at Cnidus by a combined Athenian and Persian fleet. Sparta’s involvement in Persian civil wars in under (ruled 399–360) and the subsequent Spartan occupation (382) of the Theban citadel, Cadmea, overextended Spartan power and exposed the state to defeat at Leuctra (371) by the Theban, who went on to liberate Messenia. A century-long decline followed.Sparta’s continued agitation spurred Rome’s war on the Achaeans (146) and the Roman conquest of the Peloponnese. In 396 ce the modest city was destroyed by the Visigoths. The repopulated the site and gave it the ancient Homeric name Lacedaemon. After 1204 the Franks built a new fortress city, Mistra, on a spur of the Taygetus range southwest of Sparta; after 1259 Mistra was capital of the (i.e., the Peloponnese) and flourished for about two centuries.

From 1460 until the (1821–29), except for a Venetian interlude, the region was under Turkish rule.

Sparta is a city in Laconia, on the Peloponnese in Greece. In antiquity, it was a powerful city-state with a famous martial tradition. Ancient writers sometimes referred to it as Lacedaemon and its people as Lacedaemonians.Sparta reached the height of its power in 404 B.C. After its victory against Athens in the second Peloponnesian war. When it was in its prime, Sparta had no city walls; its inhabitants, it seems, preferred to defend it with men rather than mortar. However, within a few decades, after a defeat against the Thebans at the Battle of Leuctra, the city found itself reduced to a 'second-rate power,' a status from which it never recovered.The prowess and fearlessness of Sparta's warriors has inspired the Western world for millennia and, even in the 21st century, has been incorporated into Hollywood films like ' and the futuristic video game series ' (where a group of super- soldiers are called 'Spartans').Yet the real-life story of the city is more complicated than popular mythology makes it out to be. The task of sorting out what is real about the Spartans from what is myth has been made more difficult because many of the ancient accounts were written by non-Spartans.

As such, they need to be taken with the appropriate grain of salt.Ruins of an ancient theater sit near the modern city of Sparta, Greece. (Image credit: ) Early SpartaWhile the city of Sparta wasn't constructed until the first millennium B.C., recent archaeological discoveries show that at least as far back as 3,500 years ago. In 2015, a 10-room palace complex containing ancient records written in a script that archaeologists call 'linear B' was discovered just 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from where the city of Sparta was built. Murals, a cultic cup with a bull's head and bronze swords were also discovered in the palace. The palace burned down in the 14th century B.C. Presumably there was an older Spartan city located somewhere near the 3,500-year-old palace but not where the first millennium B.C.

Sparta was later built. Future excavations may reveal where this older city is.It's not clear how many people continued to live in the area after the palace burned down. Suggests that a drought that lasted for three centuries afflicted Greece around the time the Spartan palace burned down.Archaeologists do know that sometime in the early Iron Age, after 1000 B.C., Four villages — Limnae, Pitana, Mesoa and Cynosoura, which are located near what would be the Spartan acropolis — came together to form a new Sparta.Historian Nigel Kennell writes in his book 'Spartans: A New History' (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) that the city's location in the fertile Eurotas valley gave its inhabitants access to an abundance of food, something its local rivals did not enjoy. Even the name Sparta is from a verb meaning 'I sow' or 'to sow.' Although Sparta made efforts to consolidate its territory in Laconia, we also know that, at this early stage, the people of the city appear to have taken pride in their artistic skills. Sparta was known for its poetry and it pottery, its wares being found in places as far flung as Cyrene (in Libya) and the island of Samos, not far from the coast of modern-day Turkey. Researcher Konstantinos Kopanias notes in a 2009 journal article that, up until the sixth century B.C., Sparta appears to have had an ivory workshop.

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Surviving ivories from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta depict birds, male and female figures and even a 'tree of life' or 'sacred tree.' Poetry was another key early Spartan achievement. 'In reality we have more testimony to poetic activity at Sparta in the seventh century than for any other Greek state, including Athens,' writes historian Chester Starr in a chapter of the book 'Sparta' (Edinburgh University Press, 2002).While much of this poetry survives in fragmentary form and some of it, such as from Tyrtaeus, reflects the development of the martial values that Sparta would become famous for, there is also work that appears to reflect a society concerned with art, rather than just war.This fragment from the poet Alcman, which he composed for a Spartan festival, stands out. It refers to a choir girl named 'Agido.'

Alcman was a Spartan poet who lived in the seventh century B.C.There is such a thing as retribution from the gods. Happy is he who, sound of mind, weaves through the day unwept. I sing the light of Agido. I see it like the sun, whom Agido summons to appear and witness for us. But the glorious chorus mistress forbids me to either praise or blame her.