First, before talking about Sparta, let’s take a look at a passage like this—
"In the first Greek and Persian war, King Leonidas of Sparta led three The Bespartan warriors and their Hilo entourage resisted the onslaught of fifty thousand Persian troops at Hot Springs Pass in northern Greece, and persisted for a long time without retreating. They won precious time for the assembly of the Greek coalition forces at sea and became later Greece. The key to the victory of the Allied forces over the Persian army was the heroic sacrifice in the end. They became the swan song of the ages, known as the 300 Spartan Warriors
in history. In this war, the two warriors who were blind and injured in their legs due to other wars heard the loss of Wenquan Pass. The news was painful. The blind warrior ran to the battlefield to fight against the air. The warrior with a leg injury asked someone to carry him to the battlefield to kill the enemy.
Legend has it that after the Battle of Wenquan Pass, the epitaph of the Spartan warriors was:
Passerby, please bring To the Spartans, we steadily fulfilled our promise and will sleep here..." In
just a few words, we described the heroic and heroic image of the Spartans.
Therefore, for thousands of years, people who have read about this battle are all indulged in the simple and fearless fighting spirit of the Spartans. Even our Mr. Lu Xun once wrote a flying chapter like "The Soul of Sparta" with a bit of emotion and a bit of anger in a special historical situation.
Yes, battlefield heroes are always respectable. Especially for young people full of enthusiasm, they may all the time hope to become a hero like the Spartans. I am also a young man, and naturally I have been no exception.
However, one day, when I slowly opened the books of the predecessors, put the spiritual power of these warriors aside, and searched for the real Spartans in the vast river of time-
I saw it, the years The real under...
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The history of Sparta can be traced back to the Mycenaean civilization. When the Akayas dominated the Aegean Sea, Sparta had existed for hundreds of years. In the famous Trojan War, Sparta played a very important role.
Sparta, in the Mycenaean civilization, does not have much historical records, and we cannot know its specific situation. However, from the description of the philosophers in Athens, the following four points can be roughly understood:
1. It may be the first power established by the Dorians who came to the Peloponnes Peninsula (interestingly, it was later destroyed by Mycenae The civilized people are also Dorians, who have migrated on a large scale in the 12th century BC after Dorian Spartans. Spartans therefore occupied the harmony of people and developed relatively steadily).
2. It is a clan kingdom or tribe with a "king".
3. Its culture is not too far behind the kingdom of Mycenae.
4. It has begun to develop and use iron tools (the military power is relatively strong, and the Mycenaean city-states and kingdoms of Akaya have never been able to expel it, and they often form alliances and intermarries with it.).
Through these four points, we can roughly get to know Sparta during the Mycenaean civilization. There is only this part of the history.
So now, let us cross the Mycenae period and enter the dark age of Greece-the period from the 12th century BC to the 8th century BC...
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Because the Dorians marched southward, not only the Mycenae of Akaya The collapse of civilization also changed the political structure of the entire Greek territory. The Greeks of many tribes began to fight with each other, and gradually formed the Aeolis, Attica and Ubia of the northern and central Tersalia tribes. There are three major groups: 1onlia (Aeolian) on the island of Athens and Dor-is (Dor-is) in Dorian of the Peloponnese. The group here is not a group in the modern sense, but only refers to the main ethnic and geographical divisions between the tribes that established the kingdom.
Among the three human geographic groups, the Dor-is city-states of Peloponnese are the most chaotic.
The reason is that this place was originally the center of the Mycenaean civilization that once indirectly ruled the whole of Greece. It was relatively prosperous and prone to fighting; secondly, the Dorians themselves were a warlike semi-nomadic tribe.
Thus, within the Dor-is group including Sparta, a long-term battle began. Although most of them are related to the same tribe, it is rare for a city-state kingdom to completely destroy another city-state kingdom. However, the kingdom’s Replacement or disappearance often appears...
So, in this "dark age" of Greece, in the constant wars of the Peloponnese, what is the situation of Sparta?
Different from the inaction of Athens in the Dark Ages (only referring to the Dark Ages), the two major events that appeared in Sparta's continuity can be said to be of far-reaching significance, and even continue to this
day—— ————————— ————————————————
·The first thing·The
first thing is that Sparta unified Lagone including Sparta around the 11th century BC The Asian city-states established a territorial state rather than a city-state in a narrow sense. The ancient Greeks seemed to have given it an official name-"Lassidy Dream" (later included the Messenia region), Take the city of Sparta as the capital of the country. But customarily, people still call this area Sparta.
(Note: It is said that it is a territorial country because the Lassidy Dream centered on Sparta is several times larger than the city itself, which is the only city itself, plus the city-state like Athens formed by the surrounding countryside. . Sparta, which unified Laconia, was small and pitiful for the dynasties of any period of our China. However, for Greece at that time, it could not be regarded as a city-state in the strict sense.)
From the end of the 12th century BC In the hundreds of years in the 9th century BC, Sparta began to be affected by a different kind of impact than other city-states in the process of transforming into a territorial state. As the vastness of the conquered land is not commensurate with Spartan’s own ruling power, there are still a large number of prisoners of war, and other problems such as the large number of other Laconians relative to the Spartans are constantly appearing and plagued. The historical process of Sparta——
The mainstream political changes in Sparta during the Dark Ages were actually not much different from other city-states during this period: the royal government was gradually weakened, and the noble councils were gradually derived from the clan councils, and then the noble councils held power and implemented oligarchic clan politics.
From the perspective of the era system at this time, many historians believe that it should be classified as slavery. Agree to this.
During this period, the Greek city-states had owned the slave class to varying degrees, but because of different circumstances, the status of the slaves was different.
Take Athens and Sparta as a comparison: Athens has always been regarded as one of the city-states with few wars in Greece, so many of the slaves in Athens are bought and sold. They are property slaves (movable property, private), although they have no rights. But slave owners still take care of them most, because no one wants property damage.
The source of these slaves is scattered, there is no centripetal force, there are few prisoners of war, and the relative number of the entire slave class is also very small, so they will not be too troubled by the slave uprising. So the biggest problem in Athens is still the thinking of the citizens...
Unlike Athens, Sparta got slaves in constant wars.
After the conquering of Laconia, the residents here (the legend lives Most of the residents in Laconia and the neighboring Messenia area are descendants of the ancient Messenians). Part of them has the power of a “second-class citizen” and enjoys a certain degree of autonomy. Under the full leadership of Da, they lived scattered in many communes throughout Laconia, and were called Perioikoi-meaning "people living on the margins."
The other part, together with the prisoners of war, became slaves. Compared with the slaves in Athens, these slaves were much more miserable, and they were often abused and killed. The Spartans called them insultingly "Helots"-meaning "people who are nothing."
It is precisely because of the extreme cruelty of the Spartans towards slaves, and the fact that most of the slaves are of the same race, with strong cohesion and large numbers, the Spartan slaves riots are very frequent. It annoys the powers of Sparta.
Therefore, unlike Athens, it only needs to consider the internal opposition of citizens and the change of thinking. The most important contradiction in Sparta is the class antagonism between slaves and citizens. The influence of this opposition on Sparta is very great. From this, the problem of dealing with "kings" and suppressing slaves first appeared-"kings" was a
type of clan politics that was gradually weakened by the Greek city-states in the dark age, but each city-state handled it in different ways. For example, Athens slowly and completely abolished the "king", Corinth's transformation of the function of "king", the retention of the name of "king" in the Aeolian city-states, and so on.
Sparta, using the method of transforming functions, limited the power of the "king" to the military-in fact, the "king" was established as the military commander in chief (therefore, the king of Sparta as the military commander in Greece The most replaced in history-war deaths).
But what is interesting is that there is not only one "king" of Sparta, but two.
This is because Sparta’s military strength has made it more and more powerful. In order to maintain its expanding land in the chaotic Peloponnese Peninsula, it needs to continue to go out to resist the attacks of other city-states. The problem is that once the military leaders leave the city of Sparta, the land that Sparta lays down will lack a commander who can stabilize the country when slaves are in turmoil.
Therefore, the Spartans invented the "two kings" system: two kings were elected by the aristocratic council, and when one of them led the army on the expedition, the other stayed in the country to prevent failure. This solves the problem of slavery suppression (just suppression).
From what I have described above, you don’t know if you can feel vaguely: Sparta is constantly growing stronger, but in fact, it is also constantly accumulating various contradictions-
except for the biggest contradiction between slaves and citizens. In addition, as I said, Sparta and other city-states are also brewing some of the same things. In other words, Sparta also has many contradictions in other city-states. The disgust of aristocratic politics, the increase in wealth leads to inequality between the rich and the poor, etc...
Yes, these contradictions, together with the long-existing Spartan spirit of martial arts (Note: In Homer, the section describing Spartan’s mother giving off the son of Zheng, the most obvious manifestation-no Weeping and not worrying, I only gave my son a big shield, telling him: Either take it to triumph, or lie on it to return...), the dual influence is bound to create the unique follow-up development of the Spartans, and the facts are also It's true...
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· Second thing ·
Before and during the dark age, the time before and after the conquest of Laconia In the paragraph, the uniqueness of Sparta has gradually emerged, and certain problems are gradually being enlarged and manifested.
In the eighth century BC, Sparta relied on powerful force to conquer the neighboring Messenia region and turned almost all the residents of Messenia into slaves-the Hilo. This is the second important event in the history of Sparta.
This incident caused a huge chain reaction...As
mentioned before, the various contradictions in Sparta. At this time, with the conquest of Messiania, the land expanded further, and the slave class was unprecedentedly huge. , And finally intensified-
first was the large-scale slave riots, which made the Spartan military machine exhausted; secondly, the accompanying resistance of the Piriasi people further aggravated the shaking of the Spartan superstructure; finally, the citizens were in the war. The wealth obtained was unfairly distributed, and most people were dissatisfied with the extreme inequality between the rich and the poor, making the Spartans unable to unite and work together to suppress slaves from the outside, and the internal civic thinking was split, and the "demand for equality" was mentioned as the most conspicuous status.
All of this made the Spartan ruling class have to, and must carry out some major, feasible changes to save Sparta’s increasingly chaotic situation, so the legendary Laikku ancient method is here. The time came into being...
Coming to Cugu, he should be an extremely intelligent nobleman in Sparta. He advocated and carried out a series of social reforms (it is also said that these reforms were the collective wisdom of all the rulers at that time) in an effort to renew Stabilize the rule of Sparta and enable all citizens to accept these reforms.
Just as Athens found ways to encourage private ownership, strengthen communication, and achieve democracy by combining the characteristics of Athens (there are few wars, small land, and strong awareness of citizen independence) from their historical origins, so Sparta also Found their democratic way, this way is-full militarization.
Yes, it is fully militarized. Since Spartans have never left the war since they were founded, they benefited from the war and grew up in the war. Therefore, Spartans gradually advocated force more and more, and the Spartans also compared Believe that force is omnipotent, therefore, Lai Kugu first started from this aspect and issued the following measures:
1. Promote the Spartans as a noble and powerful race, and promote the self-confidence of the Spartans.
2. Declare that all Spartan citizens will be separated from the people's livelihood and only engage in the military, and build a stronger armed force for the whole people.
The purpose of these two is obviously to target the intensified slave riots. With the martial spirit of the Spartans, these two items were easily accepted. But what followed was the question of how to ensure the lives of Spartan citizens after they were separated from production, and the issue of equality among citizens.
In these two aspects, Lai
Kugu announced the following specifications: 1. Let the Piriasi people produce tools for us and provide people's livelihood, and let the humble Hilo people cultivate the land for us to ensure our survival.
2. Distribute the land occupied by the Spartans evenly to all Spartan citizens. One in hand.
3. The humble Hilo are not private property, they belong to all Spartans.
4. The abolition of gold and silver currencies, the superficial abolishment of wealth, and the replacement of worthless iron coins.
5. Advocate citizens to lead a simple, ascetic life.
6. Regardless of rich or poor, all Spartan citizens will implement the "co-dining system" in the future and establish public canteens. Spartans must achieve fairness for the whole people, eat together, and practice together. Spartans who do not join the public canteen will deprive citizens of their citizens. right.
These six articles have achieved the kind of equality that Spartan citizens want (at least on the surface), and they are also a cruel solution to the contradictions under the historical conditions at the time.
In order to ensure survival and obtain land, the Spartans must first suppress slaves; in order to prevent citizens from quarreling for slaves and position slaves as shared slaves; in order to solve the uneven wealth, they simply do not advocate showing off wealth. Advocating simplicity and abstinence are virtues; in order to achieve equality, all Spartan citizens will join the common system...
This series of measures finally achieved unity and recognition among Spartan citizens. The Spartans, who solved their internal problems, quickly relied on their already advanced military technology, strong military strength, and united morale to defeat the external slave riots and re-ruled the Piriasis and Spartans. Stabilized.
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To sum up, unlike the democratic splendor created by Athens after the dark ages have passed, Sparta has completed an effective militarized equality system in the dark ages. In the days to come, until the Peloponnesian War In the past, the Spartans continued to improve and follow this system, which made themselves stronger for the next few hundred years.
However, this seems to be beautiful, and some thinkers in Greece admire its powerful and equal system. In fact, in later generations, we will soon be able to discover the mystery of some of its shortcomings...
From the perspective of national rule, internal , Sparta is still an oligarchy dominated by nobles, the king allows hereditary, and ordinary citizens have no say in national politics. Externally, the Hilo uprising never stopped. The Spartans continued to strengthen their repressive methods and even promoted the slaughter policy. Every year, they advocated citizens to participate in military formations to secretly kill innocent Hilo people in order to determine the Spartans. The Bada’s authority, self-confidence and reduced Hilo riot strength (the killing of strong teenagers).
Economically, it is only superficially driving out the inequality between the rich and the poor, creating a picture of equality (such as changing the dazzling gold and silver into iron coins, giving people the illusion of not having much wealth, the clothes that the rich and the poor wear, and what they eat. The meals are almost the same, but no one knows the real property). In fact, the nobles are still getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and poorer, and eventually they have no ability to join the public cafeteria and are deprived of their citizenship rights. (At the time of the ancient system of Kuwait, almost all citizens owned land, about 9,000 households. By the 6th century BC, fewer than 1,000 households still owned land. Where did the other citizens’ land go? This is very convincing. Some problems) In
terms of social composition, due to the extreme emphasis on military, Spartans are very strict and cruel even from birth to education:
Spartan babies who have just been born will first be bathed in spirits by their mothers. If it is found that the child has cramps and pain during the bathing process, it will be regarded as unhealthy and strong and will be discarded by the parents or the parliamentary policy evaluation (regardless of whether it is male or female).
As soon as the surviving boy reaches the age of seven, he leaves the family and receives military education arranged by the state. From this time on, he lived and trained with children of the same age, and did not complete the training until he was twenty years old and entered the ranks of adults. At the age of 20, young men begin to live in a collective barracks, receive ten years of formal military training, and perform regular military service between the ages of 30 and 60. Therefore, the entire life of the Spartans was organized in a militarized manner by the state. The Spartan city-state trains young people through a series of educational methods, so that they have hard-working, obedient, resourceful and brave characters. Incorporate Spartan boys who have reached the age of education into the company, elect brave children as captains, and let other children obey his orders and accept his punishment. The boys are trained to walk barefoot. They no longer wear underwear at the age of twelve, and only receive one coat a year. They have to go hungry and learn to steal. Everything was born for the military, and died for the military.
Although Spartan girls do not participate in military warfare, they are also required to train for bidding guns, running, wrestling, long jump, etc., and even participate in sports activities naked with the boys. This is to ensure that the girls grow up strong and can give birth to healthy children.
It is this kind of education that makes the Spartans' desire for honor and credit reach a very high level (including women, and look down on men who are not brave enough).
As a result, in spirit, the so-called noble and low thinking appeared-that is, the brave are noble and the weak are humble. This led to the differentiation of the successful and the losers, and promoted the formation of a hierarchical system.
All of these show the measures adopted by Sparta to live together and share meals, but to cover up the actual situation of Spartan social inequality with the superficial phenomenon of equality. The equality between citizens advocated by Sparta is at best an ideal. The equalization measures they adopted only temporarily alleviated the internal and external contradictions of Sparta.
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Well, here, the various basic operations embodied by the unique Sparta have been explained. As for the subsequent Hippo War and even the Peloponnesian War, other issues concerning Sparta have been It's not something considered in this article. I will describe it later when I have time.
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