The Doric state of Sparta, copying the Doric Cretans, developed a mixed governmental state.

Alcman's songs were composed in the Greek Doric dialect of Sparta ( the so-called Laconian dialect ).

Leonidas I ( or ; Doric and Modern Greek:, ; Ionic Greek: Λεωνίδης, Leōnidēs ; " son of the lion "; died 480 BC ) was a Greek hero-king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, third son of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed in mythology to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the latter's strength and bravery.

It might have been due to ancient assumptions that Sparta was too " spartan " ever to have produced a talented poet of its own, or because Tyrtaeus didn't compose in the Doric dialect or vernacular of Sparta ( unlike his near contemporary, Alcman ) but imitated the conventional literary dialect of Homer, which was Ionian.

When the Phocians made war on the cities of Doris -- the traditional homeland of Doric Greeks — the Doric Sparta sent a relief force under the command of Nicomedes, son of Cleombrotus, acting as regent for his under-age nephew, King Pleistoanax.

Coin of Nabis of Sparta claiming to be king ; legend reads ΒΑΙΛΕΟΣ ( Doric Greek for βασιλέως, genitive of βασιλεύς ) and ΝΑΒΙΟΣ ( Νάβιος is Doric Greek for Νάβιδος, genitive of Νάβις )

The Doric states of Crete and Sparta kept the " polis " separate from the " demos ".

Prof. Karl Otfried Müller writes that the Doric character of a " certain loftiness and severity of character " was continued in Sparta only because it succeeded in keeping herself in an isolated situation.

In the archaic and classical periods, there were three main dialects of the Greek language: Aeolic, Ionic, and Doric, corresponding to the three main tribes of the Greeks, the Aeolians ( chiefly living in the islands of the Aegean and the west coast of Asia Minor north of Smyrna ), the Ionians ( mostly settled in the west coast of Asia Minor, including Smyrna and the area to the south of it ), and the Dorians ( primarily the Greeks of the coast of the Pelopennesus, for example, of Sparta, Crete and the southernmost parts of the west coast of Asia Minor ).

* The Dorian invasion spread Doric Greek from a probable location in northwestern Greece to the coast of the Peloponnesus ; for example, to Sparta, to Crete and to the southernmost parts of the west coast of Asia Minor.

After the Spartan conquest, Amyklai continued to hold the Gymnopaideia and the Hyakinthia, now celebrated in honor of Apollo Amyklaios, given an even later political interpretation, as celebrating " the political reconciliation of Doric Sparta ( Apollo ) with the Achaian population of Amyklai ( Hyakinthos )" ( Hellenic Ministry of Culture ).

Architectural fragments show that the architecture combined Doric and Ionic architectural orders: some are exhibited in the Sparta Museum.

It allied itself to Sparta, until 394 BC ; King Agesilaus of Sparta crossed here while returning to Greece.

His relations with Athens were already strained when he returned to Babylon in 324 BC ; after his death, Athens and Sparta led several Greek states to war with Macedon and lost.

As Aeginaea, she was worshiped in Sparta ; the name means either huntress of chamois, or the wielder of the javelin ().

The new found freedom and self-governance of the Athenians meant that they were thereafter exceptionally hostile to the return of the tyranny of Hippias, or any form of outside subjugation ; by Sparta, Persia or anyone else.

Hera offered political power ; Athena promised skill in battle ; and Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta.

These Heraclids were a group of Dorian kings who conquered the Peloponnesian kingdoms of Mycenae, Sparta and Argos ; according to the literary tradition in Greek mythology, they claimed a right to rule through their ancestor.

The war also wrought subtler changes to Greek society ; the conflict between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, each of which supported friendly political factions within other states, made civil war a common occurrence in the Greek world.

Friction between Athens and Peloponnesian states, including Sparta, began early in the Pentecontaetia ; in the wake of the departure of the Persians from Greece, Sparta attempted to prevent the reconstruction of the walls of Athens ( without the walls, Athens would have been defenseless against a land attack and subject to Spartan control ), but was rebuffed.

According to Thucydides, the Spartans acted in this way out of fear that the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots ; the offended Athenians repudiated their alliance with Sparta.

For a time during this conflict, Athens controlled not only Megara but also Boeotia ; at its end, however, in the face of a massive Spartan invasion of Attica, the Athenians ceded the lands they had won on the Greek mainland, and Athens and Sparta recognized each other's right to control their respective alliance systems.

Sparta defeated Tegea in a frontier war and offered them a permanent defensive alliance ; this was the turning point for Spartan foreign policy.

A form of range voting was apparently used in some elections in Ancient Sparta by measuring how loudly the crowd shouted for different candidates ; rough modern-day equivalents include the use of clapometers in some television shows and the judging processes of some athletic competitions.

In the 5th century BC, Dorian Thera did not join the Delian League with Athens ; and during the Peloponnesian War, Thera sided with Dorian Sparta, against Athens.

Sparta continues to fascinate Western culture ; an admiration of Sparta is called laconophilia.

Until the early 20th century, the chief ancient buildings at Sparta were the theatre, of which, however, little showed above ground except portions of the retaining walls ; the so-called Tomb of Leonidas, a quadrangular building, perhaps a temple, constructed of immense blocks of stone and containing two chambers ; the foundation of an ancient bridge over the Eurotas ; the ruins of a circular structure ; some remains of late Roman fortifications ; several brick buildings and mosaic pavements.

Menelaus appears in Greek vase painting in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, such as: Menelaus ' reception of Paris at Sparta ; his retrieval of Patroclus ' corpse ; and his reunion with Helen.

Greek Dorians lived in Sparta amongst other places, a more rural area, and were supposed by the ancient Greeks to have spoken laconically and in a language that was thought harsher in tone and more phonetically conservative than the Attic spoken in Athens.

* apella ( Attic ekklēsia ) " assembly in Sparta " ( verb apellazein )

Pausanias, the second king of Sparta ( see Spartan Constitution for more information on Sparta's dual monarchy ), was supposed to provide Lysander with reinforcements as they marched into Boeotia, yet failed to arrive in time to assist Lysander, likely because Pausanias disliked him for his brash and arrogant attitude towards the Spartan royalty and government.

Pausanias failed to fight for the bodies of the dead, and because he retrieved the bodies under truce ( a sign of defeat ), he was disgraced and banished from Sparta.

The loss, however, of a division ( mora ), destroyed by Iphicrates, neutralized these successes, and Agesilaus returned to Sparta.

However, when, under manager Jack Kirwan, the club got promoted to the top flight of Dutch football for the first time in 1911 ( then the Eerste Klasse or ' First Class ', later named the Eredivisie ), Ajax were forced to change their colours because Sparta Rotterdam already had exactly the same outfit.

He ran a distance of over 225 kilometers ( 140 miles ), arriving in Sparta the day after he left.

The A7 toll motorway for Tripoli and Kalamata, ( and Sparta via A71 toll ), branches off the A8 / European route E94 toll motorway from Athens at Corinth.

* Leda ( mythology ), queen of Sparta

In the Peloponnesian War ( c. 431 BC-404 BC ), Megara was an ally of Sparta.

Marble statue of a helmed hoplite ( 5th century BC ), Archæological Museum of Sparta, Greece

Thucydides reports that when a Spartan man went to war, his wife ( or another woman of some significance ) would customarily present him with his shield and say: " With this, or upon this " ( Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς, Èi tàn èi èpì tàs ), meaning that true Spartans could only return to Sparta either victorious ( with their shield in hand ) or dead ( carried upon it ).

Sparta also features prominently in modern popular culture ( see Sparta in popular culture ), particularly the Battle of Thermopylae ( see Battle of Thermopylae in popular culture ).

Later, in 1533, he wrote to James V of Scotland pointing out this essay on duty under the adage Spartam nactus es, ( You who were born to Sparta shall serve her ), on the subject of the Flodden campaign and the death of James and his son, Alexander.

* Pleistoanax ( Agaid king r. 458 – 401 BC ) and Agis II ( Eurypontid king r. 427 – 400 BC ), co-kings of Sparta.

* Agesilaus I, Archilaus ( Agiad Kings, r. 820 – 790 BC and 790 – 760 BC respectivily ) and Eunomus ( Eurypontid King r. 800 – 780 BC ), Co-Kings of Sparta

* 415 Hermai are mutilated in Athens, Alcibiades accused, asks for inquiry, told to set sail for battle ( Sicilian Expedition ), is condemned to death in absentia, he defects to Sparta

* Cleomenes III of Sparta is defeated in the Battle of Sellasia ( north of Sparta ) by Antigonus III and his allies, the Achaean League and the Illyrians ( under the command of Demetrius of Pharos ), and flees to Egypt under the protection of King Ptolemy III.

Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta ( a fact Aphrodite neglected to mention ), so Paris had to raid Menelaus's house to steal Helen from him ( according to some accounts, she fell in love with Paris and left willingly ).

In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy ( in Greek,, Helénē ), also known as Helen of Sparta, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda ( or Nemesis ), step-daughter of King Tyndareus, wife of Menelaus and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra.

Sparta under King Agis II has a major victory over Argos ( and its allies Athens, Ellis and Mantinea ), which has broken its treaty with Sparta's King Agis II at the insistence of Alcibiades.