Athens's empire was not very stable, and only 27 years of war with the Spartans, aided by the Persians and internal strife, were able to defeat it.

The xiphos usually has a blade around long, however those used by the Spartans were often only 12 – 18 inches long.

Relief only came the following year when the Spartans were able to raise the siege.

The word " laconic " is derived from the name of the region by analogy-to speak in a concise way, as the Spartans were reputed by the Athenians to do.

Athens sent out a sizable contingent ( 4, 000 hoplites ), but upon its arrival, this force was dismissed by the Spartans, while those of all the other allies were permitted to remain.

Thucydides reports that the Corinthians condemned Sparta's inactivity up to that point, warning the Spartans that if they continued to remain passive while the Athenians were energetically active, they would soon find themselves outflanked and without allies.

The Spartans also occupied Attica for periods of only three weeks at a time ; in the tradition of earlier hoplite warfare the soldiers were expected to go home to participate in the harvest.

The people of Syracuse were ethnically Dorian ( as were the Spartans ), while the Athenians, and their ally in Sicilia, were Ionian.

The Spartans and Athenians were foremost in this alliance, being sworn enemies of the Persians.

Instead, as a compromise, the Spartans ( an insignificant naval power ), in the person of Eurybiades were to command the naval forces.

In order to persuade the Spartans to defend Attica, Themistocles needed to show them that the Athenians were willing to do everything necessary for the success of the alliance.

Furthermore, the Spartans were obliged to repatriate Themistocles in order to free their own ambassadors.

The Spartans were victorious in this battle.

Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates ( Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full rights ), Mothakes ( non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans ), Perioikoi ( freedmen ), and Helots ( state-owned serfs, enslaved non-Spartan local population ).

In 480 BC a small force of Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans led by King Leonidas ( approximately 300 were full Spartiates, 700 were Thespians, and 400 were Thebans although these numbers do not reflect casualties incurred prior to the final battle ), made a legendary last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, inflicting very high casualties on the Persian forces before finally being encircled.

More than 5, 300 of the Spartans and their allies were killed in battle, and 3, 500 of Antipater's troops.

Descendants of non-Spartan citizens were not able to follow the agoge and Spartans who could not afford to pay the expenses of the agoge could lose their citizenship.

The Spartans were a minority of the Lakonian population.

The helots were originally free Greeks from the areas of Messenia and Lakonia whom the Spartans had defeated in battle and subsequently enslaved.

Spartiates, on the other hand, were forbidden ( in theory ) from engaging in menial labor or trade, although there is evidence of Spartan sculptors, and Spartans were certainly poets, magistrates, ambassadors, and governors as well as soldiers.

The Spartans were supposedly of the view that, with the liberation of mainland Greece and the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the war's purpose had already been reached.

* Athenian: " For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretenses — either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us — and make a long speech which would not be believed ; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Spartans, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both ; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must " ( Strassler 352 / 5. 89 ).

In March 2010, Smith signed for Blyth Spartans, also of the Conference North, with a view to regaining fitness.

Amyntas thus concluded a treaty with the Spartans, who assisted him to reduce Olynthus ( 379 ).

This signaled a complete change in Athenian foreign policy, neglecting the alliance with the Spartans and instead allying with her enemies, Argos and Thessaly.

He served under Bob Bronzan as a graduate assistant coach on the Spartans football coaching staff and graduated with a master's degree in physical education from San Jose State in 1959.

Non-league sides include Spartans and Edinburgh City, who play in the East of Scotland League along with Civil Service Strollers F. C., Lothian Thistle F. C., Edinburgh University A. F. C., Leith Athletic F. C., Tynecastle F. C., Craigroyston F. C.

Hoplite warfare has been portrayed ( with varying accuracy ) in several films including Troy, The 300 Spartans and 300.

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.

The Spartans, whose intervention would have been the trigger for a massive war to determine the fate of the empire, called a congress of their allies to discuss the possibility of war with Athens.

At the request of the Corinthians, the Spartans summoned members of the Peloponnesian League to Sparta in 432 BC, especially those who had grievances with Athens to make their complaints to the Spartan assembly.

The Syracusans sent their fleet to the Peloponnesians, and the Persians decided to support the Spartans with money and ships.

The Spartans sent ambassadors to Admetus, threatening that the whole of Greece would go to war with the Molossians unless they surrendered Themistocles.

* Aristagoras seeks help with the revolt against the Persians from Cleomenes I, the King of Sparta, but the Spartans are unwilling to respond.

The Spartans discover his plans and arrange with Pharnabazus to have him assassinated.

* The civil war in Corcyra, in which the Athenians and the Spartans have interfered ineffectually, results in a victory of the democrats ( who support an alliance with Athens ) over the oligarchs.

An anecdote has it that when Philip II sent a message to Sparta saying " If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta ", the Spartans responded with the single, terse reply: " If.

Thus, upon the conquest of Persia, Alexander the Great sent to Athens 300 suits of Persian armour with the following inscription Alexander, son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the Spartans, give these offerings taken from the foreigners who live in Asia added.

" On the other hand, the Spartans trusted their helots enough in 479 BC to take a force of 35, 000 with them to Plataea, something they could not have risked if they feared the helots would attack them or run away.

Plutarch also states that Spartans treated the Helots " harshly and cruelly ": they compelled them to drink pure wine ( which was considered dangerous – wine usually being cut with water ) "... and to lead them in that condition into their public halls, that the children might see what a sight a drunken man is ; they made them to dance low dances, and sing ridiculous songs ..." during syssitia ( obligatory banquets ).

The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them perished.

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 ).

However, the Spartans decided that Alcibiades must be removed and Lysander, with the help of Pharnabazus, arranged the assassination of Alcibiades.

In the battle, the Spartans narrowly defeated the exiles, with both sides suffering large numbers of casualties.