The Enemy Sparta Feared the Most

Writing on board our British Airways flight on route home to the UK after another week away to Greece. I didn’t cover as much distance this time; flying to Athens and after the drive across remained in the central and southern Peloponnese region for the full duration. 

I opted for a bit more rest this time, which I felt after the build up to the recent Kosmos launch would be sensible. Nevertheless, I can tell myself that but I find sitting still for too long a right bastard!

One thing that is great about Greece though is that even if you opt to stay more local there is still so much to see because, well, it is a place littered with history and natural beauty spots. 

I always found historical literature and documentaries a great escape as a full time athlete. My interest in Greece started in my teens with Homer’s epics but took off more towards my late twenties on stumbling upon Stoicism- I came across the word for the first time reading about the history of the British Navy. Like many, I became intrigued with the classical period of Greek history. I was then led to the Peloponnesian war, which spanned for 27 years, fought between Athens and Sparta and their allies which, as is well documented, led to the Athenian defeat and the end of the ‘golden age’ for the city. 

What is less discussed is that part of the decline of Sparta can also arguably be attributed to the war, but upon their victory. With the loss of many full ‘Spartiate citizens’ or ‘Peers’ due to the protracted conflict, combined with the strict entry process to the ‘agoge,’ their military training system, meant they were struggling to replenish the army’s number of skilled troops. Also, a massive influx of riches and influence due to winning the war began to to tempt citizens away from their previously austere way of life. They first became largely less abled as a citizen body, less abled as a military power, and thus began to decline as a major international force.

In their hay day, Sparta were largely the force they were because of their massive slave population, a gargantuan percentage of which were Messenian. Over two, twenty year conflicts, known as the ‘Messenian Wars,’ beginning around 730 BC, Sparta conquered the area, their neighbouring one, and put the peoples to work.  

While history often portrays the semi-mythical figure of ‘Lycurgus the Lawgiver’ to have formulated the Spartan state’s laws, modern scholars, such as Philip Matyszak, contest that the military system probably arose, or at the very least dramatically improved, due to the lengthy wars with the Messenians and the then constant need to police the huge slave population. Sparta was massively paranoid about uprisings, which did occur- they were often referred to as, ‘the enemy the Spartans feared the most.’ It was part of regular political ceremony for elected officials to declare war on their own slave populace. They also had what was effectively an early form of secret police called the ‘Krypteia,’ who were charged with searching out slaves displaying any ‘anti-state’ behaviours.

Throughout the near 400 year Spartan occupation of Messenia we get accounts of mass rebellion and some of the key characters behind the revolt, such as Aristomenes. While modern moral compasses often want to overlook that the backbone of the glorified image of Sparta, and a lot of the ancient world, was slavery on a huge scale, to ignore the Messianian struggle would be to miss an important and fascinating piece of European history in entirely it’s own right. 

For some of these reasons, and to get some sun in a lovely remote location, we chose to holiday in Messenia. It didn’t disappoint. We broke the sight seeing up with some rest and recovery days so probably ended up being 50% exploration and 50% relaxing by the coast. The first trip out was to Ancient Messene, 45 minutes drive north into the sticks. It was built in 369 BC after the small state of Thebes defeated the Spartans in 370 BC and liberated the Messenian people; the Peloponessian war finished in 404 BC so we can see how relatively quickly Sparta’s fall from dominance came. The new city was founded on the hill on which a very famous uprising and siege took place around 460 BC. 

The other bigger day out we did was to drive through the Taygetos Mountains to Sparta, which is a stunning drive and gave a real appreciation for the terrain a lot of the Messenian Wars would have taken place on. A 90 minute drive for us would likely have been days and days of hard marching back then. We stopped to see the main sites of the town then headed further south into Laconia to the old port town of Gytheio which was nice but too busy for me, quick ganders, food and got out of there.

Anyway, short insight of my Easter break. It wasn’t until my early thirties that I began to realise the importance of ‘breaks,’ both on the body and the mind. We (voluntarily) didn’t have loads of money as a full time athletes, so foreign breaks weren’t high up on the agenda. Having done them a bit more now as a coach, I can definitely attest to feeling fresher after them. 

Onto the next period.

Danny

P.S- The Spartan queen charged with saying, “Come back with your shield, or on it” and “Only Spartan women give birth to real men” was called Gorgo- we named our first women’s no-gi line after her.

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