Reformatting of consciousness. The death of Sparta
Blooming luxuriantly. Such a bitter harvest.
Seeing this retribution, always remember
Hellas and Athens. of your good
Do not squander and, with your own wealth
Satisfied, do not covet someone else's piece.
Punishes for pride with a terrible punishment
Judge of a tough temper, merciless Zeus.
Aeschylus "Persians"
Difficult story humanity. In the “Great Rulers” cycle, we talked about those who achieved the title of “great” or ... did not achieve it for some reason, and about the reformers whose reforms failed, but whose memory remained. And again, about the fact that since the truth is revealed to one person, his whole life is not enough for his fellow citizens to accept it. Often the result of this is the death of the state. Such was, for example, the fate of the Greek city of Sparta. On the pages of VO on September 9, 2021 in the material “Ancient Sparta. Primordial Sparta” has already been told about how she achieved her power. Now it's time to tell how she fell!
And it was so (and this was already mentioned in the recently published material “An Example from Ancient History”) that although Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War, its forces were also undermined in the same way. And the wars of “all against all” began in Greece, until King Philip, followed by his son, Alexander, took Greece into their hands. But… Alexander became “great” and died in Babylon, and the situation repeated itself.
The wars of the Diadochi, Alexander's commanders, began. All the same, only on a reduced scale, happened in Greece, where the city-states again began to fight for hegemony. In particular, the once mighty Sparta entered the Cleomenes War (229-222 BC) against the Achaean Union (279-146 BC) and Macedonia for hegemony in the Peloponnesian Peninsula. This time, Sparta lost the war, and with "such a devastating score" that none of the citizens of royal origin remained in the city. That is, there was no one to occupy the royal throne (and there were two kings there!) Power was given to the young Pelops and with him two regents Mahanid and Nabis. But in 207, Mahanid fell on the battlefield of Mantinea and, taking advantage of this, Nabis began to gradually take power into his hands.
And ... in 200 BC. overthrew Pelops, finally took power into his own hands and declared that he was a descendant of King Demaratus and belonged to the royal family of Eurypontides. On the coins minted by him, Nabis is called a king, but the historians Polybius and Titus Livius call him a tyrant. And being a tyrant in Greece was not too shameful, because it was not called tyrants in our understanding of the word, but only rulers who came to power in a not entirely legal way. There were tyrants in Athens and Syracuse, and now the once freedom-loving Sparta also waited for its tyrant.
As we know, in ancient Greece there was even a special “code of tyrants”, that is, “rules of conduct”, aimed at staying in power longer. The code recommended that the tyrant wage war or prepare for it, since in this case the role of the sole power increases dramatically; then build buildings to give people income, organize holidays to give people the opportunity to drink it away, and besides, “merry and drunk people do not plan evil”; and… keep spies in order to know exactly what is really being said about you.
Interestingly, it was the tyrants who were the best reformers in Greece, and Nabis himself was supporters of perhaps the most radical reforms that were carried out at that time. Some reforms were initiated by kings Agis IV and Cleomenes III who ruled before him. But what they had done seemed to Nabis not enough. Although Polybius described the supporters of Nabis as "a crowd of murderers, robbers, pickpockets and robbers from the high road", he carried out reforms that were quite reasonable and corresponded to the requirements of the time.
Since there were very few Spartans themselves in the city, and they became impoverished, he granted their rights to all subjects of Sparta (including the perieks), freed several thousand helots and ... engaged in the expulsion of the oligarchs. The lands belonging to large landowners were confiscated and then divided between the helots, who became citizens of Sparta, and the impoverished Spartans.
To the Romans, in particular, to the Roman commander Titus Quinctius Flamininus, Nabis explained his actions in this way:
Quite a very socialist worldview, isn't it? In any case, the uprising of Aristonicus in Pergamum has not yet happened, and such radical views on the social structure have already been expressed.
To strengthen his power, Nabis ordered to kill the last descendants of the two dynasties of Spartan kings, so that there would be no one to simply physically challenge the throne from him. He either expelled the Spartan oligarchs or also put them to death in order to seize their wealth, but he ruled completely mercilessly. He especially got it from the historian Polybius, a supporter of the Achaean Union and an ardent enemy of Nabis:
In ancient historiography, Nabis is even credited with the manufacture of a terrible automatic torture machine in the shape of the figure of his wife Apia (which is why she was called Apia), with which he extorted money from wealthy Spartans.
The British historian Perry Anderson, on the contrary, considered the Nabis reforms "the most consistent and far-reaching program of revolutionary measures ever voiced in antiquity." And - yes, in any case, he increased the Spartan army, was able to hire new mercenaries, and even for the first time in the history of Sparta, he fenced the city with walls!
The alliance with Rome during the First Macedonian War (214 BC - 205 BC), which Rome fought with Macedonia at the same time as the Second Punic War against Carthage, strengthened its position. He sent 600 mercenaries to help the Romans, and for this, Rome turned a blind eye to the capture of the city of Argos by Nabis. Already being the king of Sparta, Nabis made his wife his ruler, since it was her hometown. Well, then Apia and Nabis confiscated the property of the wealthy families of both cities, and most of the confiscated land was redistributed among the liberated helots loyal to Nabis.
Until that time, protection from the uprising of the helots was the main concern of the internal policy of Sparta, and the danger of their uprising greatly limited the adventurous aspirations of the Spartans outside the Peloponnese. The actions of Nabis eliminated this problem, as they say, once and for all. Not only did the liberated helots receive land from him. They also turned out to be ... married to the rich wives of the exiled Spartan oligarchy and demos (that is, all former full-fledged citizens) and the widows of the wealthy elite, whose husbands were killed on his orders. For them, it was a truly royal gift, for which, in general, little was required of them: to fight for Sparta, that is, again ... for themselves.
Well, the construction of the Spartan fleet was actively supported by those of the poor who did not get the land. They traditionally served on ships as rowers and received daily wages and part of the booty for this, that is, they also got a chance to break out into people!
As for the land army, the heavy troops, consisting of hoplites, were no longer available to Sparta in sufficient numbers. This led to a serious decline in its military power, so the restoration of a class of loyal and, in addition, wealthy subjects, gave them the opportunity to serve as well-equipped phalangites (operating in close and deep formation, with a longer spear than the previous hoplites).
That is why the liberation of the helots by Nabis by many people is perceived as one of the most outstanding deeds in the history of Sparta. In doing so, he removed the central ideological pillar of the old Spartan social system and the main reason for the objections to Spartan expansion from the surrounding policies (city-states), where slavery existed in a different form.
However, the precedent with the implementation of the redistribution of land by Nabis in Argos, which he occupied, caused real fears among the wealthy elite of the policies of the Achaean Union that he would spread his reforms throughout the Peloponnese. Therefore, as soon as the Second Macedonian War ended, the Achaeans declared war on Nabis, and the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flamininus supported them.
The pretext for the war was the "liberation of cities from tyranny", which meant, in particular, also the return of Argos to the Achaean Union, although de facto Rome at one time recognized Nabis as its ruler. Nabis tried to appeal to the friendship agreement with Rome, but he still had to fight. The Allies laid siege to Sparta, stormed the main seaport of Laconica - Gytium. But ... in 195 BC. e. on the initiative of Rome hastened to make peace. At the same time, Nabis lost Argos, the port of Gity and some Cretan cities, undertook to extradite prisoners and defectors, and his power was limited only to the territory of Sparta.
Nabis, however, still hoped to regain his former power. In 192 BC. BC, seeing that the Romans and their Achaean allies were distracted by the war with the Syrian king Antiochus III and the Aetolian League (322-191 BC), he tried to return the Gythia and the banks of the Laconica and at first acted quite successfully. But everything ended in defeat, the area around the city was devastated, and Nabis turned to the Aetolian League for help to protect their territory from the Romans and Achaeans.
The Aetolians sent a thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry under Alexamenes. Nabis arranged a review for the arriving troops, during which he was treacherously killed, because it is not for nothing that it is said that only their own always betray. Then they tried to capture Sparta, but an uprising of the Spartans began in the city, which completely exterminated the entire Aetolian detachment.
Chaos arose, which the Achaeans used to their advantage: they sent a large army to Sparta, forced the Spartans to join the Achaean Union and finally abolished royal power in it, turning it into one of the most ordinary cities of the Peloponnese.
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