Greece: Laconophilia
& the Thirty Tyrants
Heracleidae · Dorian Conquest · Peloponnesian War · Critias · Socrates · Thrasybulus
Several dynasties claimed descent from Heracles, such as the Agiads and Eurypontids of Sparta, or the Temenids of Macedonia. Of pre-classical dialects and traditions in southern Greece, the ones that prevailed in Classical Greece followed. According to Herodotus, Macedonian tribes called Dorians charged South [from the mountains of Epirus] to reclaim their ancestral territories en mass within the Peloponnese, where they subjugated the local tribes before commencing territorial expansions. The Return of the Heracleidae was orchestrated by the brothers Kresphontes and Temenos, as well as the twins Eurysthenes and Prokles who accordingly divided the Peloponnese into three parts: Kresphontes took Messenia, Temenos the north-east, and the twins Laconia, thus becoming the first dual kings of Sparta.
Spartan warriors — the dual kingship of Laconia established by Eurysthenes and Prokles, twin descendants of Heracles.
By expanding their frontiers major battles were fought against Argos and the Arcadians. Heraclids in mythology were numerous, all descendants of Heracles (Hercules) and were the Dorian kings who conquered Mycenae, and Sparta also. Known as Heracleidae they include Macaria, Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus. Within Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgrouped dialects Tsakonian is included, under which ancient leaders are identified as Laconophiles. Tsakonian, likewise a descendant of Laconian Doric (Spartan), is also still spoken in modern Greece. Original sources from Sparta include the 7th century poet Alcman, and Philoxenus of Alexandria's treatise On the Laconian dialect. Attic and Ionic dialects would respectively centralize, before Attic dominated becoming Hellenization.
Laconophilia — The Athenian Love of SpartaThe Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War were largely played out between Athens and Sparta, but the division on ethical standards must be considerably the cause of Athenian-Spartan rivalry, which ultimately destabilized Greece sufficiently enough that the Roman invasion succeeded. Cimon, an Athenian general of the Greco-Persian War explained that while laconians actively subjugated citizens and held various suzerains, they in fact, though bearing a fully dedicated military creed, actually needed Athens. Cimon had Athens send 4000 hoplites under his command to assist Sparta during a helots revolt, whence the renegades fortified Mount Ithome, but the Spartans repudiated military aid from Athens lest their democratic ideals influence their helots or the Perioeci. Laconophilia hence presents an awkward synthetization of codes of military law with affirmative general knowledge, and as the predecessor of Hellenization, is oriented by the opinions of tyrannical governments or democracies of the people, and in asserting rights of mankind on general populations. Haphazardly Laconophilia is considered a philosophy thus particular to the love of Sparta, and some of Socrates' followers so identified, whilst Socrates is said to have just praised the laws of Sparta. Indeed since Spartans didn't account for Laconophilia, rather as an Athenian creation, and induced under the rivalry of inter-state association, it's bound to be prejudiced by a democratic tradition espousing philosophy.
Critias, first cousin of Plato's mother, subsequently enforced oligarchic rule as one of the Thirty Tyrants in the substitute interim government. Xenophon, another disciple of Socrates, fought for the Spartans against Athens. Plato, it's argued, preferred a Spartan-type regime over a democratic one, and Aristotle regarded the kind of laws adopted by Sparta as especially apt to produce virtuous and law-abiding citizens. Aristotle also however criticized the Spartans as incompetent and corrupt, and built on a culture of war. Here in diverging in a simple culture of an elite warrior society, scholars have proposed that Greek Mycenaeans also originally reflected exogenous impositions of archaic Indo-Europeans from the Eurasian steppe. A tenuous relationship between Aegean and northern steppe populations during the Bronze Age led to another theory that Mycenaean culture in Greece dates back to circa 3000 BC with Indo-European migrants entering a mainly-depopulated area, while others argue for earlier dating conferred by the spread of agriculture and chariot technology.
Dorian invasion — Indo-European steppe migration theories and the Mycenaean Bronze Age transition, circa 3000 BC.
The Thirty Tyrants — Reign of Terror, 404 BCThe Thirty Tyrants were a Spartan supported oligarchy installed in Athens after the defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. The Thirty appointed a large council to serve the judicial functions formerly belonging to all the citizens. Choosing 3,000 hand-selected individual Athenian men to act as officials with increased rights to carry weapons, have a jury trial, and to reside within city limits; their participation lent privilege under scrutiny for devotion to the regime. Led by Critias, the Thirty Tyrants executed a reign of terror over Athens, seizing detractors' property and possessions in a State-wide apartheid. Both Isocrates and Aristotle (the latter in the Athenian Constitution) have reported that the Thirty executed 1,500 people without trial during the reign which was regularly enforced with lash-bearers or whip-bearing men.
Shortly however an uprising overthrew the Thirty, orchestrated by a group of Athenian exiles led by Thrasybulus. Critias was killed in the battle near Piraeus, the port of Athens amid members and supporters of the Thirty, and aided by the Spartan garrison.
The rebellion of Thrasybulus — Athenian exiles overthrow the Thirty Tyrants near Piraeus, restoring democracy.
Socrates was accounted for refusing to present one respected democratic citizen to the Thirty for execution, as written by Plato in the Apology. Plato, only a child during the events, recounted his teacher's rejection of the iniquitous deeds by which the Thirty applied guilt-by-association. Critias is reputed to have directly exercised leniency on his former teacher for still maintaining the integrity of democracy subsequent to the humiliating defeat at the Battle of Aegospotami by a Spartan-Persian-Corinthian coalition.
Written by Jason Steven Jowett. Sourced from historical fact. This blog may not be reproduced in whole without the author's express permission. Copyright © 2024. greatbrittania.blogspot.com