In the same year, 183 BCE, two great figures of ancient military history passed away. One was the Roman Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus; the other, a Greek whose body was cremated in a ceremony of great solemnity, attended by emotional Achaean warriors, where the historian Polybius had the honor of carrying the urn containing the […]
Sparta
Posted inCulture
Tsakonian Is the Only Current Greek Language That Derives from the One Spoken by the Spartans
Although it is officially considered a dialect, Tsakonian is a divergent variety of Greek frequently classified as a separate language, as it is not intelligible to speakers of standard Modern Greek. Today, it is spoken in a small mountainous area in the interior of the eastern coast of the Peloponnesian peninsula, in the Argolic Gulf, […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Cynisca, the Spartan Who Became the First Woman to Achieve Victory in the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games of Antiquity were an exclusively male event, and women were prohibited from attending, whether as athletes or spectators; at least the gynaikes (married women), since Pausanias seems to indicate that the parthenai (unmarried young women) could indeed be in the stands. However, Spartan women enjoyed greater freedom, and just as their education […]
Posted inAncient Greece, Culture
Pyrrhic, the War Dance of Ancient Greeks with which Spartans Trained their Sons
The ancient Greeks had a series of rituals related to war and combat. Among them are war dances, of which the oldest and best known, thanks to sources and art, is the Pyrrhichios (πυρρίχιος, Pyrrhic Dance). It was a war dance, probably of Dorian origin, commemorating bravery and skill on the battlefield. It began to […]
Posted inAncient Greece
The Urn Containing the Remains of Brasidas, the Spartan General Regarded as Hero in Two Different Cities
The ancient city of Amphipolis, in eastern Macedonia bordering Thrace, had three founding attempts. The first by Miletus in 497 BC, and the second by the Athenians in 465 BC. Both failed as the settlers from both expeditions were wiped out by Thracian “barbarians”. However, the third attempt succeeded when Hagnon, the son of the […]
Posted inClassical Archaeology
Greek Tombs with Artifacts and Grave Goods Unearthed in Taranto, the Only Spartan Colony in Southern Italy
Taranto owes its origins to the Spartans who founded it in the 8th century BC with the name Taras (Τάρας). At that time, the Apulian city became one of the most important polis in Magna Graecia, asserting its political superiority over other colonies in the south. It is precisely from this period of splendor that […]
Posted inAncient Greece
The Battle of Cnidus: When Athenians and Persians Allied to Destroy the Spartan Fleet and Halt Their Dominance at Sea
The Peloponnesian War ended with Spartan victory but Persian influence. Athens, devastated, eventually challenged Sparta again, leading to a tactical win at the Battle of Cnidus. This complex struggle involving alliances and strategies ultimately benefited the Persian Empire.
