020. The Spartan Yoke

EPISODE 20 THE SPARTAN YOKE

Happy new year folks, welcome back to the Spartan History Podcast, the only podcast called the Spartan History Podcast. We're turning 20 with the release of this episode and I couldn't be more pleased to be back behind the microphone. I hope you all had a safe holiday season.

This time we're taking the Spartan story into the 7th century as the city consolidates her hold on the recently acquired Messenian territories.  First though, we look at the post war settlement within city and see if the aggressive land grab, that was the first Messenian war, satisfied the citizenries desire for land and enfranchisement.

Successful wars brought great wealth to the victors, the Spartan's tithed some of that wealth in honour of the gods with the construction of two important temples. These sacred places were to be a fixture within the city for centuries to come.

The freshly indentured Messenian Helot's, of proud and mighty stock in their own right, weren't sitting idle beneath the yoke of their masters. Quietly biding their time for insurrection, a crushing defeat of the Spartans by the men of Argives provides just enough impetus for the push to freedom. The subsequent uprising, known as the 2nd Messenian war, would be a fight to the death with the winner taking all.

The famous archaic Spartan poet, Tyrtaeus was contemporary with the conflict and his works are largely believed to have helped turn the tide in Sparta's favour. We finish with a look at what remains of his corpus.

I hope you all enjoy, and take good care.

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