[lit-ideas] Spartan wars with the Argives

Cartledge, op. cit., p87

 

"There is . . . evidence of direct confrontation between them in the extant
poetry of Tyrtaeus, which dates to around 670. . . the two states fought a
pitched battle in 669, which Argos . . . won convincingly.

 

". . . Sparta had been the aggressor. . .  So, as soon as the Spartans felt
able to . . . they set out to try for a conclusion once and for all.  This
was about 545 . . . but the manner in which the conflict was conducted was,
at least to begin with, strikingly odd.

 

"Rather than committing their full hoplite musters, the Spartans and the
Argives agreed to a battle of 300 selected champions on either side, a sort
of epic trial of strength.  This resulted in an equally striking outcome.
After a particularly violent encounter, or series of encounters, just three
fighters were left alive on the field: two Argives, one Spartan.  The
Argives, who were so to speak instinctively egalitarian and democratic,
judged that this very superiority of numbers was tantamount to a victory -
and returned home to Argos to report and celebrate as much.  However, the
one surviving Spartan, who was clearly neither a democrat nor an
egalitarian, refused to concede; on the contrary, he claimed the victory for
Sparta, on the grounds that he alone had stayed 'at his post', on the
battlefield, as a true hoplite should, and he set up a victory trophy
accordingly in the name of Sparta.  Of course, the Argives were not going to
tolerate that, so they sent out their full force of hoplites to meet the
full Spartan levy, and the Spartans then won a truly decisive victory.  As a
direct consequence, they now controlled Thyreatis and indeed incorporated it
within their state territory of Lacedaemon."

 

Lawrence

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