"These men, as the Athenians say, established themselves at Delphi and bribed the Pythian priestess to bid any Spartans who should come to inquire of her on a private or a public account to set Athens free."

 The Lacedaemonians, on hearing the same command drove out Hippias and the sons of Pisistratus despite them being close friends. "For the god's will weighed with them more than the will of a man."

On advice from the Pythia, King Cleomenes I led an army to retake the plain in 494BCE, but was delayed when the omens advised crossing the main river that led to Thyrea.

Cleomenes response had been he thought the god's oracle to be fulfilled since he had taken the temple of Argus, and did not want to make an attempt on the city before he "learned from the sacrifices whether the god would deliver to him or withstand him."

Cleomenes was shown, in a temple when a flame burst from Hera's chest that he would not have taken Argos. "Its coming from the breast signified that he had done as much as the god willed to happen. This plea of his seemed to the Spartans to be credible and reasonable, and he far outdistanced the pursuit of his accusers"

 "The rigorous Spartan education system designed to produce Spartiates or full citizen-warriors."

- "They viewed themselves absolutely as part of their country, rather than as individuals."

- "He was therefore given the so-called ‘agoge,’ or course of public training in Sparta, which, although austere in its mode of life and full of hardships, educated the youth to obedience."

The boys did not use footwear during the winter and slept without shelter. He also describes them as being unsupervised and as depending on themselves alone for survival. Author's description might seem to imply that the young Spartans were forced to be independent, but some scholars think that they may have had attendants at certain times to watch over them.

"The mutual hatred of the Laconians and Messenians came to a head."

"They say that these were not the reasons of the Lacedaemonians in going to war, but that they had formed designs in their country through covetousness."

Author states the details of the immediate provocation for war and expresses his view that the underlying cause was ethnic and regional tension between Laconia and Messenia.

 Author describes the Krypteia as being a unit of the Spartan army.

"That city is well fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick."

“The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.”

The Athenian defeat established Sparta and its military forces in a dominant position in Greece."

Author tells us that King Plydorus who "was very popular with the masses was assassinated by one of the city's aristocrats."

"From the time when the Dorians first settled in Sparta there had been a particularly long period of political disunity."

"Lycurgus' immediate intention was to sweep away the existing order and to make a complete change of constitution, since piecemeal legislation would have no effect or value."

For it is about four hundred years or little more to the end of the war [PW] that the Lacedaemonians have enjoyed the same system of government. Having become more powerful because of this, they intervened in the affairs of other states."

The helots at Sparta (repeatedly rose up against their masters) where they are like an enemy constantly sitting in wait for the disaster of the Spartiates."

- Helots occupied a status "between free men and slaves."

Every autumn the Spartans would declare war on the helots so they could be mistreated by a member of the Crypteia without fear of religious repercussion.

Author compares them to "an enemy constantly sitting in wait of the disaster of the Spartans."

Author also states that Spartans treated the Helots "harshly and cruelly."

"Lycurgus also made it lawful for him to have children by any fertile and well-bred woman who came to his attention, subject to her husband's consent."

"They are harried and plundered day and night by their own serfs."

 In battle, they had the reputation of being the best soldiers in Greece, and the strength of Sparta's hoplite forces let the city become the dominant state in Greece throughout much of the Classical period.

Author summarises the constitution of the League as "a circle centred on Sparta, with the spokes of a wheel but not necessarily with the added cross-links of a web."

Each member swore the same oath with Sparta: "to have the same friends and enemies as the Spartans, and to follow them withersoever they may lead". League members were consequently not bound together, only to Sparta, and could even wage war on each other.

The ancient name of the League was "the Lacedemonians and their allies."

Author says that these common meals were devised by Lycurgus as to strike a blow at luxury, since both rich and poor shared the same meal.

Author maintained that Lycurgus invented them in order, by bringing the people out in the open, to prevent poor behaviour and failure to obey orders.

Author gives a detailed account of the election to a syssition; the voting was unanimous, and conducted by each member placing a ball of bread in a basin called a caddichus. If a candidate was acceptable, the ball of bread was soft and round; if a member wished to reject a candidate the bread ball was flattened. Disqualification only required one negative vote.

There were approximately 15 men in each syssition.

The Corinthians and other Greek city-states joined Sparta, taking the opportunity to work against their local enemies.

A poet was involved in the war, and tells of how bitter the struggle was "You, your men, have often tasted flight and pursuit, and have had your fill of both."

In their desperation, Sparta even armed helots and even the women armed themselves against the Messenians and fought back.

Author tells us that the Spartans then bribed the Arcadian king to leave the war, which he complied with, and also paid for Cretan mercenaries.

Sparta had surrounded and captured the plain of Thyrea. When the Argives marched out to defend it, the two armies agreed to let 300 champions from each city fight, with the winner taking the territory. Presumably the idea was to reduce the total number of casualties. Both armies marched home, so as to prevent either side from helping their champions and escalating the duel into a full battle

Author says there was a dispute between the Argives and the Lacedemonians (Spartans) about the possession of Thyrea.

Because it was not clear who was victorious, the Amphictyons had to decide and after a personal inspection of the battlefield, gave victory to the Lacedemonians.

"Hippias, their tyrant, was growing even more bitter in enmity against the Athenians."

Author says that the Alcmeonidae, an Athenian family banished by Hippias, attempted to force their way in and free Athens with the help of some other exiled Athenians. "They were not successful in their return and suffered instead a great reverse."

Hippias was deposed when Cleomenes I of Sparta successfully invaded Athens and forced him to flee to Persia.

When Cleomenes returned from the Battle of Sepeia, "his enemies brought him before the ephors, saying that he had been bribed not to take Argos when he might have easily taken it."

According to the author, it came about as part of Lycurgus' attempts to safeguard the state by "allaying and qualifying the fiery genius of the royal office."

Membership of the Gerousia was for life, which made the gerontes' position very prestigious within Spartan society.

There was no ballots, the gerontes were elected by shouting. The candidates passed one by one before the Spartan citizens, who therefore shouted according to their preference.

Kings Theopompus and Polydorus, probably during the 7th century BC, added to the "rhetra" that the kings and the elders (gerousia) could set aside any "crooked" decision of the people.

The Ephors, since they could be relatively poor citizens, could often be bribed and could force the kings to resort to populism to keep them onside.

The ephors were a council of five Spartan men elected annually who swore an oath monthly on the behalf of the state. The Spartan kings, however, would swear on behalf of themselves.

Also according to the author, the ephorate was born out of the necessity for leaders while the kings of Sparta were absent for long periods during the Messenian Wars.

They had a central role in the Spartan economy, controlling commerce and business, as well as being responsible for crafts and manufacturing, including producing the weapons and armour of the Spartan army, as the higher-ranking Spartan citizens considered all commercial and money-making activities to be unworthy of them.

hey lived in their own cities in the perioecis, which were described by ancient authors as poleis.

According to the author, the Crypteia were established by the legendary Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus.

"It is the training, widely prevalent amongst us, in hardy endurance of pain, by means both of manual contests and of robberies carried out every time at the risk of a sound drubbing; moreover, the “Crypteia,” as it is called, affords a wonderfully severe training."

Some scholars, consider the Crypteia to be a kind of secret police and state security force that was organised by the ruling class of Sparta to patrol the Laconian countryside and to terrorise the helots.

Author states that they would hide during the day and would travel by night, then aiming to kill any helots who they came across.

"This divergence of policy gave rise to a new law in Sparta. Previously both kings had gone out with the army but this was made illegal and it was further provided that one had to remain in the capital."

The Argives had perfected the hoplite phalanx and soundly defeated the Spartans at Hysiae itself.

"In coming down to a lower level you reach the ruins of Hysiae, which once was a city in Argolis, and here it is that they say the Lacedaemonians suffered their reverse."

"Generally speaking it is impossible to make any undisputed statement about Lycurgus the lawgiver, since conflicting accounts have been given of his ancestry, his travels, his death, and above all his activity with respect to his laws and government; but there is at least agreement about the period in which the man lived."