Why did Sparta Collapse?

Speaking about Ancient Greece, we may think about ancient conflicts, legends, true warriors, philosophers, or architecture so incredible that it's embraced even today in different forms. Also, we may think about Classic Athens or Sparta. The Ancient Greek world was a place where extraordinary civilizations emerged from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th to 9th century BC to the end of what we know as Antiquity. Don't think about Ancient or Classic Greece as a single country. No such unified Ancient Greek state with Athens or Sparta as its capital ever existed but a multitude of cities, each with its own rule and form of government, each one developed in its own way. There were alliances, pacts, or trades between them, but also hostilities, and looking at the bigger picture, there was a lot of rivalry, especially between two of them. Classical Greece was a period of about two centuries in Greek culture, 5th and 4th centuries BC to be more exact. This century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than the other Ancient Greek states. This classical period saw a lot of conflict that will remain in history forever. The subjugation of some Greek city-states and the biggest threat of the Ancient Greek civilization until that time was on the horizon. The mighty Persian Empire expanded hugely in these decades, conquering vast territories in the East and West, conquering lands from Bactria to the Arabic Sea, then Lydia, Babylon, Phoentia, and Egypt. The Persians were the masters of war and invasion. The mainland Greece was threatened by this new possible invader, but also was a reason for many city-states to ally against the common enemy. We can start to look at the whole Greek world as one at the beginning of the Ionian Revolt of 500 BC. This event provoked the Persian invasion of 492 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC. A second Persian attempt was in 481-479 BC, which failed as well. Even if the Persians marched through the mainland Greece at an important point, they were defeated. The ancient and popular battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium changed the course of history for the Ancient Greeks. The Persian attempts to conquer Greece lasted for more than 20 years. Although the Persian invader was more powerful, due to the military innovation, strategy, and courage of the Greeks, the invasion was repealed. Near the pass of Thermopylae, the Spartan king Leonidas led his 300 men, plus help from other Greeks, and resisted for three days against thousands of Persians. The story is not just about one mighty moment of history, but the Spartan way of life was shown in this legendary battle. The Spartans focused their loyalty to the state and military service. At age of seven, Spartan boys started their education and military training, and it is said that they lived in barracks and they trained consistently even in times of peace. The Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens' instrument. Athenian success brought a direct conflict with Sparta. The Peloponnesian War happened in 431 BC. After a brief peace, the war resumed to Sparta's advantage. Athens was defeated in 404 BC, and Sparta became the biggest force of the Greek world. The end of the Peloponnesian War left Sparta the master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role. In 395 BC, the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost their naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth, the latter two former Spartan allies, challenged Sparta's dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC. The Corinthian War revealed a significant dynamic that was occurring in Greece. While Athens and Sparta fought each other to exhaustion, Thebes was rising to a position of dominance among the various Greek city-states. That same year, Sparta concluded the Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia. The agreement turned over the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus, reversing a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Sparta then tried to further weaken the power of Thebes, which led to a war in Thebes allied with its old enemy, Athens. In 378 BC, the reaction to Spartan control over Thebes was broken by a popular uprising within Thebes. Before going further on than that, we have to understand why Sparta was so good at war. Since its beginning, Sparta was ruled by a diarchy. This meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Aegean dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty. There is a legend that says the hereditary lines of these two dynasties emerged from Urinthenes and Procles, twin descendants of Hercules. It is said that they have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War. Life as a Spartan similar was one of privilege, but not of ease. At birth, a young Spartan male was brought before a board of elders and examined for physical deformities. If he was not up to standard, he was carried to a nearby gorge where he was left to die of exposure. At age seven, a boy who had survived his initial review was taken from his mother to begin his formal education. Disobeying an order or demonstrating any hint of fear during battle were further grounds for expulsion. There were several inferior castes of persons who had fallen, of whose ancestors had fallen, from the ranks of the elite similars. Each was given a derogatory name, such as inferiors or tremblers. After the year of 404 BC, when Athens was defeated, Sparta made and broke alliances as they wished, and this created consequences. Due to having good relations, some Spartans engaged in foolish, greedy, or opportunistic military operations, and this sometimes happened in contravention of treaty obligations and with traditional Greek morals. They found that their government and officials were willing to turn a blind eye on their bad habits. The popularity of Sparta was going down. The other Greeks, whether traditional allies or enemies of Sparta, became increasingly unhappy with Spartan hegemony, and in time, a new anti-Spartan alliance was organized. The Spartans tried to maintain their position as rulers of the Greek world, with authority being expressed with their military might, and their military was strong. Spartan hoplites were still without equal, but in time, more and more casualties appeared, and Sparta could not afford many more of Every battlefield casualty meant one less warrior to stand against Sparta's enemies. Moreover, it was no longer clear that Sparta's absolute domination of traditional hoplite tactics would last forever. In 390, the Spartans were stunned at the defeat of an isolated Spartan regiment and the loss of some 250 men. Meanwhile, Sparta's enemies were learning more and more about Sparta's military tactics. Moving forward on from what happened, in 378 BC, the reaction to Spartan control over Thebes was broken by a popular uprising within Thebes. The Theban army was reorganized and began to free the towns from their Spartan garrisons. Theban general Pelopidas won a great victory over a much larger Spartan force in 375 BC. Theban authority grew so spectacularly in such a short time that Athens came to mistrust the growing Theban power. Athens began to consolidate its position again through the formation of a second Athenian League. In 371, the Theban army, led by Epinondas, inflicted a bloody defeat on Spartan forces at the Battle of Leuctra. Sparta lost a large part of its army and 400 of its 2,000 citizen troops. Epinondas' victory ended a long history of Spartan military prestige and dominance over Greece as the period of Spartan hegemony was over. The decisive defeat of the Spartan hoplite army by the armed forces of Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended an epoch in Greek military history and permanently altered the Greek balance of power. One by one, the old certainties of the Golden Age of the 5th century had been challenged and overthrown, but the image of Spartan military invincibility had, until this moment, remained a secure bastion. Once, the very sight and sound of an advancing line of Spartan soldiers had been enough to break the nerves of opponents, even before the shock of arms. When we look more closely at the history of Sparta as a military society, the collapse at Leuctra starts to make sense. By the time they met the Thebans there, Sparta had long been in serious trouble. It was only a matter of time before someone found a way to exploit Sparta's profound inner weakness. The story of Sparta's decline and fall is an objective lesson in the intimate relationship between social organization and military power. Sparta proved to be a devious, self-deluded, and hopelessly confused society at the very moment of its most notable success. The epitome of the Greek hoplite republic, Sparta was, in the end, unable to field enough hoplite warriors to stave off military disaster. Even though Sparta never fully recovered from its losses, it was able to continue as a regional power over two centuries. They even became allies with the Romans, and under Roman rule, this was a free city and a tourist attraction for the Roman elite, but in the end of 396 AD, was sacked by the Visigoths. We want to thank you so much for watching this video and to express our gratitude to our few and very generous supporters on Patreon. You can too support our channel by clicking the link in description. Also, don't forget to subscribe and to click on the bell button in order to see more animated history videos.