Professor Thomas Figueira will discuss how Spartan "foreign affairs" reflected the social structure/institutional matrix of Spartan society. Various policy initiatives, such as decisions to intervene abroad, represented coping mechanisms that were intended to minimize shock or stress on internal socioeconomic conditions.
Despite the numerous accounts of Spartan diplomacy that survive in our extant sources, a popular perception of Spartans as uninterested in diplomacy continues to linger. This could not be further from the truth. To maintain their intricate alliances and rather unique position amongst other Peloponnese poleis the Spartans maintained a shrewd diplomatic policy. One of the key purposes of this was to bolster the Spartan's image in other states, but most importantly to hide their failures and weaknesses. To do so, the Spartans engaged in a complicated game of smoke-and-mirrors and outright lies, for the fear that their image would be tarnished and their greatest weakness, the helots, be used against them. In this short talk, I shall examine the cracks in their diplomatic story, and where we can see the Spartans attempting to deceive through their inter-state relationships.
Discussants:
A Foreigner in the market of ancient Sparta ©University of Nottingham, Centre for Spartan & Peloponnesian Studies
University of NottinghamUniversity Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD
telephone: +44 (0)115 951 4800 fax: +44 (0)115 951 4811 email: csps@nottingham.ac.uk