A “small circus” described by Leake, but subsequently almost lost to view, proved to be a theatre-like building constructed soon after A.D. 200 round the altar and in front of the temple of Artemis Orthia. Here musical and gymnastic contests took place as well as the famous flogging-ordeal (diamastigosis). The temple, which can be dated to the 2nd century B.C. rests on the foundation of an older temple of the 6th century, and close beside it were found the scanty remains of a yet earlier temple, dating from the 9th or even the 10th century. The votive offerings in clay, amber, bronze, ivory and lead found in great profusion within the precinct range from the 9th to the 4th century B.C. and supply invaluable evidence for early Spartan art; they prove that Sparta reached her artistic zenith in the 7th century and that her decline had already begun in the 6th. In 1907 the sanctuary of Athena “of the Brazen House” (Χαλκίοικος) was located on the Acropolis immediately above the theatre, and though the actual temple is almost completely destroyed, fragments of the capitals show that it was Doric in style, and the site has produced the longest extant archaic inscription of Laconia, numerous bronze nails and plates and a considerable number of votive offerings, some of them of great interest. The Greek city-wall, built in successive stages from the 4th to the 2nd century, was traced for a great part of its circuit, which measured 48 stades or nearly 6 m. (Polyb. ix. 21). The late Roman wall enclosing the Acropolis, part of which probably dates from the years following the Gothic raid of A.D. 262, was also investigated. Besides the actual buildings discovered, a number of points were fixed which greatly facilitate the study of Spartan topography, based upon the description left us by Pausanias. Excavations carried on in 1910 showed that the town of the “Mycenean” period which lay on the left bank of the Eurotas a little to the south-east of Sparta was roughly triangular in shape, with its apex towards the north: its area is approximately equal to that of Sparta, but denudation and destruction have wrought havoc with its buildings and nothing is left save ruined foundations and broken potsherds.
Authorities.—History: J. C. F. Manso, Sparta (3 vols., Leipzig, 1800–1805); G. Gilbert, Studien zur altspartanischen Geschichte (Göttingen, 1872); G. Busolt, Die Lakedaimonier und ihre Bundesgenossen (Leipzig, 1878), for the 6th century and the Persian wars; W. Herbst, Zur Geschichte der auswärtigen Politik Spartas im Zeitalter des peloponnesischen Krieges (Leipzig, 1853); E. von Stern, Geschichte der spartan, u. thebanischen Hegemonie, &c. (Dorpat, 1884), from 387 to 362 B.C.; J. Fesenmair, Sparta von der Schlacht bei Leuktra bis zum Verschwinden des Namens (Munich, 1865); and the general Greek histories of G. Grote, E. Meyer, G. Busolt, J. Beloch, A. Holm, B. Niese, E. Abbott and J. B. Bury.
Constitution: C. O. Müller, The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race (2 vols., Eng. trans., 2nd ed., London, 1839); K. H. Lachmann, Die spartanische Staatsverfassung in ihrer Entwickelung und ihrem Verfalle (Breslau, 1836) ; A. Solari, Ricerche spartane (Leghorn, 1907); H. Gabriel, De magistratibus Lacedaemoniorum (Berlin, n.d.); L. Auerbach, De Lacedaemoniorum regibus (Berlin, 1863); B. Niese, “Herodotstudien, besonders zur spart. Geschichte,” in Hermes (1907), xlii. 419 sqq.; the constitutional histories of G. Gilbert, G. F. Schömann, G. Busolt and A. H. J. Greenidge, and the works cited under Apella; Ephor; Gerousia and Lycurgus.
Land Tenure: M. Duncker, “Die Hufen der Spartiaten,” in Berichte der bed. Akademie (1881), pp. 138 sqq.; K. F. Hermann, De causis turbatae apud Lacedaemomos agrorum aequalitatis (Marburg, 1834); C. Reuss, De Lycurgea quae fertur agrorum divisione (Pforzheim, 1878).
Army: G. Busolt, “Spartas Heer und Leuktra,” in Hermes (1905), xl. 387 sqq.; J. Kromayer, “Die Wehrkraft Lakoniens u. seine Wehrverfassung,” in Beiträge zur alten Geschichte (1903), iii. 173 sqq.; H. K. Stein, Das Kriegswesen der Spartaner (Konitz, 1863).
Topography and Antiquities: W. M. Leake, Morea, chs. iv. v.; E. Curtius, Peloponnesos, ii. 220 sqq.; C. Bursian, Geographie, ii. 119 sqq.; Pausanias, iii. 11–18; and the commentary in J. G. Frazer, Pausanias, iii. 322 sqq.; W. G. Clark, Peloponnesus, pp. 158 sqq.; E. P. Boblaye, Recherches, pp. 78 sqq.; W. Vischer, Erinnerungen, pp. 371 sqq.; Bory de Saint-Vincent, Relation, pp. 418 sqq.; G. A. Blouet, Architecture, ii. 61 sqq., pl. 44–52; for full titles and dates of publication of these works, see under Laconia; H. K. Stein, Topographie des alten Sparta (Glatz, 1890); K. Nestorides, Τοπογραφία τῆς ἀρχαίας Σπάρτης (Athens, 1892); N. E. Crosby, “The Topography of Sparta,” in American Journal of Archaeology (Princeton, 1893), viii. 335 sqq.; and various articles in the British School Annual, xii. sqq.
Inscriptions: M. N. Tod and A. J. B. Wace, Catalogue of the Sparta Museum (Oxford, 1906); British School Annual, xii. sqq., and the works cited under Laconia.
Dialect: K. Müllensiefen, De titulorum laconicorum dialecto (Strasburg, 1882); R. Meister, Dorier und Achäer(Leipzig, 1904).
Art: M. N. Tod and A. J. B. Wace, op. cit.; H. Dressel and A. Milchhöfer, “Die antiken Kunstwerke aus Sparta u. Umgebung,” in Athenische Mitteilungen, ii. 293 sqq.; E. Beulé, “L’Art à Sparte,” in Études sur le Péloponnèse (Paris, 1855). (M. N. T.)
SPARTACUS, leader in the Slave or Gladiatorial War against
Rome (73–71 B.C.), a Thracian by birth. He served in the
Roman army, but seems to have deserted, for we are told that
he was taken prisoner and sold as a slave. Destined for the
arena, he, with a band of his fellow-gladiators, broke out of a
training school at Capua and took refuge on Mt Vesuvius (73).
Here he maintained himself as a captain of brigands, his
lieutenants being two Celts named Crixus and Oenomaus, who like
himself had been gladiators. A hastily collected force of 3000
men under C. Claudius Pulcher endeavoured to starve out the
rebels, but the latter clambered down the precipices and put
the Romans to flight. Swarms of hardy and desperate men
now joined the rebels, and when the praetor Publius Varinius
took the field against them he found them entrenched like a
regular army on the plain. But they gave him the slip, and
when he advanced to storm their lines he found them deserted.
From Campania the rebels marched into Lucania, a country
better suited for guerrilla warfare. Varinius followed, but
was defeated in several engagements and narrowly escaped
being taken prisoner. The insurgents reoccupied Campania,
and by the defeat of C. Thoranius, the quaestor of Varinius,
obtained possession of nearly the whole of southern Italy.
Nola and Nuceria in Campania, Thurii and Metapontum in
Lucania were sacked. The senate at last despatched both
consuls against the rebels (72). The German slaves under
Crixus were defeated at Mt Garganus in Apulia by the praetor
Q. Arrius. But Spartacus overthrew both consuls, one after
the other, and then pressed towards the Alps. Gaius Cassius,
governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and the praetor Gnaeus Manlius,
who attempted to stop him, were defeated at Mutina. Freedom
was within sight, but with fatal infatuation the slaves refused
to abandon Italy. Spartacus led them against Rome, but their
hearts seem to have failed them; and instead of attacking the
capital, he passed on again to Lucania. The conduct of the
war was now entrusted to the praetor Marcus Licinius Crassus.
In the next battle Spartacus was worsted and retreated towards
the straits of Messina, intending to cross into Sicily, where he
would have been welcomed by fresh hordes of slaves; but the
pirates who had agreed to transport his army proved faithless.
Crassus endeavoured to shut in the rebels by carrying a ditch
and rampart right across the peninsula, but Spartacus forced the
lines, and once more Italy lay at his feet. Disunion, however,
was at work in the rebel camp. The Gauls and Germans,
who had withdrawn from the main body, were attacked and
destroyed. Spartacus now took up a strong position in the
mountainous country of Petelia (near Strongoli in Calabria)
and inflicted a severe defeat on the vanguard of the pursuing
army. But his men refused to retreat farther, and in a pitched
battle which followed soon afterwards the rebel army was
annihilated. Spartacus, who had stabbed his horse before the
battle, fell sword in hand. A body of the rebels which had
escaped from the field was met and cut to pieces at the foot of
the Alps by Pompey (the Great), who was returning from Spain.
Pompey claimed the credit of finishing the war, and received
the honour of a triumph, while only a simple ovation was decreed
to Crassus. Spartacus was a capable and energetic leader;
he did his best to check the excesses of the lawless bands which
he commanded, and treated his prisoners with humanity. His
character has been misrepresented by Roman writers, whom
his name inspired with terror down to the times of the empire.
The story has to be pieced together from the vague and somewhat discrepant accounts of Plutarch (Crassus, 8–11; Pompey, 21), Appian (Bell. civ. i. 116–120), Florus, (ii. 8), Livy (Epit. 95–97), and the fragments of the Histories of Sallust, whose account seems to have been full and graphic.
