Herodotus records
that sometime before the Persian invasion and probably in the mid-6th
Century BC as we reckon time, the Spartans became restless and wanted to
conquer their northern neighbors in Arkadia. As the Spartans were wont to do,
they sent to Delphi for advice and received the following oracle:
Arkadia? Great is the thing you ask. I will not grant it.
In Arkadia are many men, acorn-eaters,
And they will keep you out. Yet, for I am not grudging.
I will give you Tegea to dance in with stamping feet
And her fair plain to measure out with the line.
Taking this to
mean that they would be successful, the Spartan army invaded Tegea only to
suffer a devastating defeat. As Herodotus explains: “…and those who were taken
prisoner were forced to wear on their own legs the chains they had brought,
and to ‘measure out with the line’ the plain of Tegea as labourers. In my own
lifetime the fetter they were bound with were still preserved in Tegea, hanging
up round the temple of Athene Alea.” (Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1, 66)
Although
Herodotus does not tell us just how many Spartiates were killed or captured, it
is clear that Sparta was both defeated and that a significant number of
citizens surrendered. (Incidentally demonstrating that Sparta did not have any kind
of a “do or die” mentality at this time!) Indeed, Herodotus suggests that
Sparta suffered more than one defeat saying they “continually” had the worst of
it against Tegea and “a long series of reverses” until the reigns of
Anaxandridas and Ariston. These kings certainly lived in the second half of the
6th century and under their leadership Sparta sent for a second
oracle from Delphi. This told them:
In Arkadia lies Tegea in the level plain,
Where under strong constraints two winds are blowing;
Smiting in there and counter-smiting, and woe on woe;
The earth, the giver of life, holds Agamemnon’s son.
Bring him home, and you will prevail over Tegea.
At this point a
clever Spartiate, Lichas, learned that a smith in Tegea had discovered a coffin
ten feet long with a skeleton inside that was just as large. Interpreting this
as the body of Orestes, Lichas reported what he had heard to the Gerousia. The Spartans
pretended he had committed some crime and exiled him. He returned to the forge,
explained what had happened and leased the plot of land with the bones. In
secret he then dug up the bones and brought them back to Sparta, and, according
to Herodotus, “ever since that day the Lacedaemonians in any trial of strength
had by far the better of it.”
But that is only
half the story, for -- despite having recovered what was believed to be
Orestes’ bones -- Sparta refrained from launching a new war against Tegea and
negotiated a non-aggression pact instead.
Why? Herodotus is
silent on this, so we are left to speculate.
We know is that
Sparta opted to negotiate with Tegea rather than to resort to arms. We also
know that the resulting “non-aggression” pact became to pro-type of all
subsequent agreements with other cities in the Peloponnese, and so the core of
the Peloponnesian League. We also know that a key feature of this agreement was
that Sparta agreed to assist Tegea against external enemies (presumably they were
thinking of Argos), but also that Tegea agreed to assist Sparta against internal
revolts. This suggests that recognition of the threats inherent in a large
subject population may have induced Sparta to seek an alliance in place of
conquest. A number of historians point out that the Tegean conflict probably
fell in the life-time and possibly the ephorate of Chilon the Wise, and postulate that this universally respected Spartan leader
may have been the voice of reason that held Sparta back from new aggression.
The course of
history: the attack, defeat, new appeal to Delphi, successful re-location of
“Orestes” and then the astonishing restraint demonstrated by Sparta in not
attacking again suggest that Spartan society was probably divided between “hawks”
and “doves.” Far from being a monolithic society with a single will and a
robot-like population, Sparta was a complex society inherently vulnerable to
internal division by the peculiar institution of the dual kingship. Since the
Kings were equal in all things, any fundamental policy differences between the
kings led inevitably to political strife. Each king could be assured support
from his own relatives, friends and clients in both the Gerousia and Assembly.
This means that each king would seek to win majorities by various means of
persuasion and the same kind of political maneuvering we are familiar with today
in the U.S. Congress and British Parliament. The “hawks” won the first round;
the “doves” – very probably led by Chilon the Wise – won the second round.
The above
hypothesis is the basis for my novel The
Olympic Charioteer. The novel opens in Tegea, after Sparta’s defeat. In the
absence of any historical record about the political system in Tegea at this
time, I have used Tegea to portray one of the characteristic political
developments of the period: the rise of tyrants on the backs of increasing
political demands by the hoplite-class against the aristocratic elite. The
novel moves from Tegea to Sparta, where the internal divisions between two
factions in Sparta are revealed. The central character of the novel is one of
the Spartiates taken captive in the Spartan defeat: a young man, who just
before the start of the war had driven his father’s chariot to victory at the Olympic
games.
Two cities at war
Two men with
Olympic ambitions
And one slave
The finest
charioteer in all Hellas.
This is the story
of a young man’s journey from tragedy to triumph, and the founding of the first
non-aggression pact in recorded history.
