Quick questions on Geographical setting of Sparta: HSC Ancient History

Sparta lay in the south-east of the Peloponnese, on the west bank of the Eurotas River, around 40 km inland from the Aegean coast. The city occupied the fertile Eurotas valley between two mountain ranges: Mt Taygetus (rising to 2,407 m) to the west, and the Parnon range (peaks above 1,900 m) to the east.

Sparta controlled two regional units.

Defence by terrain. Mt Taygetus and Parnon provided natural defensive walls. Sparta had no city walls until the Hellenistic period (around 200 BC). Thucydides' observation that the visible city was unimpressive but the Spartan way of life was formidable became a cliche of Greek thought.

Sparta's territory of around 8,500 square kilometres (Laconia plus Messenia) was the largest of any Greek polis, far exceeding Athens (around 2,500 square kilometres including Attica). Yet the citizen body of Spartiates remained small: estimates range from 8,000 to 10,000 adult male Spartiates in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, declining to perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 by the 4th century BC (oliganthropia).

Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.10) describes the unwalled, modest physical settlement.

Paul Cartledge (Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History 1300-362 BC, 1979, 2nd ed. 2002) is the canonical regional study.

Mt Taygetus and Parnon provided natural defensive walls. Sparta had no city walls until the Hellenistic period (around 200 BC). Thucydides' observation that the visible city was unimpressive but the Spartan way of life was formidable became a cliche of Greek thought.

The Eurotas valley and Messenia produced grain, olives, and wine sufficient to support the Spartiate population without recourse to large-scale trade. This reduced Sparta's dependence on imports and its interest in maritime commerce.

Sparta had access to the Aegean at the harbour of Gytheion (around 40 km south on the Laconian Gulf), but never developed a substantial fleet until the late Peloponnesian War (after 412 BC, with Persian funding). The inland and mountain-bounded location oriented the polis toward land power.

The conquered Helot majority required perpetual surveillance. Aristotle (Politics 1269a) attributes the militarisation of Spartan society to the need to control the Helot population. The Krypteia, the ephoral declaration of war on the Helots each year, and the agoge can all be read as institutional responses to the demographic ratio.

It had no walls until the Hellenistic period. Thucydides' description is the standard source.

Laconia is the Eurotas valley around Sparta itself; Messenia is the conquered plain west of Mt Taygetus.

His poetry is contemporary (7th century BC) and survives in fragments. He is the closest ancient witness to the Messenian Wars.

Sparta was a land power. The naval phase began only with Persian funding in 412 BC.