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The Society and Politics of Sparta, 478–404 BC

The Spartan navy and the commanders of the later war

  • 3 things to know
  • Component Group 1

Overview

Recall questions on the Persian subsidies and what they cost Sparta, the office of navarch, Cyzicus and the captured dispatch, Notium and Aegospotami, and the limits of Xenophon's narrative.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

How did Gylippus change the war in Sicily after 414 BC?

Key term

What did Sparta concede to Persia in return for its subsidies, and why was that awkward?

Key term

Describe the Spartan office of navarch.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why was Sparta so badly placed to fight a naval war before 412 BC?

    Model answer

    She was an inland land power with no revenue to build or man ships, her citizens were trained as hoplites rather than seamen, and she depended on allies such as Corinth for a fleet.

  2. 2

    How was the fleet that Sparta built after 412 BC paid for?

    Model answer

    It was financed by Persia, first through agreements with the satrap Tissaphernes and later, much more generously, by Cyrus the Younger.

  3. 3

    What did Sparta concede to Persia in return for its subsidies, and why was that awkward?

    Model answer

    The agreements recognised the Persian king's claim to the Greek cities of Asia Minor, which sat badly with Sparta's declared war aim of freeing the Greeks from Athens.

  4. 4

    Describe the Spartan office of navarch.

    Model answer

    The navarch was the commander of the fleet, appointed by the state for a single year, and the same man could not hold the office twice.

  5. 5

    What does Aristotle say about the power of the navarchy?

    Model answer

    He calls it almost a second kingship set up alongside the kings, because the man who held it commanded forces and money far from any check at home.

  6. 6

    How did Lysander come to command the fleet again in 405 BC when the navarchy could not be held twice?

    Model answer

    Lysander was sent out formally as second-in-command to a nominal navarch, so that he held the real command without technically holding the office again.

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AThe tradition speaks of about seventy.
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Themistocles was ostracised in the 470s BC and Cimon in 461 BC.
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