Today, the ruins of ancient Sparta exist on the outskirts of the modern city of Sparti вЂ“ founded by King Otto of Greece in 1834. Sparta had no part in the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the city was eventually conquered, along with the rest of Greece, by the Romans in the mid-second century BC. Sparta did live on as an independent power for the next two centuries, but the city never wielded real power again. Their own discriminatory nature left Sparta without the capacity to suffer losses, and therefore one or two severe defeats crippled SpartaвЂ™s military manpower. SpartaвЂ™s conflict with a resurgent Thebes, particularly their defeat at the Battle of Leuctra, crippled Spartan power, a blow from which they never recovered. However, it was their constant military involvements combined with their elitist, purist approach to citizenry which led to their downfall. SpartaвЂ™s star continued to rise in the following century, with victory over Athens in the long-running Peloponnesian War and a brief spell of hegemony over all Greece and even parts of Asia Minor. Spartan soldiers led the Greek coalition during the Greco-Persian War, becoming legendary in their heroic last stand at Thermopylae and the eventual victory of the Greeks at Plataea. Rising to power in the late 7th Century BC, Sparta produced the most powerful land-army of the Hellenic world. Today, the ruins of Sparta are on the outskirts of the city of Sparti, Laconia, Greece, and provide visitors with a fascinating insight into the personal and political lives of such a famous and ancient culture. It not only left a mark in our historic records, but its very culture at the heart of modern language, with the English word вЂ SpartanвЂ reflecting their very way of life вЂ“ simple, basic, severe. Sparta was one of the most famous city-states of the ancient world.

Sparta facts for kids