February 08, 2008

Spartan Government: The Gerousia and the Ephorate - from Arcane History Blog.
posted by Hank Mabuse 16 years ago
  • Interesting. I'm not sure about the idea that rule by wealthy old aristocrats necessarily stops a city developing - Venice did alright. And the Spartans had other practices which stopped economic development, didn't they - communal institutions, contempt for gold and trade, slaughtering a section of the working class every few years, that kind of thing?
  • Similarity to: Roman Catholic Church electing a Cardinal or a Pope. Yes/no? And the point is? (Dum-dum flaps ears and flies away).
  • I guess anyone who managed to reach the age of sixty in Sparta was doing something right.
  • Yeah, I tend to think the Spartan loathing of commerce had a large part to do with their decline. I mean, they used heavy lead bars as trade currency for the express purpose of making trade and commerce a total pain in the ass. Imagine that: zero economic growth is a bad thing.
  • I didn't realise this was on here until I checked my referrer report. Thanks for the kind words guys, and it's always good to point out where I go wrong too. I'm the site's webmaster and writer. In truth Plegmund, you are correct about the speculation I made about Sparta's staticness. It was still using the same battle tactics, technology and systems in the 4th Century BC that it was using in the 7th, but this does not neccesarily mean that the gerousia caused it. But I do believe as Sparta was very inward-looking there would have had to have been some influence from its leaders, no? They did have those practices you mention Plegmund and absalom, some of my other articles were about that and the reforms Lycurgus the contraversial Lawgiver brought in - but the gerousia certainly must have upheld such practices. There is speculation that they had coinage for outsider trading, and iron bars for internal trading within Sparta. I do agree with you that they are not the sole cause of it though, it was more of a pattern the whole society followed. All in all I'd like to thank everyone for your comments on my site, I hope you enjoy reading articles from there.
  • Coool! A post from the webmaster. I like this site--lots of good reads, but sure makes me feel ignorant. Arcane, indeed.
  • Yeh, it's a good blog. I like that stuff.
  • ... pity about the shit that went on here earlier on tho.
  • Pobody's nerfect.