The Siege of Sparta, 272 BC.

 The Siege of Sparta, 272 BC.

When an overwhelmingly powerful enemy power invaded Sparta and all hope seemed lost, the Spartan women refused to flee and served on the front lines defending the capital of their homeland, and their Spartan way of life.

Before we get to this remarkable little-known engagement, it is important to understand why these Spartan women refused to flee to safety in the face of almost certain defeat and the capture of their capital city Sparta, and for that matter, the incredible reason Spartan women were allowed to do so, in an age when women across the ancient world were the property of men, with about as many personal rights as a modern Bosch washing machine.

That was not the cloth from which the women of Sparta were cut.

This remains perhaps the most interesting thing about the Spartans, that a small settlement nestled in an isolated idyllic mountain valley on the Peloponnese Peninsular in Greece, should birth such a staggeringly unique society — which not only produced warriors of such considerable martial prowess that their legend echos across time two thousand years later, but also a society where women were educated and could become the wealthiest most powerful landowning citizens in their city-state, and frequently did so.

Tragically, female infanticide was fairly common in the ancient world, however, not so in Sparta — where Spartan girls were highly valued, from birth being fed as much as boys and treated equally in almost all regards. This may not seem all that revolutionary to our rose-tinted perspective, but during this period of history, it was essentially unheard of.

While most readers will be familiar with the rigorously demanding education Spartan boys received, few are aware that Spartan girls received a similar universal education — which focused on the fundamentals of reading, writing, physical development and the complex skills required for the management of their agricultural property and workers.

Approximately 40 percent of Spartan agricultural lands were owned and managed by women.. Let that sink in.

The ruins of Ancient Sparta and the modern city nestled in its fertile valley.

“If Sparta were to become deserted and only the temples and foundations of buildings remained, I think that future generations would, as time passed, find it very difficult to believe that the place had really been as powerful as it was.

On the other hand, if the same thing were to happen to Athens, one would conjecture from what met the eye that the city had been twice as powerful as in fact, it was.” — Thucydides, Athenian historian.

Despite how unfortunately few detailed written accounts survive of the Spartan society, what we do know is the women of Sparta enjoyed considerably more equality and personal freedoms than any other women in the ancient world. Spartan women were encouraged to hold administrative positions within the government and wielded a degree of influence on a political and social scale that would frankly not be equalled until a little over a hundred years ago.

Fundamentally, the Spartans were an intensely warlike warrior society (no prizes for knowing that), however to enable all Spartan males of fighting age to serve in the military Sparta had to elevate Spartan women from their traditional gender roles and provide them with the necessary education to enable them to competently take on vastly more responsibility within the Spartan society, which is fascinating.

The first woman to compete in the ancient Olympic games was Spartan and she won the four-horse chariot race in two successive Olympiads. Her name was Kynisca, she would inspire Greek women, especially Spartans, to follow in her footsteps.

Spartan women would routinely beat women from the rest of Greece in the Heraean Games which were held every four years, to the point that it was likely seen as not very competitive. Spartan women would literally and figuratively run away with victory in the foot race.

Bronze statue of a young Spartan woman running.

The Siege of Sparta, 272BC.

Anyway, back to the battle (before I start waffling on about how Spartan women normally married in their early twenties to men a similar age, having a choice in who they married, unlike women anywhere else, who married without choice around 14 years old). So, King Pyrrhus of Epirus retreating from his poorly managed war against Rome returned to Greece, itching to get back in the winning column he decided that little old Sparta was looking vulnerable, being long past its greatest power, with the main Spartan army campaigning on the island of Crete, so Pyrrhus invaded the Spartan homeland of Laconia.

Uniquely amongst ancient city-states, Sparta had no defensive walls, while Athens had walls, Sparta had warriors.

Unfortunately for Sparta, only a few hundred Spartan warriors remained in the city, which made that whole “walls are for gays” thing a bit of a problem. It was quickly decided that the women, children and elderly should flee to the mountains… That was until the Spartan women led by some matriarchal heads said hold on a minute lads, we ain't going nowhere, and so it was decided the able-bodied women would stay and help defend Sparta, a city without walls.

The desperately outnumbered Spartans set about preparing to battle against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy who had come to their idyllic valley. While the warriors prepared for combat, the women and older men dug an extensive defensive trench between the enemy camp and the city, sinking carts and obstacles to guard the flanks while gathering missiles and supplies to hold their makeshift defensive line.

What followed was a series of brutally hard-fought engagements along the front line, without walls the Spartans funnelled their enemy into kill boxes and held them in place with small numbers of warriors shield to shield. At the same time, Spartan women and older men rained missiles and javelins on the invaders and tended to wounded warriors on the front lines.

Did I mention that Spartan girls were trained with Javelin and Discus along with the Spartan boys?

At this point Pyrrhus (I lost so many soldiers in battles that it became a meme) decided to try an all-out attack, which appeared to be going well, until out of nowhere 300 handpicked Spartan warriors led by a young prince used their knowledge of their homeland to sneak out of the city and flank the enemy, attacking the vast invading force in the rear and throwing it into disarray. These 300 Spartans were the best warriors remaining in Sparta and they dealt such carnage and slaughter that the enemy withdrew for a while.

Essentially, the battle continued like this for a few days, Pyrrhus would attack the outnumbered Spartans and try to force his way into the city, only to get slapped around by a small number of warriors and the women of Sparta, until Spartan reinforcements arrived and Pyrrhus decided there really were softer targets than little old Sparta.

However, turns out leaving the Spartan homeland was not all that simple for uninvited guests, as the mountain passes were ideal for the sort of ambush tactics small detachments of Spartans excelled at and Pyrrus would end up losing much of his army including his eldest son in relentless Spartan attacks and ambushes.

During the Olympic games, the citizens of the different Greek city-states sat in their own separate sections, one for the Athenians, one for the Thebans, one for the Spartans, and so forth.

History tells us that one year an old man who arrived late for the Olympic games could not find a seat, he slowly limped along in front of the spectators looking for somewhere to sit down, but when he made his way past the rival city-states no one was prepared to give up their seat and the crowd began to hurl abuse, mocking and laughing at the old man's misfortune. However, as the old man approached the section set aside for Sparta, every single Spartan stood at once to offer the old man their seat and the crowded stadium erupted in applause for the Spartans. When the old man took the seat of a young Spartan warrior, he said; “All Greeks know what is right, but only the Spartans do it.”