Nabis was the last king of independent Sparta. He ruled from 207 BC to 192 BC. He was the last in a series of Spartan social reformers. After the defeat of Sparta in the Clement War, lasting from 229 to 222 BC, there were no citizens of royal origin left in the city who could take the throne. After the short rule of Lycurgus, power was given to a minor Pelops, whose regents were Machanidas (until his death at the Battle of Mantine in 207 BC) and later Nabis.
However, from 206 BC, Nabis gradually strengthened royal power in Sparta. In 200 BC, Nabis finally overthrew Pelops and assumed supreme power in the country, claiming to be a descendant of Demaratus and belonging to the royal branch of the Eurypontids. Coins minted by Nabis are titled “king” but to many historians, he was a tyrant.
SOCIAL REFORMS
Like his predecessor Machanidas, Nabis supported radical reforms initiated by Agis IV and Cleomenes III and continued to transform Sparta with even greater energy. The reforms included the granting of more rights to subjects of Sparta and the release of several thousand helots and the expulsion of oligarchs. The lands of large landowners were confiscated and redistributed between landless Spartans and helots, which were included in the composition of citizens. However, historians indicate that the Institute of the helots was preserved since Nabis represented his transformations as a return to the original legislation of Lycurgus.
Nabis executed the last descendants of the two Spartan royal dynasties. Ancient sources, especially Polybius and Titus Livius, depicted him as a bloodthirsty ruler, whose power rested only on terror. A supporter of the Achaean Union and an enemy of Nabis, Polybius is particularly tough on him and called him “The Tyrant of the Lacedaemonians,” Nabis. Nabis completely exterminated his surviving opponents, expelled citizens who were wealthy and had a prestigious origin, and gave their property and wives to the most powerful people among their enemies and their mercenaries. Ancient aristocratic historiography even attributed Nabis with the installation of a sophisticated torture machine in the form of a female figure, through which he allegedly extorted donations from wealthy townspeople. According to modern historians, the Nabis reforms are “the most consistent and far-reaching program of revolutionary measures ever voiced in the ancient era.” In any case, thanks to his reforms, Nabis achieved an increase in the strength of his army.
FOREIGN POLICY
Nabis continued the foreign policy begun by his predecessors. He opposed the Achaean League and Macedonia in alliance with the Aetolian Union, Elis and Messenia. This policy led him to an alliance with Rome during the First Macedonian War.
In subsequent years, Nabis launched an aggressive policy aimed at conquering the cities of Laconia and Messenia. In 204 BC, he unsuccessfully attacked Megalopolis. Together with Cretan allies, Nabis created the Spartan fleet, and for the first time in the history of Sparta, surrounded the city with a wall, previously relying solely on the fighting qualities of its hoplites.
In 201 BC, Nabis invaded Messenia to regain Sparta’s control over this region, lost in the IV. BC. Having been defeated by Tegea, Nabis temporarily suspended its’ expansionist policy.
Nabis was a serious threat to the Achaean Union. Subjected to constant attacks from Sparta, the Achaeans could no longer count on the help of Macedonia, which predetermined their transition to ally with Rome at the beginning of 200 BC. Philip V of Macedonia transferred control of Argos to Nabis, where he ruled as king and conducted a land reform.
LACONIAN WAR
The precedent of the redistribution of lands in the occupied Argos by Nabis caused a strong fear of social reforms throughout the Peloponnese. On the side of the Achaeans, who declared war on Nabis, was the Roman proconsul of Titus Quinquin Flamininus. Flamini’s actions were carried out under the pretext of “liberating” cities, which included, in particular, a demand for the return of Argos to the Achaean Union, despite the fact that Rome de facto recognized Nabis as the new ruler of this place. Nabis tried to appeal to the agreement based on friendship with Rome but was forced to enter into hostilities. The main troops of the Romans and allies besieged Sparta, and the forces of Lucius Quintius stormed the main seaport of Laconia. As a result of this, there was peace in 195 BC. Nabis lost Argos, the port of Giti and some Cretan cities, and also pledged to release defectors and prisoners. His power was limited to the territory of Sparta proper.
THE LAST YEARS
Although the territory of Sparta now included only the city itself and its immediate surroundings, Nabis still hoped to regain its’ former power. In 192 BC, seeing that the Romans and their Achaean allies were distracted by the war with the Syrian king Antiochus III and the Aetolian Union, Nabis attempted to return to Gitius and the Laconian coastline. At the beginning of the war, Nabis was successful: after the siege, he captured the port and defeated the Achaeans in an insignificant naval battle.
However, soon his army was defeated by Gifion, the Achaean strategist, and was locked within Sparta. Nabis appealed for help to the Aetolian Union to protect his territory from the Achaeans and Romans. The Aetolians sent a thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry to Sparta. However, the Aetolian “help” treacherously killed Nabis during exercises with his army outside the city. The Aetolians tried to capture Sparta, but they were prevented by a rebellion of the Spartans, who completely exterminated the Aetolian detachment.
The Achaeans, having taken advantage of the chaos that arose, sent Philopoemen to Sparta with a large army that compelled the Spartans to join the Achaean League and finally abolished the independent power of the city with the great history that had lasted for centuries.
No comments:
Post a Comment