Mare Laconum: Sparta and the Laconian Sea in the classical period

• Grant number: 19/00327-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Norberto Luiz Guarinello
• Grantee: Gabriel Cabral Bernardo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/05883-7 - Mare Laconum: Sparta and the Laconian Sea in the Classical Period, BE.EP.DR 22/05861-3 - Mare Laconum: Sparta and the Laconian Coast during the Classical Period, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The most recent studies on Sparta of the Classical Period have significantly advanced our understanding on various themes, among them the relationship between Spartans and the sea. However, most studies related to this subject have a very limited scope, based almost exclusively on literary sources and considering only military actions abroad, which are seen as reflecting a central political agenda of which only the full citizens participated. Therefore, the present research project intends to evaluate the elements that helped to compose the topoi of a antimaritime and centralist Spartan polis, those resulting from the aforementioned approach. It is attempted to carry out such an assessment by analyzing the occupation and use of a much more obvious maritime region, regarding the understanding of the relationship between the Lacedaemonian polis and the sea: the coast of Laconia, the most central territory under the Spartan rule during the Classic Period. In this way, it is expected to reveal a Sparta very different from the mirage that classifies it as exclusively terrestrial and isolationist, one that depended, on the one hand, on non-citizens to occupy and maintain control of key points on the coast and, on the other hand, on networks internal and external to its territory - including the maritime ones. The identification of this Sparta is important, not only to include expanding our knowledge of the regional importance of perioikoi and foreigners, but also to deconstruct it as a functional model of authoritarian, chauvinistic and insular policies - something increasingly common in several contemporary political contexts. (AU)