Philopoemen - The Subjugation of Sparta

The Subjugation of Sparta

Nabis then appealed to the Aetolians for help. They sent 1,000 cavalry to Sparta under the command of Alexamenus. However, the Aetolians murdered Nabis and temporarily occupied Sparta. The Aetolian troops seized the palace and set about looting the city, but the inhabitants of Sparta were able to rally and forced them leave the city.

But Philopoemen took advantage of the Aetolian treachery and entered Sparta with his Achaean army. Now in full control of Sparta, Philopoemen forced Sparta to become a member state of the Achaean League.

Sparta's entry into the league raised the problem of how to deal with all of the Spartans exiled by the social-revolutionary regimes that had dominated Sparta for a number of years. Philopoemen wanted to restore only those Spartans who were willing to support the league. This meant that he adopted an uncompromising hostility to traditional Spartan concerns.

In 188 BC, Philopoemen entered northern Laconia with his army and a group of Spartan exiles. His army demolished the wall that the former tyrant of Sparta, Nabis, had built around Sparta. Philopoemen then restored Spartan citizenship to the exiles and abolished Spartan law and its education system, introducing Achaean law and institutions in their place. Sparta's role as a major power in Greece ended, while the Achaean League became the dominant power throughout the Peloponnese.