Guest lecture on Spartan Kingship

Bio:

Ellen Millender is the Omar & Althea Hoskins Professor of Greek, Latin, and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Humanities at Reed College, Oregon, US. She has published numerous works on many aspects of Spartan society, including leadership, literacy, kingship, military organization, and women. Professor Millender recently won a J. William Fulbright Scholar Award for 2023-2024 to conduct research at the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies to complete her monograph on the Athenians’ construction of Spartan strangeness.

Abstract:

 My paper argues that while the dyarchy was a central component of Sparta’s famed constitution, it inevitably undermined the stability not only of the Lacedaemonians’ political organization but also of their politeia itself. It considers the many ways in which the dyarchy was inherently at odds with core Spartan institutions, practices, and ideology, especially the intertwined values of egalitarianism and cooperation that underpinned the Spartan politeia. Scholars, of course, have demonstrated that the Spartan system was fundamentally fractured in many respects. Competition, patronage, and wealth were among several societal factors that worked against the communal solidarity that lay at the heart of the ideology of the Homoioi. I argue, however, that the kingship proved over time to be the most dangerous threat to the very fabric of Spartan society. As I will show, this institution was at the center of all of the major fissures that both continuous warfare and oliganthrōpia exacerbated in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE.

Recent publication on kingship: Millender, E.G., 2017. Kingship: the history, power, and prerogatives of the Spartans ’‘Divine’Dyarchy”. A companion to Sparta, pp. 452-479.