Partheniae
Encyclopedia
In Ancient Greece
, the Partheniae or Parthenians (in Greek
/ hoi Partheníai , literally “sons of virgins”, i.e. unmarried young girls) are a lower ranking Spartiate
population which, according to tradition, left Laconia
to go to Magna Graecia
and founded Taras
, modern Taranto, in the current region of Apulia
, in southern Italy
.
(a contemporary of Thucydides
quoted by Strabo
, VI, 3, 2), according to which the Spartiates, during the first Messenian war
(end of the 8th century BC), had rejected like cowards those who had not fought, along with their descendants:
The Parthenians were therefore the first tresantes ("trembling"), a category which gathers the cowards and thus excludes themselves from the community of the Homoioi, the Peers. Thereafter, Parthenians plotted against the Peers and, discovered, would have been driven out of Sparta, from which they departed for Italy and founded Taras
, whose date is traditionally fixed in 706 BC - which archaeology does not deny.
Strabo ( ibid , VI, 3, 3) himself opposes the testimony of Antiochus to that of Ephorus
(4th century BC), also quoted by Polybius
(XII, 6b, 5), Justin
(III, 4, 3) and also Dionysius of Halicarnassus
(XIX, 2-4). According to the latter, the Spartiates swore during the Messenian War, not to return home as long as they had not attained victory. The war prolonged and Sparta's demography being threatened, the Spartiates let the young Spartans who had not sworn the oath return home. These were ordered to copulate with all the girls available. The children who were born from these unions were named Parthenians. Their mothers, since they were compelled by the state to procreate, were legally considered unmolested and fit to marry once the war was over.
Lastly, a third tradition, mentioned by Servius
and Heraclides
, made the Parthenians bastards who had resulted from the unions of Spartan women and their slaves, always during the Messenian war. The same tradition is told to explain the origins of Locri
, also in Magna Graecia.
There are variants to these three traditions: for example, Servius, when speaking of the second tradition, made the Parthenians' fathers slaves. Aristotle
(Politica
, 1306 B 28) seems to follow the first tradition: when the Parthenians' plot was discovered, they were sent to found Taras
. He specifies that the Parthenians "are the offspring of the Peers" but the meaning of the expression is unclear. It seems however that for Aristotle, the Parthenians were politically inferior, without explaining exactly why. The reason for the plot itself remains unclear. P. Cartledge suggests that the Messenian lands could have been unfairly divided, which would have been the cause of the Parthenians' dissatisfaction. Lastly, Justin and Diodorus of Sicily (VIII, 21) indicate that the events took place during the Second Messenian War of Messenia (second half of the 8th century BC), and not the first.
Also according to tradition, the oikist (“founder of the city”) Phalanthus who led the Parthenians, took council from the oracle of Delphos, this is traditional in the movement of colonisations. According to certain versions of the tradition, the oracle had in fact advised the localization of Satyrion, located 12 km further away. The discovery of ceramics in the late Geometric period in Satyrion tends to accredit the thesis of a temporary settlement in these places before finally founding Taras, which occupies a unique position: it offers a well protected port and good ground communications. The Iapyges, an indigenous population, were driven out, probably before 700 BC if we base ourselves on the discovery of pottery in the late Geometrical period in Laconia on the old acropolis of the city. Thereafter, the links between Sparta and Taras remain very close. Taras would remain the only Lacedemonian colony , undoubtedly because the conquest of Messenia was temporarily rendered useless in the search for new grounds.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, the Partheniae or Parthenians (in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
/ hoi Partheníai , literally “sons of virgins”, i.e. unmarried young girls) are a lower ranking Spartiate
Spartiate
The Spartiates or Homoioi were the males of Sparta known to the Spartans as "peers" or "men of equal status". From a young age, male Spartiates were trained for battle and put through grueling challenges intended to craft them into fearless warriors...
population which, according to tradition, left Laconia
Laconia
Laconia , also known as Lacedaemonia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti...
to go to Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia
Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...
and founded Taras
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
, modern Taranto, in the current region of Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
, in southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Origins of the Parthenians
At least three distinct traditions carry the origins of the Parthenians. The oldest is that of Antiochus of SyracuseAntiochus of Syracuse
Antiochus of Syracuse was a Greek historian, who flourished around 420 BC. Little is known of his life, but his works, of which only fragments remain, enjoyed a high reputation because of their accuracy...
(a contemporary of Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...
quoted by Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
, VI, 3, 2), according to which the Spartiates, during the first Messenian war
Messenian Wars
Messenian Wars is a term of special historical application. It means the wars between Messenia and Sparta in the 8th and 7th centuries BC as well as the 4th century BC.*First Messenian War*Second Messenian War* Third Messenian War...
(end of the 8th century BC), had rejected like cowards those who had not fought, along with their descendants:
"Antiochus says that, during the Messenian war, those Lacedemonians which did not take part with the mission shall be declared as slaves and called HelotsHelotsThe helots: / Heílôtes) were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia . Their exact status was already disputed in antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially slaves" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and...
; as for the children born during the mission, we shall call them Parthenians and deny them of all legal rights."
The Parthenians were therefore the first tresantes ("trembling"), a category which gathers the cowards and thus excludes themselves from the community of the Homoioi, the Peers. Thereafter, Parthenians plotted against the Peers and, discovered, would have been driven out of Sparta, from which they departed for Italy and founded Taras
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
, whose date is traditionally fixed in 706 BC - which archaeology does not deny.
Strabo ( ibid , VI, 3, 3) himself opposes the testimony of Antiochus to that of Ephorus
Ephorus
Ephorus or Ephoros , of Cyme in Aeolia, in Asia Minor, was an ancient Greek historian. Information on his biography is limited; he was the father of Demophilus, who followed in his footsteps as a historian, and to Plutarch's claim that Ephorus declined Alexander the Great's offer to join him on his...
(4th century BC), also quoted by Polybius
Polybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
(XII, 6b, 5), Justin
Junianus Justinus
Justin was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire. His name is mentioned only in the title of his own history, and there it is in the genitive, which would be M. Juniani Justini no matter which nomen he bore.Of his personal history nothing is known...
(III, 4, 3) and also Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...
(XIX, 2-4). According to the latter, the Spartiates swore during the Messenian War, not to return home as long as they had not attained victory. The war prolonged and Sparta's demography being threatened, the Spartiates let the young Spartans who had not sworn the oath return home. These were ordered to copulate with all the girls available. The children who were born from these unions were named Parthenians. Their mothers, since they were compelled by the state to procreate, were legally considered unmolested and fit to marry once the war was over.
Lastly, a third tradition, mentioned by Servius
Maurus Servius Honoratius
Maurus Servius Honoratus was a late 4th-century grammarian, with the contemporary reputation of being the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he was the author of a set of commentaries on the works of Virgil...
and Heraclides
Heraclides Ponticus
Heraclides Ponticus , also known as Herakleides and Heraklides of Pontus, was a Greek philosopher and astronomer who lived and died at Heraclea Pontica, now Karadeniz Ereğli, Turkey. He is best remembered for proposing that the earth rotates on its axis, from west to east, once every 24 hours...
, made the Parthenians bastards who had resulted from the unions of Spartan women and their slaves, always during the Messenian war. The same tradition is told to explain the origins of Locri
Locri
Locri is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. The name derives from the ancient Greek town Locris.-History:...
, also in Magna Graecia.
There are variants to these three traditions: for example, Servius, when speaking of the second tradition, made the Parthenians' fathers slaves. Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
(Politica
Politics (Aristotle)
Aristotle's Politics is a work of political philosophy. The end of the Nicomachean Ethics declared that the inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, and the two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise, or perhaps connected lectures, dealing with the...
, 1306 B 28) seems to follow the first tradition: when the Parthenians' plot was discovered, they were sent to found Taras
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
. He specifies that the Parthenians "are the offspring of the Peers" but the meaning of the expression is unclear. It seems however that for Aristotle, the Parthenians were politically inferior, without explaining exactly why. The reason for the plot itself remains unclear. P. Cartledge suggests that the Messenian lands could have been unfairly divided, which would have been the cause of the Parthenians' dissatisfaction. Lastly, Justin and Diodorus of Sicily (VIII, 21) indicate that the events took place during the Second Messenian War of Messenia (second half of the 8th century BC), and not the first.
The foundation of Taras
Many authors give the impression that the Parthenians were driven out and not sent with a specific aim of Greek colonisation, Aristotle states for his part that the Parthenians “are sent to found Taras”, conforming with the Greek tradition advised by Plato ( Lois , 735 F) which consists, in the event of political disturbance, to send the seditious ones to found a colony far away from the metropolis. However the presence of Parthenians in Sparta also causes a disorder, either because of a plot, or even just because of their existence, disturbing the social population. We know that the founders of Taras brought with them the worship of Apollo Hyakinthos, traditionally celebrated in Amycles: a certain “nationalism” Amyclean would have to exist among Parthenians. P. Cartledge supports that the foundation of Taras was not approved by Sparta, "only through posteriori"Also according to tradition, the oikist (“founder of the city”) Phalanthus who led the Parthenians, took council from the oracle of Delphos, this is traditional in the movement of colonisations. According to certain versions of the tradition, the oracle had in fact advised the localization of Satyrion, located 12 km further away. The discovery of ceramics in the late Geometric period in Satyrion tends to accredit the thesis of a temporary settlement in these places before finally founding Taras, which occupies a unique position: it offers a well protected port and good ground communications. The Iapyges, an indigenous population, were driven out, probably before 700 BC if we base ourselves on the discovery of pottery in the late Geometrical period in Laconia on the old acropolis of the city. Thereafter, the links between Sparta and Taras remain very close. Taras would remain the only Lacedemonian colony , undoubtedly because the conquest of Messenia was temporarily rendered useless in the search for new grounds.