Parthenians

According to later sources, the Parthenians ( Greek Παρθενίαι , Partheniai , i.e. “virgins” or “virgin sons”) were a group of Spartans who founded Taras (after Eusebios Taras was founded in 706 BC; archaeological is actually a Greek settlement in the old town of what is now Taranto around 700 BC), as they were excluded from the distribution of land.

Ephoros of Kyme tells us the following from early Spartan history: Since the Spartans had sworn against the Messenians during the war that they would not return until they were either all dead or had destroyed Messene, the women sent a delegation to their husbands after a while and asked them to be considerate of their needs. The men then sent the youngest of the soldiers, who had not taken the oath because of their age, back to Sparta, where they fathered a new generation, the so-called Parthenians. Since the fathers did not give them the same rights as the legitimate sons, the Parthenians conspired with the Helots in an uprising led by Phalantos . The plans were discovered, however, and the Parthenians emigrated to southern Italy , where they founded the colony of Taras.

See also: History of Taranto

swell

Ephoros FGrHist 70 F 216
Antiochus of Syracuse FGrHist 555 F 13
Aristotle , Politics 5, 7

literature

Heinz Bellen : Partheniai. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, column 529.

Remarks

↑ Douwe Yntema: Mental landscapes of colonization: The ancient written sources and the archeology of early colonial-Greek southeastern Italy. In: BaBesch 75 (2000) p. 21 .; Paul Cartledge: Sparta and Lakonia. A Regional History 1300 to 362 BC. 2nd revised edition, Routledge London - New York 2002, p. 107 .; Mischa Meier : Aristocrats and Damods: Investigations into the inner development of Sparta in the 7th century BC And on the political function of the poetry of Tyrtaios. Steiner-Verlag Stuttgart, 1998, p. 137 (with further documents, but even p. 140f. Carefully)

[1] Douwe Yntema: Mental landscapes of colonization: The ancient written sources and the archeology of early colonial-Greek southeastern Italy. In: BaBesch 75 (2000) p. 21 .; Paul Cartledge: Sparta and Lakonia. A Regional History 1300 to 362 BC. 2nd revised edition, Routledge London - New York 2002, p. 107 .; Mischa Meier : Aristocrats and Damods: Investigations into the inner development of Sparta in the 7th century BC And on the political function of the poetry of Tyrtaios. Steiner-Verlag Stuttgart, 1998, p. 137 (with further documents, but even p. 140f. Carefully)