Draft:Tresante

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Historiography calls Tresantes (in ancient Greek: οἰ τρέσαντες hoi trésantes 'tremblers') the Spartiates who had been blamed for atimia, and consequently deprived of full citizenship and the status of homoioi, because of their having shown cowardice (Greek κακοί, kakoí) or disobedience during a military campaign.[1]

These individuals had not exhibited the 'ἀνδρεία', the courage that characterized the Spartiate, who, as King Agis II states, "Do not ask how many the enemies are, but where they are."[2]

But it happens that until the middle of the fifth century BC. C.—perhaps until the earthquake that decimated the Spartiate population—cowardice not only implied retreating from the enemy, but the mere fact of surviving a defeat, a shame that was not tolerated.

However, as a consequence of the progressive and unstoppable decline in the number of homoioi, this attitude was subject to review, softening little by little, until after the Leuctradisaster in 371 BC. C., where 400 of the 700 participating Spartiates died, Agesilaus II proposed letting "the law sleep that day"[3]

Status[edit]

The tresantes were excluded from syssitias, the gymnasium, and ball game teams. They were relegated to the last positions in ritual dances. In the street, they had to give way and walk around with an air of sadness, since their fellow citizens could hit them; They had to wear dirty, patched clothes and shave off part of their beard. They had to stand up before their lessers. Nobody would speak to them, nobody gave them help. Their daughters were left single and in their care. If they themselves were single, they could not marry, and a fine for being unmarried was applied to them. According to Plutarch, they were excluded from the magistracies. Thucydidessays that they could not make legal transactions.

The mistreatment inflicted on the tresantes is reminiscent of the living conditions of the Helots. According to Antiochus of Syracuse,[4] the helots are ancient tresantes: Antiochus says that, "during the Messenian wars, those Lacedemonians who did not take part in the expedition were declared slaves and called helots; As for the children born during the expedition, they were called parthenias and all rights were diminished."

However, the tresantes could access public places, unlike the helots, who suffered total exclusion. Furthermore, they could redeem themselves in war, as in the case of the warriors at Sphacteria who were rehabilitated.

See also:[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Herodotus, Histories, VII,23; Plutarch, Lycurgus 21,2
  2. ^ Plutarch, Cleombrotus 4,10; Plutarch, Moralia 215 d
  3. ^ Plutarco, Agesilaus 30,6
  4. ^ (fgt. 13) Citation for Strabo, Geographica, vi.3.2

Sources[edit]

  • Herodotus, Histories, vii.231.
  • Plutarch, Agesilaus, 30, 3-4
  • Thucydides, V, 34, 2
  • Xenophon, Republic of the Lacedaemonians, IX, 4-5

Bibliography[edit]

  • Jean Ducat, Les Hilotes, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, supplément XX, 1990.
  • Victor Ehrenberg, s.v., Real Encyclöpedie, VI A 2, 1936.
  • Edmond Lévy, Sparte : histoire politique et sociale jusqu’à la conquête romaine, Seuil, coll. «Points Histoire», París, 2003, pages. 48 and 116. ISBN 978-2-02-032453-3.
  • Nicole Loraux, « La belle mort spartiate », Ktéma n.º 2, 1977.
  • Jean-Pierre Vernant, «Entre la honte et la gloire», Métis II, 1987.
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