Eugenic Ideology in the Hellenistic Spartan Reforms

Timothy Doran

doi:10.25162/historia-2017-0013

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Eugenic Ideology in the Hellenistic Spartan Reforms

Doran, Timothy

From the journal Historia Historia, Volume 66, September 2017, issue 3

Published by Franz Steiner Verlag

article, 11943 Words
Original language: English
Historia 2017, pp 258-280
https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2017-0013

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Abstract

Eugenic ideology has received insufficient attention in scholarly treatments of the reforms of the third-century Hellenistic Spartan kings Agis IV (r. 244-241 BC) and Kleomenes III (r. 235-222 BC), who attempted to replenish the Spartiate population through enfranchisement. However, close analysis of the language in our surviving source material suggests that eugenic fixations underlay both the enfranchisements proposed by these reformers as well as some of the debates over their reforms. Adherence to Spartan tradition compelled these reformers to present their reforms as compliant with previous native Spartan eugenic ideology, and shaped and restricted what they were able to accomplish.

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Timothy Doran

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References

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