Battle of the Fetters
From Warlike
Q4872912
The Battle of the Fetters was an engagement between Sparta and their neighbors to the north, Tegea. It came about when Sparta, in search of new land, sought to conquer the people of Arcadia in the central Peloponnese. The story comes from Herodotus and he gave no date for it, except to say that it occurred shortly after Lycurgus the lawgiver had re-engineered Spartan society to set it on the military footing for which it was famous throughout the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek history. His rendering is short enough to quote in full:
With these changes [Lycurgan reforms], they attained good government, and after Lycurgus died, they build a shrine in his honor and worshipped him with great reverence. And as their land was fertile and their population large, they soon thrived and became a flourishing people. Indeed, they were no longer content with peace, and because they assumed that they could prove themselves superior to the Arcadians, they consulted the oracle at Delphi about all the land in Arcadia. The Pythia replied:
For Arcadia you ask me; you ask for much; I refuse to give it. Eaters of acorns, and many of them, dwell in Arcadia, and they will stop you. But not all will I grudge you; Tegea I will give you, a dance floor to tread, a beautiful plain to measure out with a line.
When these verses were reported to the Lacedaemonians, their reaction was to forgo the rest of Arcadia and march on Tegea. Overlooking the ambiguity of the oracle, they brought shackles along with them, confident that they would enslave the Tegeans. In the battle that took place, however, the Spartans were defeated, and all of them who were taken alive were made to work the plain of Tegea, measuring it out with a line and wearing the very shackles they had brought along with them. Those shackles are still, even in my day, hanging safe in Tegea, around the temple of Athena Alea.
-550
Wikidata
Tegea, Sparta,
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Location: 37.4644, 22.4285, KML, Cluster Map, Maps,
49 places
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| Type | Subtype | Date | Description | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| event | armed conflict | Dorian invasion | human migration, Heracleidae, mythical event, military campaign | Wikidata | |
| event | armed conflict | Helot uprising | slave rebellion | Wikidata | |
| event | armed conflict | 206 | Battle of Mantinea | Sparta, battle, Achaean League | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 249 | Battle of Mantinea | battle, Agis IV, Aratus of Sicyon, Lydiadas of Megalopolis, Leocydes of Megalopolis | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 262 | Battle of Megalopolis | Sparta, battle, Acrotatus, Aristodemus the Good, Arcadia | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 271 | Pyrrhus' invasion of the Peloponnese | invasion | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 316 | Siege of Megalopolis | battle, siege | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 330 | Battle of Megalopolis | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 361 | Battle of Mantinea | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 367 | Battle without tears | Sparta, battle, Arcadian League | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 384 | Siege of Mantinea | siege | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 416 | Battle of Orneae | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 417 | Battle of Mantinea | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 470 | Battle of Dipaea | Sparta, battle, Arcadia | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 545 | Battle of the 300 Champions | Sparta, battle, Argos | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 549 | Battle of Tegea | Sparta, battle, Tegea | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 550 | Battle of the Fetters | Sparta, battle, Tegea | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 668 | Battle of Hysiae | battle, Sparta, Argos | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 681 | Battle of the Great Foss | battle, Aristokrates, Messenia, Spartan army, Arcadia | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1294 | Fall of Nikli | Byzantine Empire, battle, Principality of Achaea | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1314 | Conquest of the Principality of Achaia | military campaign, Matilda of Hainaut, Isabelle de Sabran | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1423 | 1423 Morea expedition | Ottoman Empire, Despotate of the Morea, military expedition | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1423 | Battle of Davia | Ottoman Empire, battle, Despotate of the Morea | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1715 | Ottoman reconquest of the Morea | Republic of Venice, Ottoman Empire, military campaign | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1821 | Siege of Tripolitsa | battle, siege, massacre | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1821 | Battle of Levidi | Anagnostis Striftombolas, battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1821 | Battle of Valtetsi | Ottoman Empire, battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1821 | Battle of Doliana | Ottoman Empire, battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1821 | Battle of the Trench | Ottoman Empire, battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1825 | Battle at Trikorfa | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1825 | Battle of the Lerna Mills | Ottoman Empire, battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1825 | Second Battle of Doliana | Ottoman Empire, battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1826 | Battle of Meimetaga | Ottoman Empire, battle, First Hellenic Republic | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1944 | Battle at Achladokampos inn | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1944 | Battle of Valtetsi | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1948 | Operation Peristera | military campaign | Wikidata |
| event | war | 228 | Cleomenean War | war, Sparta, Macedonia, Elis, Achaean League | Wikidata |
| event | war | 333 | War of Agis | war, Sparta, Macedonia | Wikidata |
| event | war | 400 | Elean War | war, Sparta, Elis | Wikidata |
| event | war | 600 | Spartan–Tegean wars | Sparta, Tegea, series of wars | Wikidata |
| event | war | 684 | Second Messenian War | war, Sparta, Arcadia, Argos, Messenia, Ancient Corinth, Sicyon, Lepreon, Ancient Elis | Wikidata |
| event | war | 1263 | Achaean–Byzantine War | war, Byzantine Empire, Principality of Achaea | Wikidata |
| event | war | 1388 | Argos and Nafplio War | war, Republic of Venice, Duchy of Athens, Despotate of the Morea, Navarrese Company | Wikidata |
| event | war | 1421 | Byzantine–Ottoman War of 1421–1424 | war, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Despotate of the Morea | Wikidata |
| event | war | 1423 | Ottoman–Venetian War of 1423–1430 | war, Republic of Venice, Ottoman Empire | Wikidata |
| event | war | 1823 | Greek civil wars of 1823–1825 | civil war | Wikidata |
| site | fort | Athenaeum fortress | fort, archaeological site | Wikidata | |
| site | museum | 2000 | War museum of Tripoli | military museum | Wikidata |
| site | tower | Palaiopyrgos of Mytikas | fortified tower | Wikidata | |