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50 free Sparta trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Sparta trivia quiz covers the ancient city-state most people know only from Thermopylae: how it was really governed (two kings, five ephors and a council of 28 old men), the Lycurgan reforms, the agoge that took boys at seven, the messes, the iron money, and the helots who outnumbered their masters and were ritually declared war on every year. It also asks about the wars that made and broke Sparta: Thermopylae and Plataea, the great earthquake of 464 BC, the Peloponnesian War and Aegospotami, the Corinthian War, Leuctra in 371 BC and the loss of Messenia, the one-word reply to Philip II, and King Agis III dying on his knees at Megalopolis. Spartan women, Queen Gorgo, the Olympic champion Cynisca, the 'Spartan mirage', the sack by Alaric, and the movie 300 round it out. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on Sparta, Thermopylae and the film, and each explanation adds one further detail. Good for classics students, history buffs and anyone who has ever shouted 'This is Sparta' at a quiz night.
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Q 01In which region of the Peloponnese was Sparta located?
Laconia
The state was officially called Lacedaemon; 'Sparta' strictly meant the cluster of villages by the Eurotas River.
Q 02On the banks of which river was ancient Sparta built?
Eurotas
The valley was walled in by Mount Taygetus to the west and Mount Parnon to the east, natural defences so good the city was never fortified in its prime.
Q 03How many kings ruled Sparta at the same time?
Two
They came from the Agiad and Eurypontid families, both claiming descent from Heracles, and neither could override the other.
Q 04What was the name of the semi-mythical lawgiver credited with Sparta's constitution?
Lycurgus
Herodotus, Xenophon and Plutarch all tried to explain Spartan exceptionalism through the 'Lycurgan reforms', which followed a period of civil strife.
Q 05What was the name of the state-owned enslaved population that made up most of Sparta's inhabitants?
Helots
They were originally free Greeks from Messenia and Laconia; Thucydides said Spartan policy was always governed by the need to guard against them.
Q 06What were the free non-citizen inhabitants of Spartan territory called?
Perioikoi
They handled trade and manufacture, which full citizens were barred from, and increasingly fought as hoplites as the citizen body shrank.
Q 07What was the Spartan military education system called?
The agoge
Boys entered at seven, lived in communal messes, and were punished if they failed to answer questions 'laconically'.
Q 08At what age did Spartan boys begin the agoge?
Seven
They were deliberately underfed and expected to steal to survive, according to Xenophon, whose own sons went through it.
Q 09How many elders sat on the Gerousia, Sparta's council, alongside the two kings?
28
Members had to be over 60 and served for life; they proposed policies that the citizen assembly then voted on.
Q 10What were the annually elected Spartan officials called who eventually eclipsed the kings in power?
Ephors
Two of them accompanied the king on campaign, and on taking office each year they ritually declared war on the helots.
Q 11According to legend, what did Spartan currency consist of, to discourage hoarding?
Iron bars
Spartans were allegedly banned from owning gold and silver coins, though archaeology shows they made fine bronze, ivory and jewellery.
Q 12Which Spartan king led the last stand at Thermopylae in 480 BC?
Leonidas
An oracle had said either a king must die or Sparta would fall; his force included around 300 Spartiates, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans.
Q 13Which Persian king led the invasion that the Spartans faced at Thermopylae?
Xerxes
The Spartans had been warned of the invasion by their own deposed king Demaratus, who was living at the Persian court.
Q 21Which Spartan king campaigned in Persian Anatolia during the brief Spartan hegemony after 404 BC?
Agesilaus II
His sister Cynisca became the first woman to win an Olympic chariot race, in 396 BC.
Q 22At which battle in 371 BC did Thebes end Spartan military supremacy?
Leuctra
Epaminondas' victory freed Messenia, and losing that helot labour sent Sparta into terminal decline as a military power.
Q 23Which Theban general defeated Sparta in 371 BC?
Epaminondas
Aristotle noted the alarming decline in the number of Spartan citizens, which meant losses could not be replaced.
Q 14What did the Spartan king reply at Thermopylae when the Persians demanded the Greeks surrender their weapons?
Molon labe
Literally 'having come, take them'; the phrase is now on the emblem of the Greek First Army Corps.
Q 15Who revealed the mountain path that let the Persians outflank the Greeks at Thermopylae?
Ephialtes
He was a local from Trachis; his name became a Greek byword for traitor.
Q 16Why is Thermopylae known as the 'Hot Gates'?
Because of hot springs there
The narrow coastal pass sat between the mountains and the sea, cancelling out the Persians' numbers.
Q 17At which battle in 479 BC did Sparta lead the Greek alliance to the decisive land victory over Persia?
Plataea
The Spartan regent Pausanias commanded; the Spartans brought 35,000 helots with them, suggesting they trusted them more than legend allows.
Q 18What natural disaster struck Sparta in 464 BC, triggering a helot revolt?
An earthquake
The Messenian rebels held out for years and were finally allowed to leave the Peloponnese on condition they never returned.
Q 19Which alliance, founded by Sparta in the 6th century BC, gave it hegemony over most of the Peloponnese?
The Peloponnesian League
Sparta led it against Athens' Delian League in the Peloponnesian War of 431-404 BC.
Q 20Which naval battle in 405 BC, won by the Spartan Lysander, effectively ended the Peloponnesian War?
Aegospotami
A traditional land power, Sparta had built a fleet with Persian gold to beat Athens at sea.
Q 24What one-word reply did Sparta send when Philip II threatened to turn them out if he invaded?
If
The Spartans then refused to join Philip's League of Corinth, so Alexander's later dedication read 'all the Greeks except the Spartans'.
Q 25Which Spartan king died on his knees fighting Antipater's Macedonians at Megalopolis in 331 BC?
Agis III
Wounded and unable to stand, he ordered his men to retreat and killed several enemies before a javelin finished him; Alexander then merely forced Sparta into the League of Corinth.
Q 26Which famous general failed to take Sparta by siege in 272 BC?
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Sparta only built a city wall after 184 BC, having long believed walls made men soft.
Q 27Sparta lost its independence in 192 BC when forced into which federation after Nabis fell?
Achaean
Under Rome it became a free city and a tourist attraction where the elite came to watch exotic Spartan customs.
Q 28Which Roman emperor recruited a 500-man Spartan cohort in AD 214 for his Parthian campaign?
Caracalla
A gravestone of one of them, Marcus Aurelius Alexys, shows him lightly armed with a cap and a wooden club rather than as a hoplite.
Q 29Which Visigothic king sacked Sparta in AD 396?
Alaric
In the Middle Ages the region's centre shifted to nearby Mystras, and modern Sparta was only refounded in 1834 by King Otto.
Q 30Which Bavarian-born king of Greece re-founded the modern town of Sparta in 1834?
Otto
It is now the capital of the Laconia region; the Tsakonian language nearby is the last descendant of ancient Doric.