The Eleian 'Asylia' and the Politics of the Archaic and Classical Peloponnese

Abstract

When the Lakedaimonians invaded Eleia in 402 B.C. they transgressed a sacred inviolability that their ancestors had declared early in the Archaic period. They were prepared to do so because by this period a dominant faction at Sparta placed the pursuit of an oligarchic political agenda above religious scruple. Modern scholars cast doubt upon the evidence of several ancient texts that Eleia was sacred and inviolable, but their arguments are unconvincing. The importance of the Eleian 'manteis', the links of the Eleians with the oracles at Dodona and Siwah and their management of Olympia further support the view that Eleia was considered a holy land. Supposed wars between the Eleians and the Pisatans in the early-sixth century were actually civil disturbances of the late-sixth and early-fifth centuries that culminated in the Eleian synoikism and democracy of 471 B.C. In the fifth century, the Lakedaimonians intervened against democracy elsewhere, but at first respected the 'asylia' of the Eleians. In 402 B.C., however, they invaded and dismembered Eleia, and the oligarchic political entities that replaced it became their dependent allies. By obliging the Eleians to fight in the Korinthian War, furthermore, the Lakedaimonians compelled them to forsake their inviolable status.