SPARTANS. - In the books of Maccabees one reads with surprise that Jews and Spartans considered themselves "brothers." In II Macc. 5:9 there is only a passing mention of a friendly relation, whereas in I Macc. 12:1-23; 14:20-23 there is talk of a true alliance concluded by Jonathan (v.) and renewed by his brother Simon (v.). On the occasion of the conclusion of the alliance the author reports not only the letter of Jonathan (12:6-18), but also a curious older document, the letter of King Areus to the high priest Onias (12:19-23). In this document it is stated that the Spartans have learned from a "writing" that they are "brothers" of the Jews as descendants of Abraham; therefore Areus proposes a kind of community of goods. Jonathan in his letter refers expressly to this document, communicates summary news, requests the renewal of that brotherhood, whose sentiment would never have failed among the Jews, and presents the ambassadors sent to Rome to renew the alliance.

The singularity of these texts has raised a great problem of historical criticism. Some, in order to evade the difficulty in part, have spoken of Spartans of Asia Minor (Hitzig) or of Cyrene (Büchler); others (Kautzsch, Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Willrich) reject all these documents, or at least part of them, as forgeries. A. Momigliano rejects what concerns the alliance promoted by Jonathan, while Bickermann limits himself to repudiating the letter of Areus, on which the greatest doubts converge.

Those who acknowledge the authenticity of the documents point to King Areus I (309-265 B.C.) as the correspondent of the high priest Onias I. Attempts have been made to explain the "kinship" with various ingenious hypotheses. But it may have been a simple legend that arose in the Jewish colonies, in Sparta or in some Hellenistic city. Its mention in the Bible confers no particular authority on it; it rests only on the word of Areus. The proposed community of goods is perhaps to be understood as an emphatic expression to accentuate the spirit of friendship. The letter of Areus was probably suggested, besides by a certain affinity between the two peoples, by practical motives that now escape us. The letter of Jonathan is well explained by his policy of seeking alliances and diplomatic support. The existence of the document of Areus, and the importance that the free city of Sparta still enjoyed, explain his gesture.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: G. Wernsdorf, Commentatio historico-critica de fide historica Machabaeorum, Breslau 1741, pp. 140-71; H. J. E. Palmer, De epistolarum, quas Spartani atque Judaei invicem sibi misisse dicuntur, suritate, Darmstadt 1828; E. Beurler, Lacédémoniens, in DB, IV, coll. 7-10; A. Momigliano, Prime linee di storia della tradizione maccabaica, Rome 1930, pp. 141-70; F.-M. Abel, Les livres des Maccabées, Paris 1949, pp. 231-33.

Angelo Penna

ELIO

One of the six
writers of the Historia
Augusta.

To him are owed
the lives: of Hadrian,
based on the autobiography of that
emperor or on
other sources (cf. chaps.
1, 3, 5, 7, 16 and Vita
Ael. Veri, 3); of Aelius
Verus, addressed to Diocletian, in the prologue
of which he declares
it to be his intention to
write the life
also of those who
were merely Caesars
or princes, without
reaching the imperial
throne; of Didius
Julianus; of Septimius Severus; of Pescennius Niger; of Caracalla; of Geta,
the latter dedicated to Constantine.

Bibliography

BIBL.: v. STORIA AUGUSTA.

Nicola Turchi

@incollection{ec11_spartani, author = {Penna, Angelo and Turchi, Nicola}, title = {Spartani}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1088--1089}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/spartani} }

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ELIO

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