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Maxime Rosso, The allusions to Sparta in the speeches and politics of Robespierre from 1789 to Thermidor.
Ancient Greece is one of the richest sources of Western political thought. The reflections of its philosophers and the institutions of its cities have served as models and supported intellectual constructions from the end of the Ancient World until the twentieth century, when, it is true, the classical references have slightly faded. Two separate systems distinguish themselves from the others, and have sustained attention not only by their historical importance, but by the persistent practice of later authors of contrasting their laws and their respective social rules : Athens and Sparta. One knows rather well the connection between the Ancient Greek city and the idea of democracy. But the heritage of Sparta is more difficult to define, notably in France. Yet until the end of the eighteenth century, in the realm of political ideas, Sparta was ahead of Athens, and nearly the equal of Rome. Maximilien Robespierre is at the end of the line of reflections about the city of Lycurgus ; he offered a synthesis about it, and promoted the Spartan ideal in Revolutionary France. Indeed, he could find examples and answers for his own aspirations in the history of this city. The submission to the law, the devotion to the patrie, or the regeneration of the citizen through education, are so many traits that made up the reputation of Sparta. The revolutionary context was especially propitious to the revival of these values. Robespierre, then, gave meaning to the use of Sparta in France from the Reformation to the Revolution. He illustrated its role in the construction of republican ideas.