How long did Spartan culture manage to survive? When did it's religion, society and traditions finally cease to exist in any form?

by rsvt

I know that Spartas power began declining about a century after the Peloponnesian War, was absorbed by the Achaean league by the 2nd century BC and were finally conquered by the Romans. Sparta then became a tourist attraction for the elite allowing for it's unique and exotic culture/society to be somewhat preserved despite loss of it's independence. As late as 378 AD a Spartan phalanx supposedly defeated a force of Visigoths. Even in 804 AD Greeks of Laconia (the region surrounding Sparta) were resisting conversion to Christianity. So I'm extremley curious as to more information on when, how and in what ways did the extraordinary Spartan culture, society and religion survive.

HatMaster12

While I unfortunately cannot address this question in a comprehensive manner (I will leave that to more qualified individuals like /u/XenophonTheAthenian), I am curious from where you are drawing the claim that a Spartan phalanx defeated a Gothic force in 378 A.D. By the fourth century, Greece had been effectively demilitarized for centuries, and it is highly unlikely that any militia force raised to counter a Gothic incursion would have resembled a force of phalangites from the second century B.C., let alone a Spartan army from the classical period.