Emily Dickinson Lexicon

Spartan, proper n. [L. < Gr. spartē, cord or rope made from the shrub spartos.] (webplay: Spartan bravery).

Valiant warrior; self-sacrificing defender; soldier from the capital of the Peloponnesus in ancient Greece; one of the three hundred Greeks defending the pass at Thermopylae against the might of the Persian Empire; [fig.] soldier; hero; Civil War casualty.