Over the last four decades of the 18th century, the image of Sparta began to include a few characteristic elements that later became an important point of reference for 19th-century writers, philosophers and historians. Issues of Spartan equality of citizens, fully responsible for their country, and also soldierly honour and Sparta’s military capabilities, began to take on fundamental importance. Less importance was given to the role of the single legislator, Lycurgus, who in an act of arbitrary imposition of laws created a system that functioned uninterruptedly for several centuries. The focus was on the special ties binding citizens to one another and all of them together to the state, which was the reason why neither autocracy nor democracy emerged in Sparta. The 19th-century reception of Spartan history, its people and typical themes in Poland is largely a story of the absence of this topic so important to Western European discourses. The paper outlines the reception of Spartan history in selected works by Mochnacki, Brodziński, Groddeck, Lelewel and Mickiewicz.