Dorians

one of the four great branches of the Greek race. The Spartans were the chief Dorian representatives. In achievement, the Dorians were second only to the Ionians. Sparta and Athens were rivals in many respects. As compared with their neighbors the Dorians were considered a plain, rude, blunt people, possessing character and strength. The Spartans were less lively than the Athenians, and did not equal them in music or literature. In art, however, they developed the Doric type of architecture, considered the most noble as well as the simplest style of architecture the world has ever known. See Greece