How a militarized culture obsessed with hardness, discipline, and warrior masculinity became one of the most misunderstood civilizations in modern political mythology
Amen, Andy. The Spartans were overrated. They didn’t show up at the battle of Marathon. They only sent Leonidas and 300 Spartans (plus Helots and other non-Spartans) to the battle of Thermopylae. They would have lost the Peloponnesian War to Athens if Persia had not supported them financially. The Spartans were thugs AND humbugs!
The failures of a militaristic regime have been highlighted in some historical films comparing autocratic/authoritarian monarchies like Germany/Russia with more democratic monarchies like Britain pre WWI. These monarchs were descendants of Queen Victoria and therefore closely related to each other but had substantially different philosophies on how to govern. The authoritarian monarchs failed but even more violent autocrats took over. The divide set the stage for WWII. We should learn from ancient and 20th century history that the ultranationalists fail as well.
Amen, Andy. The Spartans were overrated. They didn’t show up at the battle of Marathon. They only sent Leonidas and 300 Spartans (plus Helots and other non-Spartans) to the battle of Thermopylae. They would have lost the Peloponnesian War to Athens if Persia had not supported them financially. The Spartans were thugs AND humbugs!
Thugs AND humbugs- you have a way with words.
Also the most boring faction in Total War ever.
Spartan virtues were forced upon them by necessity, I suspect. Like the devils in Milton’s Hell, they made their abasement into a “Heaven.”
One ought to ask, Why were Spartans so…Spartan?
It was a culture based upon organized child abuse; buy how did that come about?
BTW, I want one of those patches.
The failures of a militaristic regime have been highlighted in some historical films comparing autocratic/authoritarian monarchies like Germany/Russia with more democratic monarchies like Britain pre WWI. These monarchs were descendants of Queen Victoria and therefore closely related to each other but had substantially different philosophies on how to govern. The authoritarian monarchs failed but even more violent autocrats took over. The divide set the stage for WWII. We should learn from ancient and 20th century history that the ultranationalists fail as well.