this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
393 points (99.0% liked)
History Memes
3289 readers
474 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism, atrocity denial or apologia, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Lemmy.world rules.
Banner courtesy of @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I used to work with a guy who saw "300" and became convinced that Sparta and the way Sparta did things was perfect and that's why they won wars, and everyone should be like Sparta. When I discussed the issue with him and disagreed, he offered to wrestle me.
Ya know, the Spartans only were better at fighting than the other Greeks because they trained. Once the other cultures started training, they lost the head start they had.
Not even. There is no evidence for special training. Their battle record was average and their reputation mostly manufactured. This entry of a blog series on the myth of Sparta dissects that particular justification frequently offered for all the inhumanity laid out in the preceding posts.