SPARTANS: ELITE WARRIORS OF ANCIENT GREECE

The Spartans were great soldiers because they alone in Greece had a full-time professional army that was fully equipped as hoplites and always training in an age where all other city-states' armies were part-time and stratified by social class. This allowed the Spartans to develop the discipline needed to defeat other Greeks (things like marching in step, arms drill and so forth). The Spartans had also conquered their neighbors, whom they used as slaves (helots) to grow their food, wait upon them, and be servants to their warriors when in the field, and this enabled the Spartans to train full-time and have a militaristic view of things. The hoplite warfare of the 5th century BCE was strictly infantry combat where two armies would face each other lined up in a phalanx of eight ranks each on a flat field. Then they would charge each other and one side or the other would break. Although the Spartans weren't invincible, their discipline and training usually allowed them to outfight their opponents, who were farmers, businessmen, etc, and only part-time soldiers. Because of their prowess, the Spartans were called upon to lead the temporarily united Greeks to defeat the Persians on land in during Persia's 480-479 BCE invasion of Greece. The Athenians took care of naval leadership at the all-important Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. Although they defeated the Athenians in the long Pelopponesian War at the end of the 5th century BCE, the Spartans soon met other opponents (Thebans, Macedonians, Romans) that had developed superior tactical systems, and they were defeated. The Spartan warrior class also died out from battle casualties, disease and other reasons, to the point where their former slaves, the helots, were able to defeat them and by the time the Romans got there, Sparta had become just an insignificant little town living on the fame of its past. The portrayals of the Spartans in the movies are mostly wildly inaccurate (such as the movie "300", which derived from somebody's imagination in a graphic novel). The only movie that somewhat accurately portrays the Spartans is "The 300 Spartans," starring Richard Egan (as Leonidas), which portrays the sacrifice of Leonidas and his bodyguard at Thermopylae. What most histories don't mention is that at Thermopylae, the 300 Spartans' helot servants (serving as light infantry) also all died, as well as 700 warriors from Thespia (almost the entire military male population of that city) who had voluteered to remain, plus 400 Thebans (who Leonidas forced to stay because he didn't trust them, and who tried to surrender on the last day - some survived and some didn't), when Leonidas had released the rest of the Greek force to prevent them from being encircled by the Persian Immortals. If you want to read a definitive novel on Spartan life and Thermopylae, read "Gates of Fire" by Pressfield.

I always loved learning about the Spartans. Thank you for the share, sir. LTC Eric Udouj

Great piece of Ancient history shared.