Spartan

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When Leonidas was leaving to fight The Persians at Thermopylae, his wife Gorgo inquired if he had any instructions for her. Leonidas replied "To marry good men and bear good children."

When asked by a woman from Attica: "Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?" she said; "Because we are also the only ones who give birth to men". It was part of the deal that the Spartans were chosen by the rest of the Greeks to be the leaders on land and sea. So, even though the Athenians effectively won the Battle of Salamis at sea, there was a Spartan admiral in overall command of the fleet. Herodotus says the other Greeks refused to serve under Athenian leadership, which is an interesting statement.It’s done in thematic chapters. It goes right through to the reception of ancient Sparta in the modern world—what people thought of the Spartans in the French Revolution, in Nazi Germany, in popular film and television, that kind of thing. Strictly speaking, the Agoge didn’t include military training, which didn’t start in earnest until they became adult soldiers. Its real focus was to prepare Spartan males to be compliant members of society, who were ready to sacrifice their all for Sparta. Unlike other Greek city-states, Sparta “was exceptional in its socio-political stability,” Hodkinson says. “Part of the reason for this was that the boys’ upbringing had instilled behaviors that encouraged harmony and cooperation.” He doesn’t describe it in a way that we’d like him to describe it. Thucydides describes it as unimpressive physically, but Herodotus doesn’t go into those sorts of details. He’s more focused on telling you about what’s going on in Sparta and who talks to who—that kind of thing. He doesn’t even say he saw the monument with the names of the 300 on it. He says he learned their names and a later travel writer says that the Spartans had a monument set up with the names of the 300 on it. So it would make sense that that’s what Herodotus saw, but he doesn’t say, ‘I stood there and looked at the monument’. He’s a bit vague on some of those details. The translation flows well, though there were a few occasions where I was wondering what Plutarch’s original wording may have been. Likewise, the notes are mainly useful though in some instances seemed irritatingly superfluous (e.g. there’s a note added to a mention of "the traditional system of education" on p. 99, that simply says that this means the agoge!) The maps are good, and the same goes for the Historical Introduction to each of the Lives, though it seemed an odd choice to place all the different introductions together in the beginning of the book instead of in front of the respective biographies.

The Helots, whose name means “captives,” were fellow Greeks, originally from Laconia and Messenia, who had been conquered by the Spartans and turned into slaves. The Spartans’ way of life would not have been possible without the Helots, who handled all the day-to-day tasks and unskilled labor required to keep society functioning: They were farmers, domestic servants, nurses and military attendants. And still, from a comprehensive school intake of 226, you are one of two to make it to university. You beat off competition from Boris Johnson to win the party nomination for a safe seat which you hold and then strengthen over successive Parliaments. You become a member of the European Research Group (ERG) and argue for – and from a narrow referendum mandate help extract – a hard break from the United Kingdom’s near 50-year membership of the European Union. And for a time you’re mooted as a possible future leader of the Conservative Party. One more question before we get to the books, which will lead us into Herodotus: Athens has lots of very well-known sources: poets, philosophers, historians and playwrights whom the historian can consult and mine for information. Some of those Athenians deal with Sparta, too. But is there any homegrown literature or documents from which you can understand the history of Sparta? As a historian, how do you gather your raw material? Predictable, really, that one populist should learn this ‘philosophy’ from another (and a genuine Marxist, to boot); one that, far from being the essence of representative democracy, is rather its anathema.

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Other examples of the Spartan way of living were provided in a book called Spartan Society by Xenophon. But the Athenians also naturally assume they will take the leadership in military campaigns, is that right?

And are there any archaeological or Spartan sources—among the few Spartan sources you mentioned—that deal with the topic of women, or is it is all outside in? The classical period is 500 BC to 323 BC. In that sense, Sparta exists at the same time as classical Athens, but the period of Spartan greatness is from around 500 BC through to 370 BC. It’s overlapping with that period of Athenian greatness, but Spartan power peters out while Athens keeps going strong for another fifty years. Originally, the biographies brought together for On Sparta would have paired these eminent Greeks with comparably important Romans, as part of the compare-and-contrast structure that characterized Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. For this volume, however, Plutarch biographies of four particularly important Spartans are combined with collections of sayings that demonstrate the Spartan world-view – and with a short historical work, Spartan Society, that is traditionally attributed to the Athenian historian Xenophon. How were Spartan mothers involved in the education of their children? I’m particularly wondering about the creation of this very martial race. To what extent were women seen as having a crucial role in developing that martial spirit? Or was it considered important to get the boys away from female influence in case they became a bit soft? What does it do for the Spartan cliché? I’m assuming it nuances it in some interesting ways or in particular areas, perhaps?

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In addition to Lycurgus and Agesilaus, this volume includes the Lives of Agis and Cleomenes, as well as Plutarch’s Sayings of Spartans. Also included is the work on Spartan Society attributed to Xenophon, which adds a lot to its value as a resource. Plutarch’s sources are discussed in the Introduction to each of the Lives, and there’s a glossary as well as a list of Spartan kings. All in all a great book with some minor flaws. Understanding Sparta is important for the understanding both of our own history and as well the political history of a number of Greek states – in addition to being an endlessly fascinating subject in itself. What was the significance of Thermopylae? Was it instrumental in preventing the Persians taking over the Greek peninsula? Sparta, also known as Lacedaemon, was an ancient Greek city-state located primarily in a region of southern Greece called Laconia. The population of Sparta consisted of three main groups: the Spartans, or Spartiates, who were full citizens; the Helots, or serfs/slaves; and the Perioeci, who were neither slaves nor citizens. The Perioeci, whose name means “dwellers-around,” worked as craftsmen and traders, and made weapons for the Spartans. The Spartans’ real secret wasn’t physical fitness or indifference to pain and suffering, but rather superior organization. Spartan troops drilled relentlessly, until they could execute tactics with perfection. “It was probably their training in tactical maneuvers which really gave Spartan soldiers their edge on the battlefield,” J.F. Lazenby writes in his book The Spartan Army.