I dunno, I know it’s a bad idea for a layperson to contradict a historian, but this seems just a little bit too edgy for me.

The fact is, we know almost nothing about pre-Thermopylae Sparta. There’s some fragments of lyric poetry, generally about glorious manly fighting. There’s some stuff from Herodotus, generally really mythical-sounding and involving the Oracle of Delphi. But the first good work of recorded history was written after the battle of Thermopylae. If your argument is “nobody talked about Sparta before Thermopylae, so it couldn’t have been that great”, I’m afraid the problem is nobody wrote anything down about anything at that time.



And almost as soon as history starts being written, it involves descriptions of the Sparta we know and love. Herodotus, the first Greek to really write history, raves about Leonidas’ glorious stand at Thermopylae and about the great lawgiver Lycurgus. Thucydides, the next Greek to write anything relevant, calls Sparta “the preeminent military power in Greece” and even specifically warns that future generations won’t believe how powerful they are. In the context of Sparta’s physical appearance, he writes:



“For I suppose if Lacedaemon [Sparta] were to become desolate, and the temples and the foundations of the public buildings were left, that as time went on there would be a strong disposition with posterity to refuse to accept her fame as a true exponent of her power.”

Xenophon, who writes less than a century after written history started to be recorded at all, has a book The Constitution Of The Spartans, saying:

“It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I wondered no longer. Lycurgus, who gave them the laws that they obey, and to which they owe their prosperity, I do regard with wonder; and I think that he reached the utmost limit of wisdom. For it was not by imitating other states, but by devising a system utterly different from that of most others, that he made his country pre-eminently prosperous. ”

Then he goes on to talk about various Spartan institutions, for example:

“Physical training for the female no less than for the male sex: moreover, he instituted races and trials of strength for women competitors as for men, believing that if both parents are strong they produce more vigorous offspring.”

And:

“On the other hand, lest they should feel too much the pinch of hunger, while not giving them the opportunity of taking what they wanted without trouble he allowed them to alleviate their hunger by stealing something. 7 It was not on account of a difficulty in providing for them that he encouraged them to get their food by their own cunning. No one, I suppose, can fail to see that. Obviously a man who intends to take to thieving must spend sleepless nights and play the deceiver and lie in ambush by day, and moreover, if he means to make a capture, he must have spies ready. There can be no doubt then, that all this education was planned by him in order to make the boys more resourceful in getting supplies, and better fighting men.”

And:

“Nor does this exhaust the list of the customs established by Lycurgus at Sparta that are contrary to those of the other Greeks. In other states, I suppose, all men make as much money as they can. One is a farmer, another a ship-owner, another a merchant, and others live by different handicrafts. But at Sparta Lycurgus forbade freeborn citizens to have anything to do with business affairs. He insisted on their regarding as their own concern only those activities that make for civic freedom. Indeed, how should wealth be a serious object there, when he insisted on equal contributions to the food supply and on the same standard of living for all, and thus cut off the attraction of money for indulgence’ sake? Why, there is not even any need of money to spend on cloaks: for their adornment is due not to the price of their clothes, but to the excellent condition of their bodies.”

And:

“The following achievement of Lycurgus, again, deserves admiration. He caused his people to choose an honourable death in preference to a disgraceful life. And, in fact, one would find on consideration that they actually lose a smaller proportion of their men than those who prefer to retire from the danger zone. 2 To tell the truth, escape from premature death more generally goes with valour than with cowardice: for valour is actually easier and pleasanter and more resourceful and mightier. And obviously glory adheres to the side of valour, for all men want to ally themselves somehow with the brave.”

And:

“The Lacedaemonians also carry out with perfect ease manoeuvres that instructors in tactics think very difficult…Let not the length to which I run occasion surprise, for it is almost impossible to find any detail in military matters requiring attention that is overlooked by the Lacedaemonians.”

This sort of stuff is being written about as early as anyone is writing anything at all. It’s not being written by Romans, or by people who never saw Sparta, it’s being written by a guy who served in the Spartan military and was personal friends with a Spartan king.

And if we agree that everyone from Thucydides on thought Sparta was the greatest military power in Greece, and that they lived communally with nobody seeking wealth, and that they were obsessed with honor and easily willing to die for it, I’m not sure what’s left to be a myth. I mean, I’m sure the Romans embellished something, but they definitely had a core of truth to embellish upon.