What made Spartans so good at war?
poppers
>>17413009>Got their ass kicked by fucking THEBES>Good at warPick one
>>17413009Most overrated retards in history and it's all because of that Marvel tier slip movie they made 20 years ago.Captcha: SWAGS
>>17413009Completely basic shit like listening to their officers and marching in formation. I'd suggest reading Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History, for an examination of just how amateurish most of the Greek world was at war, outside of full time professionals, like mercenaries or the Spartans.
>>17413009Spartans were trained from childhood to be soldiers, and every free man was a soldier first. Other city states’ armies were mostly made of of guys who just had regular jobs and took up arms when they had to, and eastern armies were mostly slaves forced to fight.
>>17413062>Spartans were trained from childhood to be soldiersSpartans were not "soldiers," but yes, boys were trained from age 7 expected to become combatants, but the majority of their training was in other disciplines. It was never 100% RAH RAH WAR. This is not substantially different from the citizens of any other Greek city-state, however. Spartans would not have other professions, but this was common enough with the fighting men other cities as well, as the citizenry only made up a minority of the free male population (with a temporary exception for Athens and a few other Ionian states). >and every free man was a soldier first. The majority of the free male population of Lacedaemonia were not Spartan citizens, but of a class known as perioikoi (which included the sons of Spartan men who did not want to deal with, or could not meet the obligations of citizenship). And again, there were no actual soldiers in the Greek world until the Hellenistic era (unless you count mercenaries, which still doesn't fit the definition 100%).>Other city states’ armies were mostly made of of guys who just had regular jobs and took up arms when they had toSee response to point number one.>eastern armies were mostly slaves forced to fight.You're probably talking about Persia. The first Achaemenid monarch, Cyrus, explicitly banned slavery within the empire.The comic and film 300 has been a disaster for historical understanding.
Having rich Romans go there on vacation. That's litterally it. They barely left the immediate vicinity of Sparta due to being terrified their poorly armed slaves would overthrow them the second their backs were turned.
>>17413062Let's just casually overlook that most of our knowledge of the Persian military comes from GREEKS who were more than happy to fight for them.
>>17413009Gurkhas are the only actual living proof in modern times without the larp.
>>17413009They weren't. Until the final years of the Peloponnesian war they were unable to make any significant defeat on the Athenians, who lost a great deal of their forces in Sicily (so not even done by the Spartans) and a decade after the end of the war their dominance over Greece crashed down under the force of Thebes who smashed Spartan armies.>>17413062>and eastern armies were mostly slaves forced to fight.Most armies in the Ancient Near East from the Late Bronze age were in part professional armies and conscripts. Most Greek armies were conscripts, including the Spartans, so in terms of sourcing soldiers it was really the same.
>>17413080>The comic and film 300 has been a disaster for historical understanding.I used to laugh at the 300 movie but Herodotus (the first historian they say) said tons of bs and it is I assume based on his description of Persia.It's silly but it make sense somehow.
>>17413056This, the Spartans were the only Greeks who weren't a bunch of farmers who just turned up on battle day and stood in a line poking at the enemy with sticks until one side ran away.
>>17413379Herodotus is superficially full of shit, but not so much in reality. 300 is just a pure shit fest that would be incomprehensible to ancient Greeks.>>17413386Retard.
>>17413388300 is the movie the Spartans would have wanted to make>>17413022Their hegemony lasted for centuries. Longer than existence of most modern nations
>>17413009Gay seks
>>17413056>>17413080>>17413386>actually the Greeks all sucked and the Spartans were just mediocre which means they won a lot against the other Greeks who really bad WHOAH what a cool and accurate take, totally not an attempt to seem novel and downplay the actual merits of a militaristic slave society.The Greeks were able to defeat the preeminent armies of their time, members of the Hoplite caste were hired as mercenaries abroad, not even as mercenary companies but Greeks abroad being asked to fight because they had such a reputation. The Spartans were excellent warriors among the Greeks who themselves were in a league of their own.The Egyptians and Persians who fielded full time professional troops as their martial core considered the Greeks and by extension the Spartans the best fighters in the known world.The Spartans fought extremely hard, trained extremely hard, and their reputation was well deserved.
They weren't >>17414535The fuck? Their hegemony lasted 30 years or so. End of Peloponnesian war to Leuctra.
>>17413025>>17413080>>17413379>>17414535I must have watched a very different movie...
>>17413009Genetics.
I meanBeing good at iron age warfare is not that impressive...
>>17414535It didn’t though, Spartan hegemony lasted about 30 years. Shorter than the existence of Zimbabwe let alone “most modern nations”Stop believing memes
>>17416602you remind me of these retards
>>17416649I don't understand. Are brits weaker than americans (they tremble in fear of goose)?
>>17416703Could probably take a goose but a goose would put up a far better fight than a medium sized dog. A dogs legs can only rotate in one direction, all except the heaviest breeds are light enough for a grown man to pick up by the back of the neck and most breeds have zero gameness and will immediately retreat if they believe they’re in serious danger.Geese on the other hand are game as fuck. They’ll keep fighting until they die.
>>17413009They were very dedicated. If a baby had a flaw, they left it on a hill to die. The men were all professional warriors and just did that all the time. Slaves did their work.
>>17413009>Sparta in RL: A paranoid, security obsessed, dictatorship - whose politics was dominated by wealthy women and were mostly known for being very rowdy drunks in the other Greek cities, and for being super gay even by the standards of Ancient Greece. >Sparta in modern OL pop-culture: Le Ebin leather speedo wearing muscle daddies from that one long format, softcore, gay-porn movie that's so retardedly far from reality it makes North Korean propaganda look like a documentary.If you're looking for cool ancient societies to get excited about then why not the Assyrians? Or the Hittites? Or the Celts? If you want the 'naked muscle man' look then go with the Celts, who actually did charge into battle bollock naked and who were so good at war they scared the shit out the legendarily disciplined Roman legionaries.
>>17416855>Going into battle nakedWhy were they retarded?
>>17413009Today I remind them
>>17417094Just eurangotan things.
>>17417094Basically they liked killing, valued being the biggest toughest guy in the group, and saw it as a way to show off. The Roman accounts of their invasion of Britain describe Celtic Warriors competing with each other to see which of them would make it to the enemy line first, catching javelins out of the air and throwing them back, and laughing as their comrades died (because that meant more killing and glory for them). >were they retarded? I'd say it was more a case of 'their balls were bigger than their brains', but I guess that's just a question of perspective.
>>17413009they weren't good at all.
ITT: They were actually bad because they lost wars during their downfallBunch of retards
>>17417477What's your cope for the Spartan Heiresses?
>>17416855>>Sparta in RL: A paranoid, security obsessed, dictatorship - whose politics was dominated by wealthy women and were mostly known for being very rowdy drunks in the other Greek cities, and for being super gay even by the standards of Ancient Greece.there is no reason to believe Spartan women exercised outsized power as a general rule because ONE account said ONE time Spartan women were more powerful than women in other city states to where people in Sparta speculated it might be a problem.Sparta's history is long, their Civic Codes lasted longer than most nations around today, they probably went through a ton of various iterations politically and economically.
>>17417513Now that's quality cope.
>>17416649>Over 70% think they would lose to a housecatAn actual five year old shpuld be able to beat up a housecat.
>>17416719Literally just grab a goose by the neck or kick it in the ribs, what the fuck is it gonna do, nip at me with its bill and flap its wings? A dog could at least fuck up my arm as I try to kill it.Anyone who seriously runs from a gpose should be euthanized on principle.
>>17417905Maybe they specifically polled D&D 3.5 enthusiasts?
>>17417913Now that's a joke I haven't heard in a long, long time...a long time
>>17417481Why would I need to cope about that?
>>17418632
>>17418682Because they literally kept the Spartan Diarchs on a financial lease, running their royal pay-piggies to help them maintain and expand their own wealth. Sparta wasn't an EPIC WARRIOR STATE RRAAAGHH!, it was a corrupt money laundering scheme set up to use slavery to make a handful of women wealthier, that's why all of Spartan law and culture was set up in order to maintain their slavery. Basically just ancient, fin-domme, Confederates, who have the same amazing PR for some reason.
