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>As an amateur historian, I never understood the fascination for Sparta. Well, for one thing, Plato was an adherent of the 30 tyrants, who were allied and admi
by scottlocklin 7y ago
>As an amateur historian, I never understood the fascination for Sparta.
Well, for one thing, Plato was an adherent of the 30 tyrants, who were allied and admirers of the Spartans. Since he kind of invented Western Civilization, Laconophilia has a rather long and storied tradition.
- meerita 7y agoBy 369 BC (~20 years before Plato's death), the Thebans defetead the Spartans with the messenians (the helots). That was the end of Sparta as a major military power. After this, the Spartan men had to work on farms to feed themselves and their children, and they couldn’t train all the time. So they weren’t the best army anymore, and Sparta became just another small town, without much power.