Why Spartans?

Why Sparta?

Of all the warrior cultures why focus on Sparta?  There are many warrior cultures in the world. and they each have their own claims to greatness.  I could have blended many of their philosophies but there is something extremely special about Spartans.  Even among other warrior cultures Spartans were freaks.  They represent a hard extreme in terms of a value set that was not shared by any at the time and would certainly be a hard extreme in today's world.  If you are going to study warrior cultures and pull out things to learn then why not learn from the best, the most extreme.  Those were the Spartans.

I chose the Spartan because they were the most mentally and philosophically strong group of warriors to have ever existed.  Their brutal voice also seems needed today.

Their philosophical strength is best evidenced by the legendary stand of the 300 Spartans against overwhelming numbers of Persians at the battle of Thermopylae.  Most people know this story, even Hollywood has covered it with the film the 300.  The thing to keep in mind is that this actually happened, this is real.  This is not Spider-Man or Diehard, this was real.

King Xerxes the leader of the Persian Empire was leader of one of the largest and greatest empires and he wanted to subdue Greece.  His father Darius had previously attempted to invade Greece but that force failed at the Battle of Marathon.  Seeking to avoid the failure of his father, Xerxes assembled the largest army he could with soldiers coming together from all parts of his empire.  The resources put toward the invasion were extreme.  After years of preparation the force was collected and sent toward Greece in the Summer of 480 BC.   A bridge was created over the sea by stacking the Persian armada side by side and laying planks over them.  It took 7 days for massive the army to cross the bridge.

The Greeks a group of frictious city states came together and appointed Leonidas the King of the Spartans to lead the Greek army.  According to Herodotus the Spartans had received a prophesy from the Oracle of Delphi that either Sparta would die, or a Spartan king would die.  Leonidas then decided to personally fight and sacrifice himself so that his country could live.  He along with 300 of his personal bodyguard left for a tight pass called Thermopylae, where they hoped to hold off the Persian force.  They were met by other Greek forces but their numbers remained grossly small compared to the huge force descending upon them.

As the massive Persian army came upon Thermopylae and the small group of Greek defenders there, the Persian scouts began to report that the force consisted of a small group of men who were combing their hair.  The Persian scouts found this to be funny.  The small force assembled by the Greeks to the Persians seemed irrational.  This is when King Xerxes began his education of what a Spartan was in earnest.  One of his Greek advisers was brought forth and he told him that the men assembled were preparing themselves to battle to the death, that they were Spartans and they would were the noblest kingdom and the best men.

In the words of Herodotus this speech went:

"O king. Hear then now also: these men have come to fight with us for the passage, and this is it that they are preparing to do; for they have a custom which is as follows: whenever they are about to put their lives in peril, they attend to the arrangement of their hair. Be assured however, that if thou shalt subdue these and the rest of them which remain behind in Sparta, there is no other race of men which will await thy onset, O king, or will raise hands against thee: for now thou art about to fight against the noblest kingdom and city of those which are among the Greeks, and the best men." --Herodotus 7:209

Xerxes was stunned at the bravery of Spartans.  He could only explain their behavior as insanity.  He waited for days thinking the sheer size of his force would intimidate the Spartans away.  But the Spartan's never fell back.  This is one of those moments in life when different cultures meet and they are like aliens trying to understand each other.  To Xerxes the Spartans were indignant, and insane.  To the Spartans, Xerxes and his Persians were meat.  The Persians saw themselves as an impossible powerful force that nothing could stand before.  To the Spartans they were a massive, feast of weaklings for them to gain glory by brutally killing.

If all the Spartans did was stand there and be slaughtered its doubtful they would have been remembered but it still would have been brave and a testament to who they were.  Of course they didn't.  They somehow fought back despite the odds.  That is what has attracted people to the story and the Spartans and why I am researching them 2,500 years later.  However, as amazing as they were at Thermopylae they were Spartans before this.  They showed up prepared, ready, they showed up STRONG.  When the challenge arose these Spartans were already Spartans.  This is the real interesting thing to me.  If studying Spartans is a meal then understanding their philosophy is the real main course, its the meat and potatoes.  While aspects of their battles included strategy and technology, their true STRENGTH was in there mental view of the world.   How did they get this way.  What did they think, how did they train, and how did they live?  These are the questions I wanted to drill into and figure out to apply to my own life.

Getting to the root of these questions is more difficult than you think because the Spartans did not leave a great deal of writing.   A very small amount of material survives about the Spartans.  In fact such a sparse amount of art, architecture and literature exists from Sparta we would barely know they existed at all without the accounts of historians and scribes from other cultures.  The fact that historians from other cultures respected them enough to put down their stories and customs in writing owe to their inspirational quality.  Even among people whom they shared cultural and blood ties, they were outliers,  and uncommon.     Their culture was a freakish anomaly that was viewed with both awe, horror and mocked by those outside of it.  They were men that were so unlike men, that they were viewed as alien.  The Spartan's themselves considered themselves to be the children of gods believing they were descendants of the legendary Hercules.

In Steven Pressfield's seminal novel on the Battle of Thermopylae, Gates of Fire. Leonidas the warrior King of the Spartans addresses the troops and makes note of the facts that Spartans lack recordings or buildings and that their contribution would be what they did in practical terms on the battlefield.

“two thousand, three thousand years hence, men a hundred generations yet unborn may, for their private purposes, make journey to our country. They will come, scholars perhaps, or travelers from beyond the sea, prompted by curiosity regarding the past, or appetite for knowledge of the ancients. They will peer out across our plain and probe among the stone and rubble of our nation. What will they learn about us? Their shovels will unearth neither brilliant palaces nor temples. Their picks will prize forth no everlasting architecture or art. What will remain of the Spartans? Not monuments of marble or bronze, but this......what we do here, today."

― Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
I have heard some arguments that the Spartans were mere savage, brutes and this is why so little of their culture remains.  The fact that they wrote so little, built so little has given rise to the impression that they were culturally inferior.  Obviously, I see this as erroneous otherwise I would not be writing this book.  Let me take a moment to address it.  The Spartans were not big on external things.  They did not pursue wealth, food, buildings, art, or writing books but they were not stupid.  Instead of turning the human on the external, they focused very hard on the internal.  Their focus was on crystallizing the human mind to maximize its potential toward discipline and strength.  This was their technology, and indeed the entire focus of their culture.  This is how they were overcome their of death and operate under extreme circumstances.

Another reason to consider the Spartan philosophy for study is how it was admired by other ancient philosophers:

In Plato’s dialogue of Protagoras Socrates wrote:

“They conceal their wisdom, and pretend to be blockheads, so that they may seem to be superior only because of their prowess in battle … This is how you may know that I am speaking the truth and that the Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and speaking: if you talk to any ordinary Spartan, he seems to be stupid, but eventually, like an expert marksman, he shoots in some brief remark that proves you to be only a child.”

Socrates had this to say in the Protagoras: “The most ancient and fertile homes of philosophy among the Greeks are Crete and Sparta, where are to be found more sophists than anywhere on earth.”

There are also a variety of philosophers who come out with positive opinions of Lycurgus.  Lycurgus was the philosophical, law giving champion of the Spartans.  In many ways Lycurgus could be seen as a Spartan Moses.  The laws, institutions and culture of Sparta were all associated with the persona of Lyrcurgus.  Historians debate whether a person named Lycurgus ever existed or whether he may have been multiple men whose deeds had been wrapped together under a single wrapper.  Those arguments are superfluous to our purposes here.  What needs to be known is that when philosophers are referring to Lycurgus they are referring directly to the laws, cultures and lives of the Spartans.

This is what Polybius said of Lycurgus: “…for securing unity among the citizens, for safeguarding the Laconian territory and preserving the liberty of Sparta inviolate, the legislation and provisions of Lycurgus were so excellent that I am forced to regard his wisdom as something superhuman” (Polibius 1959: 493).

Xenophon puts this speech praising of Lycurgus as coming from Socrates.

“Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian now—have you realized that he would not have made Sparta to differ from other cities in any respect, had he not established obedience to the laws most securely in her? Among rulers in cities, are you not aware that those who do most to make the citizens obey the laws are the best….For those cities whose citizens abide by them prove strongest and enjoy [the] most happiness” (Mem., IV, iv, 15-16; Loeb 317 ª; Laced., viii, 1.)

Plutarch, in his biography of Lycurgus, writes that Lycurgus formed a “complete philosophic state”.

In the Protagoras (§347e-§348a), Plato writes “The best people avoid such discussions and entertain each other with their own resources…These are the people, in my opinion, whom you and I should follow”. These “best people” are the Spartans that he is alluding to.

Spartan's had wealth but they chose to live hard lives, they had power but often chose restraint, they knew how others lived but took little from them.  They believed in themselves, they believed in each other, they believed in Sparta.  They lived lives in which they need to say little, as their deeds spoke for themselves.

The Battle of Thermopylae ended in failure for the Spartans.  Their force there eventually succumbed after being surrounded and was killed off.  They did not hold the pass, and the massive Persian army was then able to go through and immediately sacked two cities.  It was a failure.  Potentially, a colossal failure that could have ended in the destruction of all Greece.  Yet, the Spartans were viewed as so brave, so STRONG, that

At Thermopylae lies the famous, curt epitaph to memorialize the Spartans that died there.  It is an impossibly small memorial.  On the stone is a short poem written by the lyric poet Simonides that is considered to be a masterpiece. Simonides created a very Spartan epitaph to memorialize one of the most amazing military battles in history.   It is in the style that the Spartan's admired, short and simple.

Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by 
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

When I read those lines.  I feel a rush of primordial power of simply being, and doing what you are meant to do.  The complicated made simple, the impossible made easy.  This is the Spartan way of living condensed into two lines.

Why Spartans?  Because I want to live a life where my deeds and example speak for themselves.  I want to live a life where I stare my problems in their eyes and dare them to do their worst.  I sure as hell will do the same.  I want to live a life that fills people with Wonder.  I want to live a life where I have the courage to stand for my principles, to fight, no matter the cost.  I want to live the highest most powerfully sublime way and leave no question in people's minds that I lived it to the fullest of my capabilities. That I was born and lived a Spartan.

THERE ARE MANY MEN

BUT FEW MEN ARE WARRIORS

AND FEW WARRIORS ARE SPARTANS