“Athens became the seat of politeness and taste, the country of orators and philosophers. The elegance of its buildings equalled that of its language; on every side might be seen marble and canvas, animated by the hands of the most skilful artists. From Athens we derive those astonishing performances, which will serve as models to every corrupt age. The picture of Lacedæmon [a. k. a. “Sparta”] is not so highly coloured. There, the neighbouring nations used to say, ‘men were born virtuous, their native air seeming to inspire them with virtue.’ But its inhabitants have left us nothing but the memory of their heroic actions: monuments that should not count for less in our eyes than the most curious relics of Athenian marble.”
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences” (1750), First Part
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an eighteenth-century admirer of the Spartans
A number of people have praised the Spartans – including Rousseau, Machiavelli, and Hitler …
Many centuries after the Spartans, Jean-Jacques Rousseau once praised their culture in his “Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.” He said that the memory of Sparta's heroic actions “should not count for less in our eyes than the most curious relics of Athenian marble” (as cited above). Niccolò Machiavelli was another philosopher who praised the Spartans. (See the footnote to this blog post for the details of this.) American colonists and French revolutionaries have sometimes been among those who praised the Spartans. In modern times, some liberals have also praised Sparta for what they perceive as its “greater respect” for women’s rights. And, as the presenter of this documentary notes, Adolf Hitler also praised the Spartans, with Nazi Germany using them as a model of sorts – particularly in their use of eugenics. (See the Wikipedia page on “Laconophilia,” or the “love of Sparta,” for some of the details of this.)
Adolf Hitler, a twentieth-century admirer of the Spartans
… while Alexander Hamilton considered Sparta to be “little better than a wellregulated camp”
Ironically, Sparta was admired even by some from its arch-rival Athens, the other great superpower of Ancient Greece. The Spartans actually believed that they were creating a “utopia.” But if anything, it seems to have been closer to the other end of the spectrum – a dystopia. Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers that “Sparta, Athens, Rome, and Carthage were all republics; two of them, Athens and Carthage, of the commercial kind. Yet were they as often engaged in wars, offensive and defensive, as the neighboring monarchies of the same times. Sparta was little better than a wellregulated camp; and Rome was never sated of carnage and conquest.” (Source: Federalist No. 6) Thus, although he recognized Sparta as a “republic,” Hamilton considered Sparta to be “little better than a wellregulated camp” (an accurate summation). This documentary shows that the truth about Sparta is less romantic, and far less flattering, than the description offered by Rousseau. It acknowledges the rights of women in Sparta, even as it repeats tired old myths about how women actually had more rights in Sparta than they did in Athens (although I should acknowledge that they were still second-class citizens in both). But as this documentary notes, Sparta was “no feminist paradise.” It was a hellish dystopia (as mentioned earlier), with no real concept of human rights. It killed those boys that it deemed “weak,” denying them any future chance to redeem themselves for the unforgivable “crime” of weakness.
Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours’s “The Selection of Children in Sparta,” painted 1785
Others engaged in slavery and conquest, too … so what made Sparta different from the rest?
But I should acknowledge that the sins of slavery and conquest were not unique to Sparta at this time. Athens, too, engaged in wars of conquest and empire-building, and enslaved those that it deemed to be “inferior.” Virtually all states of this time were militarized, although some were more successful in their militarization than others. But Sparta was moreso than most, and this was part of what made it different. Sparta judged its men solely on their military prowess, and destroyed those of its subjects that it deemed unable to “get with the program.” But there was one other thing that was different about Sparta: It was one of the few Greek city-states to enslave fellow Greeks, rather than exclusively foreigners. This was alarming to a number of other Greek city-states, who thus mistrusted the Spartans to a great extent, even if this mistrust did not always drive them to war with the Spartans. For them, being free was an essential part of being Greek, and needed to be recognized by the laws of every other Greek city-state.
The Eurotas River (near Sparta)
In part, it was the degree of militarization, and its slaughter of those boys considered weak …
The first episode develops Spartan society in some detail. It goes over their wars to enslave fellow Greeks, and the revolution that created the Spartan society that we know of. It also discusses the killing of those boys deemed to be “weak,” the intense competition between the boys, and the high stakes of power and prestige in these competitions. It details the compulsory homosexual relationships between young boys and older men. (Only in the second episode, though, do they go over the boys’ introduction to marriages with women, and the lesbian relationships that were also common in Spartan society.) In part because men and women lived separate lives, Sparta also had a lower birthrate than most Greek city-states. This is part of what led to its eventual downfall at the hands of the Thebans.
Spartan hoplite warrior with helmet
Some comments on what the different episodes of this series cover (three episodes in all)
But the Theban wars are not covered until the concluding part of the last episode, since they were much later in the story. The cliff-hanger at the end of the first episode deals with the 300 famous Spartan warriors who held out against the Persian invaders, at the cost of their lives (dramatized in the Hollywood movies “The 300 Spartans” and “300”). The Persian Wars are then continued in the second episode, where Sparta and Athens were temporarily allied with one another against the Persian invaders. Perhaps because of this alliance, they stopped the Persian advance. The cliff-hanger at the end of the second episode is Athens’ temporary victory in the Peloponnesian Wars, resulting in a sort of truce between the two major superpowers. The Peloponnesian Wars are then continued in the third episode, in which Sparta eventually won out over the Athenians. In general, the Athenians had the greater navy at this time, but the Spartans had the greater army throughout most of the classical period. The Spartans hated walls in general, and particularly those walls that defended its arch-rival city-state of Athens. Thus, it must have been an exquisite pleasure for them to tear down the Athenian walls. They also dismantled the fledgling democracy in Athens, which had been the first democracy in all of world history. Thus, the Spartans were responsible for destroying this thriving democratic state.
Bettany Hughes, the presenter of this documentary
Sparta was a society of fanatics, which had very little to admire about it …
The presenter of this documentary is Bettany Hughes, and she was still in her thirties when this documentary came out in 2002. She was by then a great advocate for the teaching of classical history, and continues to remain such today. Her Greek pronunciations are different from those that I learned in my study of the Ancient Greek language, but it’s possible that she was deliberately Anglicizing them more, to make her topic more accessible to a general audience. Either way, this is a relatively minor issue, which does not interfere with the presentation here. After watching this documentary, one comes away with the feeling that Sparta was a society of fanatics. One comes to feel that there was very little to admire about their so-called “utopia.” They tried to maintain a kind of economic equality, without the use of any kind of money. Nonetheless, they would seem to be more fascist than communist. Their society was profoundly conservative, and staunchly opposed to any kind of change. Ms. Hughes believes that this ultra-conservatism played a major role in their downfall, and this is undoubtedly a big part of their downfall. The abandonment of the nuclear family in Sparta may have also contributed to their society’s decline, since child-rearing was done as much by the state as by the parents. It is a dangerous thing when societies devalue the family, and have the state be responsible for their children’s upbringing (if I may be so bold).
Lycurgus, the quasi-legendary lawgiver of Sparta
The Spartans were the model for totalitarian states like Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia …
I have been learning the Ancient Greek language since 2013, and thus know a fair amount about Ancient Greek society. But most of my education about Ancient Greece has been centered around Athens, which was the center of culture and democracy in Greece. Thus, I didn’t really know as much about the Spartans, since the Greek history textbook that I read would dedicate only one chapter to how their society worked (although the Spartans were still major characters in a few of the other chapters). Thus, it was nice to see a documentary that was focused more exclusively on the Spartans. As mentioned earlier, one finds very little to admire about them, but they make for a fascinating documentary, which helps to show a lesser-known part of Ancient Greece. The Spartans seem to have been a prototype for totalitarian nations like Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, just as Athens was a prototype for democratic nations like Great Britain and the United States.
The presenter of this film also made a film called “Athens: The Dawn of Democracy”
Incidentally, Bettany Hughes did another excellent film about Ancient Greece, which is called “Athens: The Dawn of Democracy.” I review this latter documentary here.
Niccolò Machiavelli, a sixteenth-century admirer of the Spartans
Footnote: Machiavelli’s praise for the Spartans
As mentioned earlier, Niccolò Machiavelli was among those who praised the Spartans. He said that “Among those who have earned special praise by devising a constitution of this nature, was Lycurgus, who so framed the laws of Sparta as to assign their proper functions to kings, nobles, and commons; and in this way established a government, which, to his great glory and to the peace and tranquility of his country, lasted for more than eight hundred years.” (Source: “Discourses on Livy,” written circa 1517 – Book I, Chapter II)
Machiavelli then continued, saying: “The contrary, however, happened in the case of Solon; who by the turn he gave to the institutions of Athens, created there a purely democratic government, of such brief duration, that [he] himself lived to witness the beginning of the despotism of Pisistratus. And although, forty years later, the heirs of Pisistratus were driven out, and Athens recovered her freedom, nevertheless because she reverted to the same form government as had been established by Solon, she could maintain it for only a hundred years more; for though to preserve it, many ordinances were passed for repressing the ambition of the great and the turbulence of the people, against which Solon had not provided, still, since neither the monarchic nor the aristocratic element was given a place in her constitution, Athens, as compared with Sparta, had but a short life.” (Source: “Discourses on Livy,” written circa 1517 – Book I, Chapter II)
This passage suggests that Machiavelli, like Rousseau, considered the Spartans to be “more accomplished” than the Athenians. And as the rest of this blog post has shown, this was very far removed from the truth about the Spartans.
DVD at Amazon
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If you liked this post, you might also like:
Actually, Machiavelli was pro-dictatorship (and Rousseau was wrong about him)
Rousseau’s “Discourse on Inequality” is long on detail, but short on evidence …
A few problems with Rousseau’s “The Social Contract”
Reflections on learning about history of Ancient Greece
A review of Bettany Hughes’ “Athens: The Dawn of Democracy”
A review of “The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization” (PBS Empires)
A review of “Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire” (History Channel)
A review of “Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire” (BBC)
A review of “The Roman Empire in the First Century” (PBS Empires)
Reflections on learning about history of Ancient Rome
Part of a series about
European history
The Spartans
This list covers Europe through the Renaissance. For Europe since the Renaissance, click here.
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