The Spartans just had the best PR team. :-) I mean, erecting a monument near Thermopylae, made the story of 300 timeless. Ancient authors were much more generous and praised military of the other cities, too.
Woah hey man cool to see you here, I've been loving your videos as of late! We should try and figure out some sort of partnership. Feel free to drop me a message on my business email
Kings and Generals Wasnt that epic tbh, they re-did a series that has been greatly overdone. The conquests of Alexander has been covered in full length by Bazz Battles. Not creative from Epic History channel, I would like to see something creative from Oakley maybe cover the diadochi wars of succession?
pretty moronic to think a few went savage on many like it hasn't happened till this very moment, you must be an ox thinking then was any different than now
Wish we knew more about the Thespians. Their city state was small but they sacrificed 700 lives at Thermopylae which was probably most of their fighting force. Glad to see in recent times they got the recognition they deserve.
My great great great great grandfather 👴🏾 once seen one and got its hair samples and an gritty pixel like painting he did quickly so was shaky and hard to see for some but it’s all legit
Spartans were the masters of psychological warfare - they understood propaganda better than anyone. The movie 300 can best be viewed as what the Spartans would have produced as a propaganda if they had movies back then. The Spartans knew branding!
@@Welther47 Please tell me what is the bull? The Spartans were very much on maintaining their image, what modern folks would call branding. And I would like to assume (yes, I know where that leads) that you know that Spartans did not produce movies (they were so primitive they did not even have Wi-Fi! Wow, did you know that, or did I just change your entire view of history? I am guessing the latter)
“Their training wasn’t special.” 1 minute later: “Their unique training granted them superior discipline to their contemporaries which was the key to their dominance.” ??????????
Pied Piper by modern standards it isn't anything crazy. By ancient standards it was god tier. We're infinitely more athletic than our contemporaries. Hell, the whole marathon thing became famous because the guy ran and died. Nowadays people run multiple marathons a week or even a day for fun
Tyrese Novak I was highlighting the contradiction in the video :) he says one thing, then the exact opposite. Also the man who died did so after running from Athens to Sparta, a distance far greater than that of Marathon to Athens (the distance of the modern race.)
@@JoJoZaka our contemporaries would be those who are alive rn. as you were comparing between people today and people of the ancient period that would be the wrong word.
From what I understood he was talking about individual and physical military performance when he said their training wasn't special. And when he talked about their unique training he was talking about their military organization and specialization.
@@JoJoZaka The original marathon run you refer too "He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days and back. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) to the battlefield near Marathon and back to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (nikomen[8] "We win!"), as stated by Lucian chairete, nikomen("hail, we are the winners")[9] and then collapsed and died."
As a Greek i found the video Extremely informative and very very well created, But i have to tell you this video is exactly what we are teached in school history , For some reason the movie Gave strangers and non greeks the spartan myth, It was never written or historically mentioned in any official history book. Now i have to tell you that you have some information wrong about this video. 1) Spartans and all greek city states had martian art training. (Pankration,Wrestling) 2) Spartans started Millitary training at the age of 16. 3) Spartans were not allowed to Surrender BUT that Doesn't mean they couldn't flee or retreat from the battle after realising they were losing. Also even surrendering was illigal for a spartan there was no punishment for doing so at all, Except the fact that most likely you would be spitted on, mocked, bullied, and sometimes even slapped by the people. 4) Most part of their millitary training was to hold formation and moving in phalanx. 5) Spartans invented the turtle formation Later known from the Romans as "Testudo formation" 6) In thermopylae, only Leonidas and his 300 Royal guard and 700 thespian veterans (Old men mostly) stayed to defend. There is no mention of Thebans, however Retreating army were commanded by Leonidas to leave. 7) Spartans were indeed better at phalanx formation than any other Greek because they could hold their ground, due to the fact that they were not wearing sandals while in battle, unlike most greek city states. 8) Battle of Thermopylae numbers at Rough estimates (8.000 - 10.000) Greek allies vs (150.000-250.000) Persians (Which 10.000 of them were the "Immortals"). 9) Sparta Had semi-proffessional army, The proffessionals and career Soldiers were mostly officers and would also "police" internally. This was common on all Greek city states. 10) Spartans had actually very good calvary. But in percentages 1 out of 10 would become a cavalry trooper. And he had to be rich and high class citizen to be able to own a horse.
Yes the Athenians, after they had stepped on every rake possible then made more rakes to step on and even then Lysander needed a whole navy from The Persians to close the deal
Yeah most of Lysander's men were not Spartans, they were Spartan allies, Sparta relied on political influences to even have a large enough army to challange the Athenians.
17:18 "...they were strong men that couldn't take a punch when it finally came..." I mean I understand all these myth around the Spartans but don't you think you're going a bit to far with that line?
not at all They pretty much where a epic fail over hyped hyprocrits that are 100% pussys thats why they where known for there woman spreading there legs to not die and the men where pussys as well.
"the Spartans, while they continued to practice the rigors of discipline, were superior to all others; but now, they are regularly beaten in actual war. Their previous superiority was not due to the training they gave their youths, but because they alone had discipline and their enemies had none." from Aristotle's Politics Book 8
@@sanserof7 I've read all or most of Republic, and if I remember correctly, he, Plato - through the voice of Socrates - mostly praised the Spartan political system. Aristotle criticized it in his Politics but not in a part that I read. I guess I'll have to get to that book again.
@@jeffbenton6183 I think he mostly praised it in comparison to the Athenian government. He saw both systems as flawed, but he saw democracy as the absolute worst type of government if I recall correctly.
@@sanserof7 I distinctly remember Socrates saying that. Though he also said that one advantage of democracy was that it's the only system where you're actually allowed to compare it to the other ones.
@ Or at least had that reputation during the time of Aristotle (Aristotle was a contemporary of Alexander). The argument of the Reddit "ask historians" page on which this video is based argues that, since we have no contemporary sources of the Spartans being any more martial than other Greeks prior to the Battle of Thermopylae (and all later sources use this as their earliest piece of evidence), they weren't especially skilled prior to this and conqured the whole Peloponnese (except Argos) only by superior numbers.
[NOTE: The video does not argue that the Spartans were anything but top tier Greek warriors, just that they were better for different reasons than people think. Watch a more nuanced discussion with the historian here: ua-cam.com/video/aP-ipqWEAAE/v-deo.html] Thanks to the support of our Patrons I was able to afford to not only hire a kickass artists but also pay for a PhD historian to advise on the research/script. From what I understand we have actually been able to reach the "cutting edge" of academic thought on this subject which is amazing! Again huge props go to Dr. Roel Konijnendijk! We have also been discussing the possibility of hosting a livestream event to follow up on the episode and answer community questions. Would you be interested in this and what sorts of questions do you want answered?
Invicta This is a fantastic video! Hopefully I can use this for a college history project in the future. Would love to see more of these videos. Possibly addressing the legends of the Aztecs, William Wallace, or Templars?
Yeah...... Thermopylae was the biggest obstacle to get through while trying to calm everybody down. Thermopylae was definitely a heroic feat, and like all political factions, Sparta capitalised on it BIG time. Most Historions believe that Leonitisis decision was a mix of both military common sense and religious belief. Someone had to cover the retreat & The Oracle said, he had to die, so sparta could live. No way of knowing for sure, but those are the THEORIES (As in MAYBE, maybe that is why. Maybe he thoat he could kill all of them.)
Yes, would love that. great video though I don't understand why you doubted the Spartan child infanticide. I understand the Spartans are probably somewhat overrated but when you consider the ancient acceptance of infanticide, they're authoritarian state, strict disciplined population and rapidly shrinking citizen pool it makes sense to me. Thanks for another beautiful and fascinating video, can't wait for the next.
You seem to assume Sparta and Athens hated each other but it really wasn't that simple. There were many Athenian authors that were pro Spartan. In fact, much of the Spartan myth comes from pro Spartan Athenians like Xenophon. Second, Athens and Sparta were allies in many conflcits. And there's several occasions where they showed moderation when they were rivals. Both Sparta and Athens opposed to destroying the other city when it was defeated: Sparta opposed Thebe's idea of destroying Athens, and Athens opposed to the Thebans idea of destroying Sparta (though in this instance Thebes basically got away with it and essentially destroyed Spartan power forever). Diplomacy is always more complex, and your enemies becomes your allies when it's convenient. In fact, the Peloponnesian wars started due to Corinthian pressure, Sparta really didn't want to engage against Athens at first.
Yes, many facts about Sparta are nothing but Myths. Yes, the movie 300 is a Hollywooddrama. Still, there is a reason why Sparta and Athen were the greatest powerhouses in ancient Greece, both in society and military perspectives.
then why did the Spartans win the Syracusae war with only 2,000 while the Atheneans sent 10,000 men? obviously because you don t know history, you just watch stupid videos like this in youtube
Wrong. Corinth was a very large and powerful commerce State in Greece, which colonized the Western Mediterranean, eventually establishing cities such as Massilia and Syracuse. Pella in Macedonia eventually grew, conquered all of Greece, and eventually ended up conquering much of the known civilized world at the time.
I am really tired of hearing about thebes. Thebes won one battle against sparta and lost almost every other battle they ever fought. They were crushed by the spartans at nemea, joined the persians and were crushed by the athenians at platees, and finally they only won leuctra because of better leadership and numbers.
@@agesilausii7759 Thebes won at Leuctra because Sparta was an archaic City-State with no longer sustainable Spartiate population and had made little to no attempt to innovate and reform their Army away from the Hoplite Phalanx, despite the inherent vulnerability of the Hoplite Phalanx in their right flank. All Thebes had to do was beef up their left flank to meet this flank, and that is what defeated Sparta.
While this video i reasonably correct there is a slant which may give people the wrong impression. We know that Thucydides wrote in his Peloponnesian war that when the Spartans surrendered after the Battle of Sphacteria all of Greece was shocked, so that by 425 BC most of Greece considered the Spartan war machine as supreme. Thucydides was Athenian and was contemporary, so even if assume Herodotus was bias, Thucydides was certainly not. While the date is in question and may have occurred after Sparta lost a battle against Argos, the Spartans basically created a professional military, which no other Greek city possessed until the end of the Peloponnesian war. It was only at Leuctra that the Thebans, using a phalanx 50 men deep, managed to defeat the Spartan army. The slave state Sparta created required a permanent standing army in order to retain power, which gave it’s a military force no other city state could match. Unfortunately for the Spartans it was also a force the Spartans could never risk, which is why they declined after Leuctra. It should also be noted Spartan women had rights and privileges no other Greek city gave their women, so it was not all bad at Sparta. Spartan women also worked out and were considered to have rather appealing hard bodies.
My own ancestor Xenophon was so enamoured by Spartan military supremacy that he left Athens to follow them on compains (especially after he was exiled), and went on to develop their cavalry practices and weaponry...
1:00: Those hardened elite warriors staring at an obvious rain of arrows coming, and they're like, "Should we raise our shields?" "Eeeeh no let's stare at it for a few more seconds just to make sure"
But part of the myth is true, the unintended sacrifice of the 300 was an effective propaganda moment that served to help unite Greece to fight off the Persians.
It would be awesome to see a video from you about Sparta's tourist economy under Roman rule! Romans loved coming to Sparta to see the famous warrior culture even though Sparta was irrelevant by then. So Spartans kept up appearances with the training and barracks life. Even built a theater outside the temple of Artemis so tourists could watch the cheese-stealing initiation.
You've made some good points here, but I think that you and the PHD historian have been so over-zealous in your attempt to debunk the myths that you've become a part of the equally bad trend in academic history of revisionism for the sake of revisionism. Is the "Spartan myth" over-romanticized? Yes, but the fact that they bred capable soldiers and strategists, probably to a greater degree than most of their neighbors still remains. A few examples from later in their history: - Xanthippus, a Spartan mercenary commander largely credited for reforming the Carthaginian army and leading the Punic forces to victory at the Battle of Tunis - 272 BC Siege of Sparta: a small force of Spartans (including women and those not yet of age) held off Phyrrus of Epirus (one of the best commanders of his day) long enough for Spartan reinforcements led by Areus I and their Macedonian allies to relieve the city - After initial victories against the Macedonians, Agis III of Sparta was heavily outnumbered by the general Antipater at the Battle of Magalopolis, and despite inflicting heavy casualties was defeated. According to Diodorus, Agis III, having been badly wounded ordered his men to leave him behind so that he could die in battle I also fail to see how the fact that practiced poetry, danced sang and pursued other academic and leisurely activities detracts from their soldiery. Alexander the Great of Macedon was tutored by Aristotle after all. Moreover, a cautious approach to committing one's forces is not necessarily a bad thing and can indicate a good grasp of strategy considering the Spartans lacked manpower. No one is saying the Spartans depicted in the movie 300 are in any way realistic, but to depict Sparta as just another Greek city state seems a little too dismissive. Soldiery was not their sole and only purpose and they were by no means invincible; indeed they suffered a number of defeats and their restrictive citizenship is the most likely cause o their downfall. However, for a time, the Spartans did possess an edge in military matters and to entirely dismiss this is not a convincing argument.
TheMysticalPlatypus Ive been just as shocked to find that what thw historian presented to me was at odds with many of the books I had in my library. However it turns out that this is because Sparta is apparently a "hot" subject right now. We will go over this in a follow up Q&A livestream but for now definitely give the posts from the historian a read: www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6rvusy/is_the_military_worship_of_the_spartans_really/
@@InvictaHistory AshkeNazim university professors will never be able to overcome their envy and jealousy of the Greeks. Especially since the Letter of High Priest Onias to King Areios of Sparta where the Judaeans identify the Spartans as "brothers, whom we commemorate at every feast and sacrificial offering" and to which the Spartans replied "it was found in the records about the Spartans and Judaeans that they are brothers and of the stock of Abraham..." (I Maccabees 12,5-23)
An interesting take, although I think it goes rather hard attempting to remove a perceived bias and instead applies a separate one entirely. Simply put, we do have historical evidence that Sparta as a whole was a remarkably effective military power. More than a century undefeated frankly speaks for itself given the time period. And I think it fairly safe to say that one needn’t explicitly mention weapons practice when in the context of a society that relied upon those same weapons to keep their helots in line. It is for all intents implicit. Where I think this interpretation fails is that it fails to apply the reasons for the primary downfall of Sparta. Their policies made for a very rigid and unfavorable system for expansion. Athens major success were due almost entirely to economic factors. Naval warfare is essentially a money fight, after all. What had been shown in both ancient and modern warfare is that the side who can economically and industrially sustain a war often becomes the winner. This is where Sparta failed, their military power was indeed formidable at their peak, but it was a slow system and could not easily be replenished from a defeat. They, much akin to Germany in the early 20th century, could only win a war that was fought relatively quickly and with overwhelming success. If it became a war of attrition, they simply could not sustain themselves as well as their opponents. A single spartan took more than a decade to train, and while that produced remarkably sturdy professional soldiers at a time where the majority of their neighbors were fielding what amounted to a militia, the simple fact was they lost a logistical war if the conflict could be spread over many years. This is compounded by the records indicating men in the army were spending less time producing children, which would later be sustaining that same army. Furthermore, it was argued that early Sparta's successes were derived from the novelty of their military structure, as well as the relative inexperience of their opponents. Early Sparta was very wise then to refuse conflict unless absolutely critical, and to at all costs ensure their opponents never could study their movements and strategies lest they form effective countermeasures. What was seen with Phillip of Macedon was this exact thing playing out for all of Greece to see. A fully staffed Spartan army could be defeated if one refused to fight the Spartan's dominant side and instead engaged from an oblique angle. What made Sparta strong was that they were functional in military organization as well as psychological warfare. Having a deserved reputation for tenacity goes a long way in convincing ones opponents to be willing to accept defeat, rather than pursuing a long and exhausting war. Where they failed however was a failure to adapt to the changing battlefield, and ultimately dwindling into irrelevance. An army made to enforce the compliance of their helot slaves, yet too hemmed in by powerful neighbors to ever expand and achieve the same dominance they maintained in their past. However, I should note, this is not to say they were overblown in their prowess. Even in decline, Sparta was not sacked until after the fall of the Roman empire, and that is frankly remarkable.
Yup this video is just some bullshit from like millennials thinking they are revealing the “truth” about Sparta because they went to college and just now realized their favorite movie “300” wasn’t real. What a a joke
Lmfao this comment is literal bull. The spartans were quite literally a walmart version of argos. They only won pitched battles and benefited from a system of hellish slavery. Ask pyrrus what he thinks about them.
What was the bias forwarded in this video? Weapons practice is not as implicit as you think. The idea is intuitive to us, but that doesn't necessarily been the they though of it the same way. The historian that researched this had evidence indicating the Greeks considered it kind of silly. This vid isn't about the downfall of Sparta. It's about addressing misconceptions about them. The deeper flaws of their system is somewhat besides the point.
@@aussiebirb4958 Yes, they did, they also fought to become Popular between the greek city states and making them join the Alliance, so they can enforce debts.
What you feel doesn't matter. The video was backed by facts (check description). What matters are the facts. I'll trust the sources cited over you any day.
@@macnosmutano4849 lol,, you sure showed me with your righteous indignation! There are also sources that say they were great. So we are just going to trust the ones that say they were not great only? As usual, the truth is probably someplace in the middle.
Macnos Mutano facts do tend to get fuzzy the further back you go. Stories change over time... you know? If anything sounds too awesome, it stands that it might have been embellished over time. Good men become heroes and legends with time, great men become gods.
I don't think anyone was under the impression that Spartans were immortal super soldiers that never knew defeat. But Spartan military prowess has been impressive nonetheless. Sparta took over neighbouring territories through war, subjugating its people (helots). They forced the rest of their neighbours to join the Pelopponesian league, where Sparta was the leading state. Sparta had solidified their position as the leading Greek state, and became the supreme leader in the Greco-Persian wars. In the The Peloponnesian War they defeated Athens and the Delian league. I don't think they could have achieved all that without having a military that was better than other nations at the time of their dominance. All these achievements is what made them stand out. In Spartan culture suicidal fighters were looked down upon, as you were supposed to want to survive the battle. But at a certain point it must have been apparent to Leonidas that he would not survive at Thermopylae, and yet he stayed behind instead of retreating. I don't see how the fact that he didn't intend it as a last stance from the beginning changes anything. And the 300 movie was a retelling by a Spartan, it was not suppose to be historical accurate.
That can't be why the Spartans stand out. Every city state in Greece subjugated their neighbors through war. The Spartans required vast Persian support to win the Peloponnesian War. Of course their military was one of the better their time, but that in itself can't come close to explaining the Spartan reputation. The Athenians had an advanced navy that way outclassed the other Greek city states. Why aren't they put on the same pedestal as warriors? There's a reason the Spartans stand out to people, and it has nothing to do with accurate history. The fact that Leonidas only made the decision after being backed into a corner and having someone voice the idea first changes it.
@@animation1234111 we put them not as warriors but as sailors yes read about how the Spartans used their ships at start and you will laugh they were destroying them because they couldn't control them. None said that the Spartans were good sailors for example because they won the Athenian fleet. What we say is Sparta had the beat warriors at that time and Athens the best fleet. And this is why the war kept so long 27 years. When you have two navy or land forces against each other the war is quick when you have on land against one navy countries then the war keeps way longer because they can't make significant damage one to the other.
@@vasileiospapazoglou2362 But skilled Naval commanders, marines, etc is no less warriors than land troops. And "they" don't just say the Spartans were the best land based army. Their reputation runs deeper than that. People think the Spartans were a significant deal braver, more skilled, more experienced than the other Greeks (as shown in their singling out and portrayal in media like 300), even though the actual facts don't bear this out.
@@animation1234111 the numbers at thermopyle were 1000 Spartans, 700 Thespians and around 2000 of nearby villages who fled when the persians came, the Spartans had lost very few fighters (say around 100 max.) untill Ephialtes showed the Persians the way around, All these happened because the spartans trained since the age of 7 at military camps, and at 17 they had already been to battle, even when the immortals came to fight they were no match for the mighty Phallanx, watch the BBC documentary, in which a lot of things are true, (there are however some inaccuracies such:the 300 Spartans, but as a whole is good), I know it because i ve read about the Spartans, and I ve read because I am from Sparta, so don t try to convince me otherwise, that s my word, take it or listen to stupid videos like the one above, your call
@@animation1234111 and also I forgot to mention that 300 hundred included Leonidas were the ones that made the last stand to delay the persians. Also another argument for you to think is that, if the scripts are wrong for Spartans, how come they survived 2 persian invasions while the numbers were so off balance to the advantage of persians, so much you haven t thought of, yet still you talk, as for trying to convince me, the last sentence of my previous comment applies here as well
One Group, the poor Germans trapped in Stalingrad, were insensed, most of them, when Goering told them they were like the Spartans.That did Not go over well with men knowing they were doomed!.
@@lemursteaks I know its a late response but Lederhosen already means leather pants, saying leather Lederhosen would mean leather leather pants greetings from cologne
I believe a similar thing happened at the battle of wake Island, the few forces there had held off the Japanese attack for a few days and the news and radio back home called them 'the Alamo of the pacific ' a soldier there said something along the lines of "well we knew what happened to the Alamo" years later in a documentary
The myth has become so romanticized, that I saw someone arguing in a comment section below a video why the Spartans should have defeated German Wehrmacht soldiers. Since guys with spears always beat guys with guns.
Germans are great with guns. Brits are great with longbows. And Mediterraneans are great at close combat. Northern Europeans shouldn't feel bad though. They still make good serfs even if they are useless without ranged weaponry.
According to The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece by Josiah Ober Sparta was a dominant military force in ancient greece until ~400 BC and widely known for being "undefeatable" in an open field land battle. Also their men were not 'bread' to be warriors, but they were trained more and better then other greek polis citicens, since their massive amount of helots allowed them to not be farmers and forced them to be well trained to keep them under control.
Frigo Rifero note the quotation marks, as mentioned in the video, this was a popular myth but also a fact, since they have not been challenged to often. If you want to add something please try to structure an argument instead of bluntly insulting me.
“There is no evidence that it was intended to be a suicide mission except that dying for glory was kind of a thing for the Greeks and choosing to stay was pretty suicidal but we’re not sure why he did it but it wasn’t a suicide mission.” I get the Spartan myth is overblown but it really seems like you’re reaching on this one.
I think his definition of suicide mission is confused. Something can be considered a suicide mission in two ways; 1. going into a battle, knowing full well you will probably not survive Or 2. Outsiders looking at it after it took place, deducing it was a suicide mission because there were no survivors.
what i don't get is that if the Athenians could do it at marathon and that the Athenians lost to Sparta to then go and say that Sparta wasn't that strong military speaking is madness
jamit the slayer Peloponnesian war was actually 2 wars. The second war lasted around 30 years and in every year the Spartans would go north and burn everything around Athens. Everytime the Athenians challenged them in major land battle, the spartans won (Athenians always having more numbers). In the end Lysander defeated the Athenian navy as well and totally surrounded Athens. (Spartan Navy built with persian gold). So they were certainly not "winning" and the plague only happened because the Athenians had to import their food from Egypt and other places, because the Spartans had burnt their farms, and poor athenians were hidding behind their walls.
They marched in complex, flexible and effective formations -- but didn't have group exercises? I call bullshit. There's no doubt that the Spartans didn't live up to their reputation. Nobody could. However, when newer historical and archeological research is popularized, there's a strong tendency to over-correct, emphasizing the significance of new findings and dismissing even those older findings that haven't been refuted. In this case, one significant omission is Aristotle's view that the Spartan education turned their youth into animals. This matches very poorly with the video's claim that no contemporary sources described Spartan education as much different from that of other Greek cities.
Thank you. Clearly Invicta's understanding of this matter is lack luster. Hell, half of these were obviously true and the other half were possibly the biggest steaming pile of bullshit to grace this earth. Its sad his channel is ruining its educations reputation like this but luckily there's no shortage of other passionate people researching this stuff, such as yourself.
Yeah, I get he’s trying to use non bias sources, but it sounds like he just took whatever he thought wasn’t true and dismissed it. Spartan training was intense, and they were a bigger military force than he seems to be insinuating.
It’s interesting that no ancient sources mention martial training. Yet, in the segment immediately following that statement, the video details their development of a command structure, and how efficient they were in battle from being able to move together as a unit. Surely, being that disciplined and effective in the ways of war didn’t come naturally. They must’ve trained for weeks on end don’t you think?
PS, I’m asking this question in a way that a student would ask a professor. In other words, I’m not trying to troll at all. Great vid! You just got yourself one more subscriber :)
Manipular legions were able to maintain a remarkable level of discipline, despite not getting much formal training before being called into service. Yes, they did train for weeks on end, but that very well could have been before and during the campaign.
It's actually said that in a lot of cases where the Allies of Lakedaimon (Sparta) requested their help they just sent an officer corp who went and drilled the allied troops to be more effective than their enemies. You have to remember that originally the Hoplite armies were militias who were not there for a full on war but more like a power struggle with only around a 10 percent casualty rate per battle - they were basically just there for honours sake apart from the Spartan military complex and the Athenian ambitions. This only changed in the later centuries with the persian wars so it is normal that the Spartans would have the upper hand in early history.
@@GerackSerack Then fucked we probably are, because if we reject Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Xenophon, and Thucydides as historical sources, then we have little more than poems and plays to go off of.
@@darkfool2000 these guys made shit up all the time. Like Atlantis or the idea that women had less teeth than men. The problems were they were great at arguing and never really lost so people just took them by their word.
Matthew Richter you think Atlantis couldn’t of been a true place that Is now swallowed up by the water?! That’s like saying Pompeii never existed either.
Not a military power are you kidding? During the Peloponnesian War Perikles refused to fight a land battle against them knowing they couldn't match the military might and training of the Spartan forces
yeah spartan myth is one of the reason i fell in love with history, but then time passed and i accept the truth about the mith, hopefuly a lot of people in this comment section video will too, ''Muhhhhh but they are trained from the age of 7''
Everyone knows the numbers are skewed. Shit was 2,000 years ago.. but this video is moronic. They were feared by most because of their bravery. Phalanx battles were usually decided by one army retreating..
Excellent clip. What must also be remembered was that each Spartan soldier had a Helot server and a slave who fought alongside their respective masters in any battle, so that the 300 Spartans where actually 900 in number.
I'd like to throw out that in that last battle the opposing force used hook spears like what we ues for catching tuna this simple change fucked there phalanx tactic right up. Also would like to tell you I'm not a historian I don't read books and I don't know a lot about the romain and pre romain times so yaaaa..
And the Achaemenid empire didn’t really believe much in slavery. Whereas Sparta not only was reliant on Slave Labor but treated it’s slaves brutally...
I mean, that's nice, but Athens was built on the back of slavery as well, and the Athenians forced independant Greek city states into the Delian league just the same.
Per definition I don't get butthurt, since it is a subject of study regarding events that took place roughly two and a half millenia ago. The relevance of it is absolute, since it is pointless to study Sparta without doing so within the context of contemporary societies that existed in Hellas and beyond. The point is not to judge Sparta by today's morality as the past is a foreign country. The point is to judge it by the standards of its contemporaries. Anyone that does so will quickly discover that Sparta was not radically different from most city states. The immediate comparison that people will make is Athens and Sparta, who were both hegemonic powerhouses whose citizen class were free to pursue what they deemed a good life because there were slaves to do the boring things. The key differences between Athens and Sparta are the way they found themselves in charge of their own league. The most important difference being their forms of government as described in depth by Aristotle. Differences notwithstanding, you see two city states whose influence increased exponentially whilst waging a war against a common enemy, only to get in the way of each other's interests and vie for dominance. A phenomenon that we also see during the cold war. It is that recurrance of patterns which causes the classical period to remain an important field of study within the discipline of history. Do not let your emotions and base sense of logic get in the way of your studies.
@World's Biggest Booty Hoes Actually you are the most butthurt person in all the comments, it's even cringy, Are you a black person who never get to study or read a book?, Can't believe you compare old forms of society with nowadays.
First of all the city called Athens was originally built buy blacks from the Nile valley latter control by invading white tribes from main land Europe. Whites keep talking about democracy out of Greece. A fat lie. Name me one ancient nations was a democracy. What about such titles as Pharaoh, king, his holiness, emperor
At the end of this episode you say that Sparta won an empire based on the myth from the Persians at Thermopylae. actually they won that empire by defeating Athens in the Peloponnesian war. Also you the Persian money you mention at the beginning of the episode was needed because Athens had become a thalassocracy and the Spartans being a land power had no way to react to this. Its worth thinking of a navy back then like aircraft in WW2, just changed the shape of warfare in general with the swift movement of troops and control of supply lines. If I remember correctly Athens spent the war hiding behind her walls until defeated. You also seemed to have totally missed the battle of Plataea, perhaps it didn't fit your argument?
i have 2 degrees in history. everyone perceives history differently and that is fine but you need to realise when you are just using it to suit your own arguments and bigotry.
Yakob Izzrael You seem to forget the Roman Empire, Knights, Germanic tribes, and likely a plethora of other 'white' warriors' I'm sure existed too. Also, it seems a lot of the stuff you show is exaggerated myth. One guy against 300? Quoting scripture? You can't be serious.
The 700 Thespians represented all the hoplites of the city, 100% of them! And they accepted to stay, all of them, knowing their city was in the path of Xerxes. This is so much more than 300 guys...
Please can you inform us of your source/s for your material? I am well learned in much of Greek history and find some of your information very contradictory to mainstream thought. Just a thought, but to suggest the Spartans did not knowingly go on a suicide mission is fine, but to suggest that staying, when they could have left, was not a heroic act of sacrifice/suicide is to damn their memory Sir...
I remember hearing that Spartans were banned from competing in the Pankration tournament in the ancient olympics because of their tendency to eye-gouge
@@yopappy6599 Eye gouging and finger breaking were forbidden. Pankration can be translated as "the one who dominated" . It was used in combat as a last resort when the weapons had be broken and all you had to defend yourself was your hands. Spartans didnt want to be obliged by the rules of the olympics so they stopped entering in this sport.
Yeah, vikings are really fetischized in certain quasi-intelectual communities. The differences between the lifestyle and warmaking of the nordic peoples in comparison to other peoples of the time is often HUGELY exaggerated..
The myth is that they were capable soldiers, the reality is that they got absolutely thrashed when they fought any capable army. They got assfucked by Wessex despite being having a vastly more experienced army and using regional dissent to weaken the English Kingdoms, They got beat down by a bunch of poor ass Irishmen, they turned tail and ran whenever a Carolingian force of any size came around, and even the Kievan Rus (who were probably the toughest of the Vikings/Quasi-vikings) got beat down every couple of decades by the Byzantines.
11:45 -- "Neither Plutarch nor Xenophon make mention of martial arts..." -- *HANG ON,* you should be very careful about distinguishing the difference between a Spartan occupation force *residing in Athens* and one which is at home, in Sparta. The Athenian contingent is *far* more likely to engage in behaviours *impossible* in Sparta, itself, if only because there was no easy access to gold and silver. Xenophon, especially, should be considered as an historical source who couldn't see some of the relevant details for historical pursuit, in large part due to the impression of the Spartans he took when they were far afield from Sparta, itself. He doesn't discuss martial arts training, but he *does* discuss the actual army, in the field; the fact that they're mercenaries is largely unimportant. This raises another interesting issue with the Spartan System after Lycurgus -- while it was enduring, so much so that the Romans were able to treat Sparta like a theme park, it wasn't Reformed enough to work when the Spartan armies left Sparta. That is to say, the political pressure inside of the civic boundaries of Sparta kept the Austerity ideal in check; the moment the army marches to the field or to an enemy city, Austerity at an individual level is thrown out of the discussion.
"Couldn't take a punch?" "Never lost a pitched battle in 150 years..." yep. Love your stuff but really contradicting statements in here and alot of comments point out the lack of sources
You are bad at literature it seems. The Spartans were a glass cannon, in fact it was so well known after The battle of Leuctra that Epirus tried to conquer Sparta, which allied themselves with Argos and Corinth during the Phyrric wars, and failed as defending a city was easier than attacking one.
Why? Despite the clickbait title and wild claims, this video only confirms Spartiates were the best warriors with unmatched discipline and very likely also skill and physique. That's what the whole second part of the video is about. The only documented group of soldiers of Ancient Greece that could match or even surpass the Spartiates (Spartiates x Spartans, a difference that Invicta often confuses in this video) was the Theban Sacred Band, which however became dominant at the time of Sparta's decline, when the number of Spartiates was only in hundreds and they were reluctant to wage wars. Spartan armies were always composed in a large part of helots and perioeci, precisely because the Spartiate population was so low. Which is of course completely the opposite of what Invicta said, that Spartans relied on numbers. It would be nice if Invicta focused on facts rather than on interpretating history to fit his clickbait. Spartiates got full citizenship only at age of 30. They could only marry and have legitimate heirs then. THAT was their main problem. As you saw in the video, their population was ridiculously low by 400 BC. They simply could not afford to go to every battle, because they would die out. If your population is in hundreds and half of it is on the battlefield, well...you propably do not want that, do you? Logic, huh. "Thermopylae gave Sparta its moment of fame." - Hahahaha, yeah. This "moment" is still here 2500 years later. And it will be forever. This comment just further shows how "objective" Invicta is. Dunno why. Hey Invicta, you were born in Athens or something?
I don't think there is any 'myth' that the Spartans were particularly aggressive, it has been put into popular culture perhaps, but the 'myth' of the Spartans is that they were stoic (in attitude, not philosophy ofc), and especially skilled warriors, which seems to be borne out by the evidence, in actual fact. It does not follow that they would therefore be aggressive or that they would win more battles, since so many other factors come into play in warfare. Anything else may have arisen in popular culture through developments from these facts.
Sorta true but also cherry picked interpretations to back up your thesis. An opposite interpretation can easily be made. Which is typical when it comes to Sparta. I favor Sparta over Athens although I can understand why one would consistently interprete to their disadvantage. Too few coherent sources but for those who'd like some coherent and unbiased interpretations here's a few books i'd recommend: 1) Sparta at War: Strategy, Tactics and Campaigns, 950-362 2) In the Name of Lykourgos: The Rise and Fall of the Spartan Revolutionary Movement (243-146BC) 3) The Spartan Army 4) etc Plenty of good books about it. Sparta is like everything a grey matter. They were in the microcosmos that was Hellas the premiere warriors, professional and trained to be the best at what they needed to be. High morale, a lot of social pressure to perform, drilled to be better at moving and acting as hoplites. The lack of cavalry etc is relative as cavalry though useful in the context of Hellas and especially their homeland is limited in use. Also they actually innovated and improved phalanx warfare more than people seem to credit them with. Using the runners, experimenting first with lightly armored hoplites and especially tinkering with advanced drill. They also treated their women insanely good compared with the 'pseudo democracy' that was Athens or many others. On the other hand they also had a society that by accident had grown entirely crooked due to the takign of Messenia. Slavery was rampant in Hellas but the unique and psychedelic result of the Messenian Wars was surreal though only with the hindsight of the centuries to come does one truly realize what had happened. Furthermore Spartans were the elite warriors of Greece and probably the Western World at the time but they were actually introverts and defensive always occupied with their own business. They were crueller than other Greeks in some regards. Fascist in some. But more democratic in others. They were culturally good at dance, music and had a badly misunderstood excellent ability to tackle their own way of diplomacy and communication but they were too focussed on war and agriculture to develop the concept of trade. As for the 300. Not a single fact diminishes their sacrifice within the context and zeitgeist of the time. Like many other moments in history, these 300 stood their ground for what they believed was right, for their king, their country, their ideas. And with postmodern hindsight we might judge em because of our so called 'superior' virtues but within the context of time and place what they did took balls. Insane balls. Sparta knew an example had to be set or the coalition would falter. And they hoped to lock the Persians there for a long time but it is pretty clear they didn't think their odds high. The fact they and some allies lingered to let the others escape and allow Sparta to show how one Polis can sacrifice for others... says enough. Overall I rate Sparta morally in the right post Persian Wars. And morally in the wrong after they defeated Athens. They were justified to deal with Athens Imperium and they grew corrupted in turn being too introverted and isolationist to deal with money, power and interaction with others. The tale of Sparta is a tragic one and there is much to learn from it. ...and I certainly wouldn't want to be a citizen hoplite facing any of their barracks-raised warriors.
World's Biggest Booty Hoes maby you should do some research and not rely on someone else to give you information if you did any research at all you would know how wrong he is
@World's Biggest Booty Hoes So you want him to buy a go-pro , get a time machine , and make an interwiew with Leonidas himself to prove all of that? WRITTEN RECORD IS ALL WE HAVE YOU DUM DUM
Hmm... Herodotus wrote his "Histories" around 50 years after Thermopylae. He was born in 484 bC (Thermopylae was 4 years later in 480 bC) and died in 425 bc. About the rest, you are primarily referring to historical hypotheses on the training given in "Agoge".
Herodotus may be known as the father of history, but he is also called The Father of lies. He recorded everything he heard and made no real distinction between what was rumor or hyperbole vs actual known facts. In short, he is a very unreliable source.
@@talyn3932 There's a word for people who call Herodotus an unreliable source: freshman. Nah, you're not wrong, it's just such a naive oversimplification of the relationship between historians and Herodotus. We know not to take him literally, but we also need him as a baseline for constructing much of ancient history. Besides he's right about far more than he's wrong about, so what's your point? Toss him out and know nothing?
Did you even watch the video? He said they were expected to join the agoge ath the age of 7 and after 13 years at the age of 20 they trained for another 10 years to become citizens, which included things like poetry, dancing and basic weapons training.
Sparta had no training, but had better tactics, better officers and could outmaneuver their opponents. The beat Corinth, Athens and intimidated Alexander the Great into leaving them alone. I smell a heavy does of iconoclasm in this narrative.
This kind of a classic example of making a point and then taking that point far past any reasonable case for it. Sparta and Athens were the two superpowers of the ancient world with Sparta’s military having the most fearsome reputation. That it might have been blown out of proportion is a fair point, arguing there was no basis for it is ridiculous.
*298 of the 300 surviving Spartans. Two were missing from the last stand at Thermopylae. One was injured and couldn’t fight, and the other was sending a message to allied troops and didn’t return in time for the fight.
Nope. One had his eye injured from disease. The other is said to have been mostly blinde. Both were told to head back to sparta. One charged the persians like an idiot. The other went back and was disgraced. Later he did manage to kill 7 persians in another battle before dying though. But he didn't sent any message.
This video reminds me a lot about psychologies history. You have people who have a strong belief in psychoanalytical psychology and people with strong beliefs in behavioral psychology. Both are psychology but have very distinguishing differences when it comes to treatment, causes, and importance. I have professors that praise Freud as a god of psychology, which is somewhat fair seeing how he is the father of psychoanalysis. Then you have professors that really hate him and claim most of his ideas were quite over the edge which I also agree with. But in each case the professors never discounted the contribution of both psychologies. You think that since there is this imagery of Spartan discipline, immortality, and military prowess that the best thing to deny any of it. I don’t know enough about Spartan history to argue with you or your source but your wording is quite troubling. As mentioned by others you seem to only include parts of the story and only sources that agree with your perspective. If you want to make a completely unbiased video then you would show evidence on both sides and then critique the reliability. Many psychologists may not like Freud but none of them would ever deny his contribution. Just as people will never deny the contribution of Watson and Skinner. There is a middle ground, something this video does not have. And to anyone who says I’m butt hurt over this imagery of the Spartans not being some bad ass warrior culture. I don’t give two shits about the Spartans or the Athenians. The only Greek civilization that ever really peaked my interest were the Macedonians. I don’t think the Spartans were immortal, since you know they don’t exist anymore. Honestly I think a lot of you that are against the notion of Spartan romanticism are just people who like to be apart of the counter culture. You think that disliking popular things makes you appear cool when no one really gives a fuck what you or I think. If you want to be apart of the counter culture so be it, but if you’re doing it just because you want to seem “unique” and think it makes you appear as some sort of intellectual then I have to shatter that idea with the reality that it makes you look more like an attention seeking hipster
What wording was troubling? It's been pointed out:Sparta wasn't war machines while other cities were more to be. If anything,their battle formation was slightly more effective. The way they disciplined their force (including their allies) was,according to the video,"impressive" and helped them win some. But that didn't make dominating,just win some lose some. If anything,the ruling class of Sparta was smart,cunning,manipulative to enjoy their lifes,which I would say wasn't necessarily a bad thing in that time.
Can we talk about how Leonidas knew he was outflanked, sent mant of the Greeks back, took the rear guard so they could get away, and thought to the death despite knowing he was screwed? And how about how none of the Spartans surrendered? There wrre even accounts of them continuing to fight despite their king dying. I believe it was Herodotus that said despite their weapons being destroyed, they began throwing rocks, punching, biting, etc, all while trying to keep their dead king from being taken away by the Persians.
Excellent video! Spartans were an intriguing society of extremes and like the Vikings they have been mythologized for being outliers. Reality was far more complicated and does them more credit. They were human beings, not demigods.
I generally enjoy your videos but this one lost me. You can’t claim “the ancient sources don’t mention any training for war” then minutes later discuss the Spartans unique chain of command, discipline, logistics, drill formations and ability to efficiently manoeuvre on the battlefield. None of the above would be achievable without regular, sustained training. I mean, look at the pre-Marian Roman Army - it wasn’t staffed by professional soldiers, but they spent considerable time training (route marches, individual fighting drills, large scale formation attacks) prior to major campaigns and battles. If they didn’t, Rome would never have survived long enough to be worthy of historical memory. Why would the Spartan military be any different?
but do those ancient sources mention any training for war though? I think you glossed over the point that their training couldn't of been like modern bootcamp, as ancient sources don't mention war training. They certainly did train for war, but not as fanatically as pictured in popular culture. I don't think there is a single civilization in history that didn't train for war...
Mr Muzu Evidently you don’t understand how the Greek Civilisations worked. Sparta did have military training and all Spartans were soldiers for a great portion of their life. Obviously they were modern style boot camps, that’s a ridiculous thing to claim. What made Sparta better however is that every other Greek state couldn’t afford to have professional soldiers, because they needed all their manpower on other, more necessary things such as agriculture. A “Hoplite” wasn’t trained in any way formally, if you had the funds to buy armour then you had the privilege (because that’s what it was back then) to be a Hoplite in your city’s phalanx. Sparta, having conquered Messenia, enabled the use of Helots for all the other stuff, so that actual Spartans could be soldiers. The video is actually incredibly inaccurate, if you look at their sources there’s no books in there at all - it’s all just documentaries found from across the Internet.
Yeah... he did kind of trail off and lose focus on what he was trying to say in this video. He seemed so focused on showing that Spartans were nothing like how they're depicted in 300, that he ended up contradicting himself a couple of times. Though he is right in that Sparta were not particularly amazing warriors, but rather a creature of reputation and myth. As for their military prowess, they were ahead of the curve when it came to *tactics* for some time, however once the rest of Greece caught up, they really were nothing special militarily.
So basically the Spartans were superior soldiers at least in terms of heavy infantry to other Greek city states but they were not as superior as the myth which they themselves cultivated let on. Also doesn't the video indicate that we don't know why the Spartans and others stayed behind. I thought that they did so in order that the main army could make good on its escape.
The Thermopylae was infact about Leonidas decided to hold in order for the majority of the others to retreat, since they have been backstabbed. Leonidas realised they could not be able to retreat all intact, so he put a small force to slow the Persians, and decided to join this stand.
What? What's the myth about janissaries? They were the mamluks of the Ottoman Empire basically but nothing they did was really outlandish or mythisized
I remembered listening to this video a couple years back and it stuck with me. I've now read a fair amount on the Spartans and much of this video now seems biased and too reliant on hostile sources and historians
That's because the views of critics often avoid self-aggrandisement. But, it's also true that they may also be overly biased on the other direction. Then you later compare the insider view vs the outsider view and draw an interpretation. This is because written history doesn't always reflect true history.
@@domenicc1839 he didnt really said there where lies. he said that the information was like the spartan myth is an entire lie when really only 80% wasnt truth but 20% was
@@domenicc1839 Easy. He lied about Thermopylae not being a suicide mission. He lied about the degree to which we could say Herotodus was biased. But the most easily debunked is at ~9:15 when he says the agoge was not tied to battlefield training, which is directly contradicted by both Xenophon and Plutarch (the two primary sources for the agoge). Plutarch describes mock fighting and directly says the training was calculated to make them conquer in battle. Xenophon goes so far as to say "there can be no doubt" the education was planned to make them better fighting men. Invicta not only doubts, he straight up lies about it.
Apparently, the one who made this video lacks knowledge about ancient Greece as a whole or was not well informed. Spartans were known for their military training as they were taken from their families at the age of 7 (ΑΓΩΓΗ). They perfected the battle formation of the Greek phalanx and their weaponry was mainly focused on this battle formation (big shields, short daggers). Unfortunately there is so much more to say about their courage and commitment that a simple comment in this video is not enough. Last but not least, I would like to, personally, thank the person who made this video, because it will make people who are interested in ancient Sparta and the Greek culture as a whole to search the truth for themselves. Let's not forget where the majority of todays advanced world was when the Greeks were making history
@@JaelaOrdo The reason they 'apparently' had brutal military training is because that's exactly what the sources tell us they had. Those would be the same sources that are being used to claim, via absence of evidence, that they didn't train with weapons (despite Xenophon specifically saying it was military training and that they engaged in 'mock battles') Technically, Herodotus never said the Spartans has spears at Thermopylae, either, so I guess we could assume they used harsh language or yknow... we can use our fucking brains and not use the space between the lines to insert whatever regressive thing you desperately want to believe.
It depends a lot on what else you compare it to. If everyone else writes in detail about weapons training, and the Spartans don't, then answering why is important.
The Spartan wank reminds of the ol samurai wank that was all over the place about 10 years ago. However it seems like people have gotten over the samurai wank and realized that they weren't the invincible warriors who could destroy modern tanks that they may have initially thought to have believed. Unfortunately the same cannot be the same for the current spartan wank.
Because the spartan is a western cultural thing so everybody wants to cling to it as much as they can. I've personally grown to hate that movie, 300, due to how overused and overmentioned it is, although initially I actually loved it (even bought the PSP game).
@Dami Fash but the fact that alot of people view the movie as some kind of reliable piece of history film and attach themselves to the Spartans fighting against barbarian eastern hordes is very prevalent. ever heard of the "Molon Labe" people?
This video seems to just say “The Spartans weren’t invincible” which everybody knows as logically, there is no military force in history that was undefeated in any war. Arguably except for Alexander the Great, though so much of what we know about him and his exploits may be largely based on myths, and people argue over whether he may have lost the battle of Hydaspes. But yeah, Napoleon (even at his height) wasn’t invincible, nor was Frederick the Great, nor Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan, or Richard the Lionheart etc. Not even the greatest military power in world history (the modern US military) is invincible.
To be fair, Admiral Yi's victories were very well recorded and the the fact that even his biggest enemies admitted he remained undefeated goes to show he never lost. Emperor Akbar was also undefeated in battle, but that one can be given to the fact that there really was no one who could challenge him around the Indian subcontinent. But yes, Alexander and Ramses II's undefeated status is questionable because of unreliable records from the passage of time.
The video is trying to say that the Spartans soldiers were good, but not great. They were nowhere near, for example, Roman legions, Napoleon's grand army or Mongol's horse archers as the world believed them to be.
Sandon Kamaunu a losing record? Let’s count them. Wins: 1. American Revolutionary War 2. Barbary Wars 3. Mexican-American War 4. Civil War 5. Indian Wars 6. Spanish-American War 7. World War I 8. World War II 9. First Gulf War 10. Second Gulf War 11. War In Afghanistan Inconclusive: 1. War of 1812 2. Korean War Lost 1. Vietnam War That’s a record of 11-2-1. You’d bust a load in your pants if your football team started the season with that record. Keep in mind that Korea and Vietnam were not even outright defeats or draws. Korea had to be stopped because of the Chinese getting ready to intervene. Vietnam was blown to hell. The US was forced to withdraw due to how unpopular the war was. Obvious winning record aside (which only grows if you factor in all the minor wars that the US also participated in, but let’s not), the United States has an undeniable position as the leading force in the world. When America mobilizes for war, the great powers of the old world follow suit. This unquestioned role as world leader is supported further when you remember that the United Nations not only meets in New York but that the US is a permanent member of its security council. Never in the history of the world has a military power been so dominant as to practically head a coalition of all the world’s most powerful nations. Throw in the fact that the US has the most technologically advanced fighting force in world history and close the book on this discussion. Am I saying that the modern US is invincible? No. The US cannot win a prolonged conventional land war against China or Russia. But then again, nobody can either. The geography ensures it is a monumental task and a costly venture. It’s a logistical nightmare. However, Russia and China do not even _possess_ the capability to launch a conventional land war on the United States let alone have a realistic expectation of winning one.
I think one of the greatest misunderstanding about Sparta regarding their "Military Proficiency" is the fact that their education was mainly focused in the creation of a "spirit de corps" in their ranks, which was essential for maintaining the formation of the phalanx. The spartans were harsh in social punishments for perceived cowardice in battle. But, it's not that they were "super men". In fact, Thebes was able to defeat Sparta when Theban reformers were able to instill the same tenacity in their ranks. I think the roman army is a good example of creating a far better army of semi-militia citizens (in their first incarnation), simply because they were much more flexible in social mores.
@@Prometheus7272 Right, this guy obviously came into this video project trying to sensationalize and shit on Sparta and its ideals. Fact remains that they were by far the most feared, best trained Hoplite armies in all of ancient Greece. You can read plenty of sources from across the land and see this. I mean, this entire states foundation was built on a warrior ethos. They purposely made themselves poor for f*cks sake to wash away what parts of modernity were affecting their Greek brothers North of them.
@@arroganceinvictus This guy is a tool. Regardless of what you say about them. Leonidas did stand at Thermopylae and he truly believed he was gonna die. Thats a fact, he told his soldiers to retreat while he stayed with a chosen few. The spartans were very superstitious bunch and the oracle of delphi told him he would die in that battle and he still stayed to defend greece and buy time. That is something to be honored.
@@arroganceinvictus Spartan armies had a big reputation, but their actual battle records don't back that up. The lost as much as they won during the 4th and 5th century, their record was no better than average. And although having a feared reputation is a good intimidation tactic, which it was, it doesn't last forever as it was witnessed during the end period of Sparta.
@@dadude4719 You say this like you're telling me something. Their military dominance was long over by the 4th and 5th centuries. That's like saying Western Rome was a weak Empire who couldn't defend their borders based on the Goths sacking them after their prime.
So, if you're a Carthaginian, looking at the Romans coming at you during the first Punic War, why would you hire a Spartan mercenary (Xanthippus) as Polybius mentions if they're more known for their political prowess over their military dominance? Sometimes, I think historians seek relevance in todays world by theorizing against known histories. But, I could be wrong.
Hannibal Barca's victories against Rome was entirely his own. Him crossing the Alps and his performance at Cannae was entirely his unique work and not some Spartan. No Greek has ever achieved what he had done. The Romans clearly had better units than Hannibal Barca's units yet Hannibal Barca still won multiple times to the point that Rome had to use the Fabian way while Alexander's units are clearly superior to that of the Persians. Plus, the Spartans are only good at using infantry and not other things such as cavalry. But Hannibal Barca is not only good at using his infantry but also other units. In other words, it was his smart mind that made the different while the Greeks are only great at using infantry units and following traditional established ways. Sorry.
@@jasondelrosario5523 You're not wrong about Hannibal at all...but you're talking about two different wars. Xanthippus was solicited during the first Punic War. Hannibal swung his bat during the 2nd. Completely different stuff going on.
No, that's God telling you that you will become the man that will unite humanity, if only you send me 300 dollars per month. Rise oh Great of all Greats: the power is yours to be taken!
their video sucks, read herodotous. they lie so much. it says some historically correct events but also says many things that are not written by Herodotous. F.E. thermopylae was not a suicide mission but when the Greeks learned about Efialtis, Leonidas decided to make his last stand and to buy time for the rest of the army to fall back. also they lack of the knowledge of the spartan philosophy and they do not know that ancient greeks were fighting all the time with each other OR they are trying to tarnish the Greek legacy.
@@mobeenkhan824 indeed. A spartan hoplite was trained from seven years old up to thirty years old. 23 years of training. That's why they had perioikous and helots. To do the jobs for then so that they can train the whole day.
You speak of the way their phalanxes could move across the battlefield and maneuver without seeming to understand the training required to accomplish this.
I remember reading about a battle in History of the Peloponnesian War, where the Spartans had their left flank, I believe, wrapped up. They defeated the hoplites that enveloped them through sheer skill, and caused a rout. I can understand being critical of Plutarch, but Thucydides was there at their waxing, and he had reason to be biased against them, but he still reported on their superiority in all things infantry. Just pointing out that they were in fact, incredible fighters that built an unparalleled martial society. That's the only thing admirable about the Spartans though.
I think Leuctra can be attributed more to Epamindos' brillance rather then Spartan failures. The decision to shift the Theban phalanx in depth to the left side of the line rather then the right was highly Clausewitzian in nature, knocking out the Spartan centre of gravity. I mean a 50 rank deep phalanx....bold move.
Commissar0 the video isnt trying to prove that the spartans were a failure, just that they were a top tier greek power but not for the reasons people think. We will be hosting a livestream with the historian to answer specific questions. For now check out their post here: www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6rvusy/is_the_military_worship_of_the_spartans_really/
I'll check it out! Oh I wasn't attempting to undermine the general thesis of the video. Just throwing my own 2 cence into the debate. Currently doing a degree module on Ancient Warfare and quite honestly the opportunity to use the information attained through research is few and far between!
Romano Coombs Spartans decided to let themselves be humiliated after Leuctra? Come on. They were top notch for centuries. But Thebes destroyed the Spartan backbone when they ended their system of alliances and liberated the helots. There was no way that such an underpopulated polis could regain their power, even if Alexander hadn't come later to mop the floor with Greece. This is the kind of myth stuff that this video was meant to end
Thank you for the video , Finally someone who lets all those know that 300 did not stand alone against millions. Want to look at someone who outnumbered still managed to successfully win, Alexander the Great.
Whether they were the people we think they were or not, king Leonidas and the other Spartans did fought to the end. Even if they didn't think this would be their last battle they were there nevertheless. They could have just stood back home drinking and dancing and singing as you said but they chose to go and fight an enemy against terrible odds. And they certainly, certainly weren't no confident at all about winning and they couldn't have been no matter how much they themselves or anyone else thought they were the best of the best. It was a sacrifice indeed.
Sky Waybright, I enjoyed the film but i wouldn't say i'm a fanboy over a film lmao Yes nobody did you get it this time? And no mate i'm not a number, I'm human if you really want to know.
I mean, it's quite possible that King Leonidas was a genuinely brave and heroic person. There's nothing saying that the Spartans were cowardly or weak, just that the Spartans as a whole were not nearly as exceptional as the stories/propaganda make them out to be. There are exceptional individuals within every society though and maybe Leonidas was an exceptional Spartan.
There were 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans that stayed behind to fight with the 300 Spartans... Everyone always seems to forget that. Sparta does not get all the credit for it. The other Greeks fought just as valiantly and heroically as the Spartans did.
I'm not so sure about the accuracy of this video. What's next? Are you going to try to tell us that Spartans didn't go into combat wearing only a helmet and airbrushed abs?
No if we see that in Platae the Persians left 200000 men to continue the struggle and the cause that forced Persians had to return because the empire used most of its labor force as army, the one million is not over stretching.
Out of all the misspellings of Thermopylae in the comments, Thermomonopoly is quite possibly my favourite.
Free Form Jazz Hey! Thermo-Monopoly is my favorite game too. Using heat death to end the game and heat units for money makes it better.
Remember when Leia was in Jabba's palace in Star Wars and threatened him with a Themonopoly detonator? Good times.
Thurmanmurmanopoly
They're well known for their flamers.
ΘΕΡΜΟΠΥΛΕΣ there you go the correct greek spelling
You are probably paid in Persian coin.
Andras Libal TRAITOR! TRAITOR!
TRAITOR! TRAITOR!
Hahaha
Voted Best UA-cam comment 2019
lol
:D
Who was the arch enemies of Corinthians?
São Paulo.
Comentario underrated!
PERDI
Perdi tbm
1000iq reference
@@gustavomedina6117 Those green bastards, the have more money than players. Corinthians is the greatest.
Meanwhile in parallel Earth: The visionary director Zack Snyder brings the much anticipated comic book adaptation - 400 Thebans - this fall
And when that is made into a stage play or a musical, who is going to run that?🤔🙄
The Thespians, of cause😉😂🤣
If it features Eva Green nude who cares what the rest of the movie contains.
I hope he'll feature the Sacred Band. I'll do the casting for him
Was it 400 or 300? (150 couples I thought)
700 Thespians will follow.
The Spartans just had the best PR team. :-) I mean, erecting a monument near Thermopylae, made the story of 300 timeless.
Ancient authors were much more generous and praised military of the other cities, too.
Woah hey man cool to see you here, I've been loving your videos as of late! We should try and figure out some sort of partnership. Feel free to drop me a message on my business email
Same here - your collaboration with Epic is, well, epic. :-) Will send you an e-mail soon.
Please please!
Watches will glee as two great YTubers prepare to collab together....
Kings and Generals Wasnt that epic tbh, they re-did a series that has been greatly overdone. The conquests of Alexander has been covered in full length by Bazz Battles. Not creative from Epic History channel, I would like to see something creative from Oakley maybe cover the diadochi wars of succession?
so... are you suggesting that they DIDN'T dine in hell?
they did but in hades
Hades was for the many, the elite thought they'd get better treatment in Elysium
again that demonstrate the classism of those evil motherfuckers who wanted best only to themselves aka savage minded
pretty moronic to think a few went savage on many like it hasn't happened till this very moment, you must be an ox thinking then was any different than now
Nah, they served the tables.
Wish we knew more about the Thespians. Their city state was small but they sacrificed 700 lives at Thermopylae which was probably most of their fighting force. Glad to see in recent times they got the recognition they deserve.
My great great great great grandfather 👴🏾 once seen one and got its hair samples and an gritty pixel like painting he did quickly so was shaky and hard to see for some but it’s all legit
Thespians not getting enough recognition is definitely not a problem anymore, no.
They got the Oscars, the Emmys, the Golden Globes...
#ThespiansLivesMatter
@@florentinoariza4026 #Thespianslives mattered
Didn't Thebes surrender to Xerxes?
So the spartans didn't fight in leather underwear...
Only idiots would fight in that
Yep
@@pjanicattheisco6991 Well they are Greek.
Of course they did, stop thinking this blasphemy
Normal username because we greeks are hot us fuck lol especially the ladies honhinhonhon
Spartans were the masters of psychological warfare - they understood propaganda better than anyone. The movie 300 can best be viewed as what the Spartans would have produced as a propaganda if they had movies back then.
The Spartans knew branding!
lol what a load of bull
Yup, pretty much, john.
The 300 movie is made from Americans right?😂😂😂 Spartans where way cooler and not naked pornstars
Good lord this comments section... I never realized there were so many fanboys for Spartans... O_o
Another damn samurai cult.
@@Welther47 Please tell me what is the bull? The Spartans were very much on maintaining their image, what modern folks would call branding. And I would like to assume (yes, I know where that leads) that you know that Spartans did not produce movies (they were so primitive they did not even have Wi-Fi! Wow, did you know that, or did I just change your entire view of history? I am guessing the latter)
“Their training wasn’t special.”
1 minute later:
“Their unique training granted them superior discipline to their contemporaries which was the key to their dominance.”
??????????
Pied Piper by modern standards it isn't anything crazy. By ancient standards it was god tier. We're infinitely more athletic than our contemporaries. Hell, the whole marathon thing became famous because the guy ran and died. Nowadays people run multiple marathons a week or even a day for fun
Tyrese Novak I was highlighting the contradiction in the video :) he says one thing, then the exact opposite.
Also the man who died did so after running from Athens to Sparta, a distance far greater than that of Marathon to Athens (the distance of the modern race.)
@@JoJoZaka our contemporaries would be those who are alive rn. as you were comparing between people today and people of the ancient period that would be the wrong word.
From what I understood he was talking about individual and physical military performance when he said their training wasn't special. And when he talked about their unique training he was talking about their military organization and specialization.
@@JoJoZaka The original marathon run you refer too
"He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days and back. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) to the battlefield near Marathon and back to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (nikomen[8] "We win!"), as stated by Lucian chairete, nikomen("hail, we are the winners")[9] and then collapsed and died."
As a Greek i found the video Extremely informative and very very well created, But i have to tell you this video is exactly what we are teached in school history , For some reason the movie Gave strangers and non greeks the spartan myth, It was never written or historically mentioned in any official history book. Now i have to tell you that you have some information wrong about this video.
1) Spartans and all greek city states had martian art training. (Pankration,Wrestling)
2) Spartans started Millitary training at the age of 16.
3) Spartans were not allowed to Surrender BUT that Doesn't mean they couldn't flee or retreat from the battle after realising they were losing. Also even surrendering was illigal for a spartan there was no punishment for doing so at all, Except the fact that most likely you would be spitted on, mocked, bullied, and sometimes even slapped by the people.
4) Most part of their millitary training was to hold formation and moving in phalanx.
5) Spartans invented the turtle formation Later known from the Romans as "Testudo formation"
6) In thermopylae, only Leonidas and his 300 Royal guard and 700 thespian veterans (Old men mostly) stayed to defend. There is no mention of Thebans, however Retreating army were commanded by Leonidas to leave.
7) Spartans were indeed better at phalanx formation than any other Greek because they could hold their ground, due to the fact that they were not wearing sandals while in battle, unlike most greek city states.
8) Battle of Thermopylae numbers at Rough estimates
(8.000 - 10.000) Greek allies vs (150.000-250.000) Persians (Which 10.000 of them were the "Immortals").
9) Sparta Had semi-proffessional army, The proffessionals and career Soldiers were mostly officers and would also "police" internally. This was common on all Greek city states.
10) Spartans had actually very good calvary. But in percentages 1 out of 10 would become a cavalry trooper. And he had to be rich and high class citizen to be able to own a horse.
So they were trained by aliens ?
@@danny1229c I Didn't understand your question. In which part you are reffering to ?
@@pilokxx1609 spartan boys were taken from their families from 8 years old not 16 .
@@pasal99 I said "millitary" training started at 16, Agoge started obviously from the age of 7.
@@pilokxx1609 Λάθος μου τότε.
"They were admired for political rather than military achievements." Tell that to the Athenians when Lysander came knocking.
Lysander was too OP
Did Lysander get to use his Mega Gyarados against the Athenians?
Yes the Athenians, after they had stepped on every rake possible then made more rakes to step on and even then Lysander needed a whole navy from The Persians to close the deal
Yeah most of Lysander's men were not Spartans, they were Spartan allies, Sparta relied on political influences to even have a large enough army to challange the Athenians.
Come home with your shield or on it.
17:18 "...they were strong men that couldn't take a punch when it finally came..." I mean I understand all these myth around the Spartans but don't you think you're going a bit to far with that line?
Most of the video is inaccurate anyway
It’s a metaphor dumbass
@@Malbeth_The_Loremaster it`s a shitty metaphor then. They fought very well..
There's no reason it would be. Unless someone's fanboyism for Spartan's runs so deep they can't take can't take a nifty turn of phrase.
not at all They pretty much where a epic fail over hyped hyprocrits that are 100% pussys thats why they where known for there woman spreading there legs to not die and the men where pussys as well.
"the Spartans, while they continued to practice the rigors of discipline, were superior to all others; but now, they are regularly beaten in actual war. Their previous superiority was not due to the training they gave their youths, but because they alone had discipline and their enemies had none." from Aristotle's Politics Book 8
Also mentioned in Plato's republic, and probably many more sources I have personally not read.
@@sanserof7 I've read all or most of Republic, and if I remember correctly, he, Plato - through the voice of Socrates - mostly praised the Spartan political system. Aristotle criticized it in his Politics but not in a part that I read. I guess I'll have to get to that book again.
@@jeffbenton6183 I think he mostly praised it in comparison to the Athenian government. He saw both systems as flawed, but he saw democracy as the absolute worst type of government if I recall correctly.
@@sanserof7 I distinctly remember Socrates saying that. Though he also said that one advantage of democracy was that it's the only system where you're actually allowed to compare it to the other ones.
@ Or at least had that reputation during the time of Aristotle (Aristotle was a contemporary of Alexander). The argument of the Reddit "ask historians" page on which this video is based argues that, since we have no contemporary sources of the Spartans being any more martial than other Greeks prior to the Battle of Thermopylae (and all later sources use this as their earliest piece of evidence), they weren't especially skilled prior to this and conqured the whole Peloponnese (except Argos) only by superior numbers.
[NOTE: The video does not argue that the Spartans were anything but top tier Greek warriors, just that they were better for different reasons than people think. Watch a more nuanced discussion with the historian here: ua-cam.com/video/aP-ipqWEAAE/v-deo.html] Thanks to the support of our Patrons I was able to afford to not only hire a kickass artists but also pay for a PhD historian to advise on the research/script. From what I understand we have actually been able to reach the "cutting edge" of academic thought on this subject which is amazing! Again huge props go to Dr. Roel Konijnendijk! We have also been discussing the possibility of hosting a livestream event to follow up on the episode and answer community questions. Would you be interested in this and what sorts of questions do you want answered?
Invicta This is a fantastic video! Hopefully I can use this for a college history project in the future. Would love to see more of these videos. Possibly addressing the legends of the Aztecs, William Wallace, or Templars?
Yeah......
Thermopylae was the biggest obstacle to get through while trying to calm everybody down.
Thermopylae was definitely a heroic feat, and like all political factions, Sparta capitalised on it BIG time.
Most Historions believe that Leonitisis decision was a mix of both military common sense and religious belief.
Someone had to cover the retreat & The Oracle said, he had to die, so sparta could live.
No way of knowing for sure, but those are the THEORIES (As in MAYBE, maybe that is why. Maybe he thoat he could kill all of them.)
Another Great Video!
Yes
Yes, would love that. great video though I don't understand why you doubted the Spartan child infanticide. I understand the Spartans are probably somewhat overrated but when you consider the ancient acceptance of infanticide, they're authoritarian state, strict disciplined population and rapidly shrinking citizen pool it makes sense to me. Thanks for another beautiful and fascinating video, can't wait for the next.
The Athenians proudly sponsor this video
You seem to assume Sparta and Athens hated each other but it really wasn't that simple. There were many Athenian authors that were pro Spartan. In fact, much of the Spartan myth comes from pro Spartan Athenians like Xenophon. Second, Athens and Sparta were allies in many conflcits. And there's several occasions where they showed moderation when they were rivals. Both Sparta and Athens opposed to destroying the other city when it was defeated: Sparta opposed Thebe's idea of destroying Athens, and Athens opposed to the Thebans idea of destroying Sparta (though in this instance Thebes basically got away with it and essentially destroyed Spartan power forever). Diplomacy is always more complex, and your enemies becomes your allies when it's convenient. In fact, the Peloponnesian wars started due to Corinthian pressure, Sparta really didn't want to engage against Athens at first.
@@jmiquelmb I think it was a joke lmao
@@gaiusmanus7959 I know it was a joke, but the joke implied that this video was biased against Sparta and that was my answer
@@jmiquelmb but Athenian politics were basically hatred towards the sparta
Yes, many facts about Sparta are nothing but Myths. Yes, the movie 300 is a Hollywooddrama. Still, there is a reason why Sparta and Athen were the greatest powerhouses in ancient Greece, both in society and military perspectives.
dont underastimate theben (wich beat sparta)
then why did the Spartans win the Syracusae war with only 2,000 while the Atheneans sent 10,000 men? obviously because you don t know history, you just watch stupid videos like this in youtube
Wrong. Corinth was a very large and powerful commerce State in Greece, which colonized the Western Mediterranean, eventually establishing cities such as Massilia and Syracuse. Pella in Macedonia eventually grew, conquered all of Greece, and eventually ended up conquering much of the known civilized world at the time.
I am really tired of hearing about thebes. Thebes won one battle against sparta and lost almost every other battle they ever fought. They were crushed by the spartans at nemea, joined the persians and were crushed by the athenians at platees, and finally they only won leuctra because of better leadership and numbers.
@@agesilausii7759 Thebes won at Leuctra because Sparta was an archaic City-State with no longer sustainable Spartiate population and had made little to no attempt to innovate and reform their Army away from the Hoplite Phalanx, despite the inherent vulnerability of the Hoplite Phalanx in their right flank. All Thebes had to do was beef up their left flank to meet this flank, and that is what defeated Sparta.
While this video i reasonably correct there is a slant which may give people the wrong impression. We know that Thucydides wrote in his Peloponnesian war that when the Spartans surrendered after the Battle of Sphacteria all of Greece was shocked, so that by 425 BC most of Greece considered the Spartan war machine as supreme. Thucydides was Athenian and was contemporary, so even if assume Herodotus was bias, Thucydides was certainly not.
While the date is in question and may have occurred after Sparta lost a battle against Argos, the Spartans basically created a professional military, which no other Greek city possessed until the end of the Peloponnesian war. It was only at Leuctra that the Thebans, using a phalanx 50 men deep, managed to defeat the Spartan army. The slave state Sparta created required a permanent standing army in order to retain power, which gave it’s a military force no other city state could match. Unfortunately for the Spartans it was also a force the Spartans could never risk, which is why they declined after Leuctra.
It should also be noted Spartan women had rights and privileges no other Greek city gave their women, so it was not all bad at Sparta. Spartan women also worked out and were considered to have rather appealing hard bodies.
Makes sense
This video is propaganda
"Reasonably correct", that s a bit mild, don t you think.
My own ancestor Xenophon was so enamoured by Spartan military supremacy that he left Athens to follow them on compains (especially after he was exiled), and went on to develop their cavalry practices and weaponry...
50 men deep phalanx ? I think you should check that number
1:00: Those hardened elite warriors staring at an obvious rain of arrows coming, and they're like,
"Should we raise our shields?"
"Eeeeh no let's stare at it for a few more seconds just to make sure"
John Doe maybe they want to die quickly
When you got high AGI & LUK.
But part of the myth is true, the unintended sacrifice of the 300 was an effective propaganda moment that served to help unite Greece to fight off the Persians.
The original plan was to catch the arrows with their teeth, but then they decided that probably wasn't such a good idea.
When else to you see such a rare phenomenon
This video is brought to you by: the persian & athenian gang
Ew change your profile pic
Kyle you done goofed
if half of these things were true Spartha would never fell :)
@Brody Massey well ur speaking for yourself buddy
@Brody Massey ok buddy 😂
It would be awesome to see a video from you about Sparta's tourist economy under Roman rule! Romans loved coming to Sparta to see the famous warrior culture even though Sparta was irrelevant by then. So Spartans kept up appearances with the training and barracks life. Even built a theater outside the temple of Artemis so tourists could watch the cheese-stealing initiation.
LOL didn’t know about that pretty cool
You finally got that video.
@@ChocoKobra where?
For those who randomly come upon this thread and aren't aware, the video mentioned is here: ua-cam.com/video/u68_PsQF99E/v-deo.html
You've made some good points here, but I think that you and the PHD historian have been so over-zealous in your attempt to debunk the myths that you've become a part of the equally bad trend in academic history of revisionism for the sake of revisionism.
Is the "Spartan myth" over-romanticized? Yes, but the fact that they bred capable soldiers and strategists, probably to a greater degree than most of their neighbors still remains. A few examples from later in their history:
- Xanthippus, a Spartan mercenary commander largely credited for reforming the Carthaginian army and leading the Punic forces to victory at the Battle of Tunis
- 272 BC Siege of Sparta: a small force of Spartans (including women and those not yet of age) held off Phyrrus of Epirus (one of the best commanders of his day) long enough for Spartan reinforcements led by Areus I and their Macedonian allies to relieve the city
- After initial victories against the Macedonians, Agis III of Sparta was heavily outnumbered by the general Antipater at the Battle of Magalopolis, and despite inflicting heavy casualties was defeated. According to Diodorus, Agis III, having been badly wounded ordered his men to leave him behind so that he could die in battle
I also fail to see how the fact that practiced poetry, danced sang and pursued other academic and leisurely activities detracts from their soldiery. Alexander the Great of Macedon was tutored by Aristotle after all. Moreover, a cautious approach to committing one's forces is not necessarily a bad thing and can indicate a good grasp of strategy considering the Spartans lacked manpower.
No one is saying the Spartans depicted in the movie 300 are in any way realistic, but to depict Sparta as just another Greek city state seems a little too dismissive. Soldiery was not their sole and only purpose and they were by no means invincible; indeed they suffered a number of defeats and their restrictive citizenship is the most likely cause o their downfall. However, for a time, the Spartans did possess an edge in military matters and to entirely dismiss this is not a convincing argument.
TheMysticalPlatypus Ive been just as shocked to find that what thw historian presented to me was at odds with many of the books I had in my library. However it turns out that this is because Sparta is apparently a "hot" subject right now. We will go over this in a follow up Q&A livestream but for now definitely give the posts from the historian a read: www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6rvusy/is_the_military_worship_of_the_spartans_really/
Whats next? Atlanta black star (black propaganda that every culture was african) was right?!
Interesting what you are saying
TheNysticalPlatypus, you very right, good sources do show he (the guy of this video) is wrong in most parts. You do more than him.
@@InvictaHistory AshkeNazim university professors will never be able to overcome their envy and jealousy of the Greeks. Especially since the Letter of High Priest Onias to King Areios of Sparta where the Judaeans identify the Spartans as "brothers, whom we commemorate at every feast and sacrificial offering" and to which the Spartans replied "it was found in the records about the Spartans and Judaeans that they are brothers and of the stock of Abraham..." (I Maccabees 12,5-23)
SPARTANS! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION/ THE CHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR GOLD?
AU!
AU!
AU!
This is funny
AND YET, they use Iron for the currency. #TMYK
Greece has no fear of gold and ares is god
Ironic *Laughs in Palpatine*
@Krazy Kokonut debunked
An interesting take, although I think it goes rather hard attempting to remove a perceived bias and instead applies a separate one entirely.
Simply put, we do have historical evidence that Sparta as a whole was a remarkably effective military power. More than a century undefeated frankly speaks for itself given the time period. And I think it fairly safe to say that one needn’t explicitly mention weapons practice when in the context of a society that relied upon those same weapons to keep their helots in line. It is for all intents implicit.
Where I think this interpretation fails is that it fails to apply the reasons for the primary downfall of Sparta. Their policies made for a very rigid and unfavorable system for expansion. Athens major success were due almost entirely to economic factors. Naval warfare is essentially a money fight, after all. What had been shown in both ancient and modern warfare is that the side who can economically and industrially sustain a war often becomes the winner.
This is where Sparta failed, their military power was indeed formidable at their peak, but it was a slow system and could not easily be replenished from a defeat. They, much akin to Germany in the early 20th century, could only win a war that was fought relatively quickly and with overwhelming success. If it became a war of attrition, they simply could not sustain themselves as well as their opponents. A single spartan took more than a decade to train, and while that produced remarkably sturdy professional soldiers at a time where the majority of their neighbors were fielding what amounted to a militia, the simple fact was they lost a logistical war if the conflict could be spread over many years. This is compounded by the records indicating men in the army were spending less time producing children, which would later be sustaining that same army.
Furthermore, it was argued that early Sparta's successes were derived from the novelty of their military structure, as well as the relative inexperience of their opponents. Early Sparta was very wise then to refuse conflict unless absolutely critical, and to at all costs ensure their opponents never could study their movements and strategies lest they form effective countermeasures. What was seen with Phillip of Macedon was this exact thing playing out for all of Greece to see. A fully staffed Spartan army could be defeated if one refused to fight the Spartan's dominant side and instead engaged from an oblique angle.
What made Sparta strong was that they were functional in military organization as well as psychological warfare. Having a deserved reputation for tenacity goes a long way in convincing ones opponents to be willing to accept defeat, rather than pursuing a long and exhausting war. Where they failed however was a failure to adapt to the changing battlefield, and ultimately dwindling into irrelevance. An army made to enforce the compliance of their helot slaves, yet too hemmed in by powerful neighbors to ever expand and achieve the same dominance they maintained in their past.
However, I should note, this is not to say they were overblown in their prowess. Even in decline, Sparta was not sacked until after the fall of the Roman empire, and that is frankly remarkable.
Even more simply put, go back to Persia with your lies Invicta!
Yup this video is just some bullshit from like millennials thinking they are revealing the “truth” about Sparta because they went to college and just now realized their favorite movie “300” wasn’t real. What a a joke
Lmfao this comment is literal bull. The spartans were quite literally a walmart version of argos. They only won pitched battles and benefited from a system of hellish slavery. Ask pyrrus what he thinks about them.
@@mooeminou I don't know, ask him how his army did in the siege of Sparta. Lmao.
What was the bias forwarded in this video? Weapons practice is not as implicit as you think. The idea is intuitive to us, but that doesn't necessarily been the they though of it the same way. The historian that researched this had evidence indicating the Greeks considered it kind of silly. This vid isn't about the downfall of Sparta. It's about addressing misconceptions about them. The deeper flaws of their system is somewhat besides the point.
also the Athenian weren't fighting for everyone freedom but themselves they subjugated others too
OMAR m yes but no
@@aussiebirb4958 Yes, they did, they also fought to become Popular between the greek city states and making them join the Alliance, so they can enforce debts.
Feels like this video tries too hard to swing back the other way and downplay everything.
my thoughts exactly after watching the first 10 minutes.
@@erickdraws9563 right, I see a strong Pro-Persian bias here... lol.
What you feel doesn't matter. The video was backed by facts (check description). What matters are the facts. I'll trust the sources cited over you any day.
@@macnosmutano4849 lol,, you sure showed me with your righteous indignation! There are also sources that say they were great. So we are just going to trust the ones that say they were not great only? As usual, the truth is probably someplace in the middle.
Macnos Mutano facts do tend to get fuzzy the further back you go. Stories change over time... you know? If anything sounds too awesome, it stands that it might have been embellished over time. Good men become heroes and legends with time, great men become gods.
I don't think anyone was under the impression that Spartans were immortal super soldiers that never knew defeat. But Spartan military prowess has been impressive nonetheless. Sparta took over neighbouring territories through war, subjugating its people (helots). They forced the rest of their neighbours to join the Pelopponesian league, where Sparta was the leading state. Sparta had solidified their position as the leading Greek state, and became the supreme leader in the Greco-Persian wars. In the The Peloponnesian War they defeated Athens and the Delian league. I don't think they could have achieved all that without having a military that was better than other nations at the time of their dominance. All these achievements is what made them stand out.
In Spartan culture suicidal fighters were looked down upon, as you were supposed to want to survive the battle. But at a certain point it must have been apparent to Leonidas that he would not survive at Thermopylae, and yet he stayed behind instead of retreating. I don't see how the fact that he didn't intend it as a last stance from the beginning changes anything. And the 300 movie was a retelling by a Spartan, it was not suppose to be historical accurate.
That can't be why the Spartans stand out. Every city state in Greece subjugated their neighbors through war. The Spartans required vast Persian support to win the Peloponnesian War. Of course their military was one of the better their time, but that in itself can't come close to explaining the Spartan reputation. The Athenians had an advanced navy that way outclassed the other Greek city states. Why aren't they put on the same pedestal as warriors? There's a reason the Spartans stand out to people, and it has nothing to do with accurate history.
The fact that Leonidas only made the decision after being backed into a corner and having someone voice the idea first changes it.
@@animation1234111 we put them not as warriors but as sailors yes read about how the Spartans used their ships at start and you will laugh they were destroying them because they couldn't control them. None said that the Spartans were good sailors for example because they won the Athenian fleet. What we say is Sparta had the beat warriors at that time and Athens the best fleet. And this is why the war kept so long 27 years. When you have two navy or land forces against each other the war is quick when you have on land against one navy countries then the war keeps way longer because they can't make significant damage one to the other.
@@vasileiospapazoglou2362 But skilled Naval commanders, marines, etc is no less warriors than land troops. And "they" don't just say the Spartans were the best land based army. Their reputation runs deeper than that. People think the Spartans were a significant deal braver, more skilled, more experienced than the other Greeks (as shown in their singling out and portrayal in media like 300), even though the actual facts don't bear this out.
@@animation1234111 the numbers at thermopyle were 1000 Spartans, 700 Thespians and around 2000 of nearby villages who fled when the persians came, the Spartans had lost very few fighters (say around 100 max.) untill Ephialtes showed the Persians the way around, All these happened because the spartans trained since the age of 7 at military camps, and at 17 they had already been to battle, even when the immortals came to fight they were no match for the mighty Phallanx, watch the BBC documentary, in which a lot of things are true, (there are however some inaccuracies such:the 300 Spartans, but as a whole is good), I know it because i ve read about the Spartans, and I ve read because I am from Sparta, so don t try to convince me otherwise, that s my word, take it or listen to stupid videos like the one above, your call
@@animation1234111 and also I forgot to mention that 300 hundred included Leonidas were the ones that made the last stand to delay the persians. Also another argument for you to think is that, if the scripts are wrong for Spartans, how come they survived 2 persian invasions while the numbers were so off balance to the advantage of persians, so much you haven t thought of, yet still you talk, as for trying to convince me, the last sentence of my previous comment applies here as well
One Group, the poor Germans trapped in Stalingrad, were insensed, most of them, when Goering
told them they were like the Spartans.That did Not go over well with men knowing they were doomed!.
Probably cus they didn’t have leather Lederhosen
probs cause stalin bombed his own city
@@lemursteaks I know its a late response but Lederhosen already means leather pants, saying leather Lederhosen would mean leather leather pants
greetings from cologne
I believe a similar thing happened at the battle of wake Island, the few forces there had held off the Japanese attack for a few days and the news and radio back home called them 'the Alamo of the pacific ' a soldier there said something along the lines of "well we knew what happened to the Alamo" years later in a documentary
The myth has become so romanticized, that I saw someone arguing in a comment section below a video why the Spartans should have defeated German Wehrmacht soldiers. Since guys with spears always beat guys with guns.
Germans are great with guns. Brits are great with longbows. And Mediterraneans are great at close combat. Northern Europeans shouldn't feel bad though. They still make good serfs even if they are useless without ranged weaponry.
well yeah thats why the Vikings Invaded Mediterraneans, England and beated the Ass out off the easterns
When did they invade the Mediterreans?
www.destinationviking.com/sites/default/files/bilder/viking_routs.jpg
Think you were being trolled and ate the bait hook line and sinker 😂😂
According to The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece
by Josiah Ober Sparta was a dominant military force in ancient greece until ~400 BC and widely known for being "undefeatable" in an open field land battle. Also their men were not 'bread' to be warriors, but they were trained more and better then other greek polis citicens, since their massive amount of helots allowed them to not be farmers and forced them to be well trained to keep them under control.
MrMeeeeToo lol spartans were undefeatable, keep dreaming kid
Frigo Rifero note the quotation marks, as mentioned in the video, this was a popular myth but also a fact, since they have not been challenged to often.
If you want to add something please try to structure an argument instead of bluntly insulting me.
MrMeeeeToo sorry bro, but if you think that the quote is a fact then you're a spartan fanboy. Tell me when did the battle of thermopylae happen?
F0RG1V3N it must be hard to live life and be that stupid
MrMeeeeToo bread
“There is no evidence that it was intended to be a suicide mission except that dying for glory was kind of a thing for the Greeks and choosing to stay was pretty suicidal but we’re not sure why he did it but it wasn’t a suicide mission.”
I get the Spartan myth is overblown but it really seems like you’re reaching on this one.
I think his definition of suicide mission is confused. Something can be considered a suicide mission in two ways;
1. going into a battle, knowing full well you will probably not survive
Or
2. Outsiders looking at it after it took place, deducing it was a suicide mission because there were no survivors.
what i don't get is that if the Athenians could do it at marathon and that the Athenians lost to Sparta to then go and say that Sparta wasn't that strong military speaking is madness
jamit the slayer
Peloponnesian war was actually 2 wars. The second war lasted around 30 years and in every year the Spartans would go north and burn everything around Athens. Everytime the Athenians challenged them in major land battle, the spartans won (Athenians always having more numbers). In the end Lysander defeated the Athenian navy as well and totally surrounded Athens. (Spartan Navy built with persian gold). So they were certainly not "winning" and the plague only happened because the Athenians had to import their food from Egypt and other places, because the Spartans had burnt their farms, and poor athenians were hidding behind their walls.
@@thewanderingeuropean3522 you say that t like they fought the next day
Righter Side Of Things a plague struck during that war, dude
They marched in complex, flexible and effective formations -- but didn't have group exercises?
I call bullshit.
There's no doubt that the Spartans didn't live up to their reputation. Nobody could. However, when newer historical and archeological research is popularized, there's a strong tendency to over-correct, emphasizing the significance of new findings and dismissing even those older findings that haven't been refuted. In this case, one significant omission is Aristotle's view that the Spartan education turned their youth into animals. This matches very poorly with the video's claim that no contemporary sources described Spartan education as much different from that of other Greek cities.
Thank you. Clearly Invicta's understanding of this matter is lack luster. Hell, half of these were obviously true and the other half were possibly the biggest steaming pile of bullshit to grace this earth. Its sad his channel is ruining its educations reputation like this but luckily there's no shortage of other passionate people researching this stuff, such as yourself.
Yeah, I get he’s trying to use non bias sources, but it sounds like he just took whatever he thought wasn’t true and dismissed it. Spartan training was intense, and they were a bigger military force than he seems to be insinuating.
Hell, a simple google search shows this video is FULL of inaccuracies.
It’s interesting that no ancient sources mention martial training. Yet, in the segment immediately following that statement, the video details their development of a command structure, and how efficient they were in battle from being able to move together as a unit. Surely, being that disciplined and effective in the ways of war didn’t come naturally. They must’ve trained for weeks on end don’t you think?
PS, I’m asking this question in a way that a student would ask a professor. In other words, I’m not trying to troll at all. Great vid! You just got yourself one more subscriber :)
We can bring this question up with the historian in the livestream. Its my understanding that a lot of the drilling took place on the campaign
Invicta I'm looking forward to the livestream but do you know when you'll be doing it? I don't want to miss it
Manipular legions were able to maintain a remarkable level of discipline, despite not getting much formal training before being called into service. Yes, they did train for weeks on end, but that very well could have been before and during the campaign.
It's actually said that in a lot of cases where the Allies of Lakedaimon (Sparta) requested their help they just sent an officer corp who went and drilled the allied troops to be more effective than their enemies. You have to remember that originally the Hoplite armies were militias who were not there for a full on war but more like a power struggle with only around a 10 percent casualty rate per battle - they were basically just there for honours sake apart from the Spartan military complex and the Athenian ambitions. This only changed in the later centuries with the persian wars so it is normal that the Spartans would have the upper hand in early history.
"No sources mention Sparta having an abnormally martial culture" Plato's republic does
We're royally fucked if we have to consider Plato a reliable source, though.
@@GerackSerack Then fucked we probably are, because if we reject Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Xenophon, and Thucydides as historical sources, then we have little more than poems and plays to go off of.
@@darkfool2000 these guys made shit up all the time. Like Atlantis or the idea that women had less teeth than men. The problems were they were great at arguing and never really lost so people just took them by their word.
Matthew Richter everyone made shit up and added things
Matthew Richter you think Atlantis couldn’t of been a true place that Is now swallowed up by the water?! That’s like saying Pompeii never existed either.
Not a military power are you kidding? During the Peloponnesian War Perikles refused to fight a land battle against them knowing they couldn't match the military might and training of the Spartan forces
Because of the propaganda, wp you just proved his point
People tend to knock on the most powerful lol it's funny
Because the Athenians had a true democracy.
Military Organisation is much more important than training, and Organisation Spartans aktually mastered
Thats because athens military power resided in the sea making them the owners of the greatest navy in greece by a long shot
Friendship ended with Sparta
Now Argos is my best friend
The argives also happen to have had some of the best fighters at Thermoplyae
the myth of the spartans greatly enhance by people that learn their history from movies
yeah spartan myth is one of the reason i fell in love with history, but then time passed and i accept the truth about the mith, hopefuly a lot of people in this comment section video will too, ''Muhhhhh but they are trained from the age of 7''
Well according to this guy that myth was already pretty setup for the 2000 years prior to movies sooooo...
nothing new about bullshit
Everyone knows the numbers are skewed. Shit was 2,000 years ago.. but this video is moronic. They were feared by most because of their bravery. Phalanx battles were usually decided by one army retreating..
jdsol1938 your right
Excellent clip. What must also be remembered was that each Spartan soldier had a Helot server and a slave who fought alongside their respective masters in any battle, so that the 300 Spartans where actually 900 in number.
I didn't know this - thanks! I'm in agreement with you that the video is great; there's an awful lot of negative comments by armchair historians.
@@Radam89 Yep. The Spartans don't like mentioning that. Bad for the myth. :-)
do one on william wallace
Freeeeeeeeeeedddooooooooom
Watch HistoryBuffs Braveheart video. He really breaks down the inaccuracies very well.
I'd like to throw out that in that last battle the opposing force used hook spears like what we ues for catching tuna this simple change fucked there phalanx tactic right up. Also would like to tell you I'm not a historian I don't read books and I don't know a lot about the romain and pre romain times so yaaaa..
I'd argue History Buffs already beat him to it, if you mean you want him to deconstruct the myths behind William Wallace.
Nah BigDRunnin,do one on Charles Manson! lol!!
You insult my queen. You threaten my people with slavery and death!
This is Sparta!!!
You forgot "oh I've chosen my words carefully Persian, perhaps you should of done the same"
grow up kid.
Alien Kush Killa earth and water...now that’s going to be a bit of a problem
@@aliveli-hq6zk you live with your parents
And the Achaemenid empire didn’t really believe much in slavery. Whereas Sparta not only was reliant on Slave Labor but treated it’s slaves brutally...
I mean, that's nice, but Athens was built on the back of slavery as well, and the Athenians forced independant Greek city states into the Delian league just the same.
Per definition I don't get butthurt, since it is a subject of study regarding events that took place roughly two and a half millenia ago. The relevance of it is absolute, since it is pointless to study Sparta without doing so within the context of contemporary societies that existed in Hellas and beyond. The point is not to judge Sparta by today's morality as the past is a foreign country. The point is to judge it by the standards of its contemporaries. Anyone that does so will quickly discover that Sparta was not radically different from most city states. The immediate comparison that people will make is Athens and Sparta, who were both hegemonic powerhouses whose citizen class were free to pursue what they deemed a good life because there were slaves to do the boring things. The key differences between Athens and Sparta are the way they found themselves in charge of their own league. The most important difference being their forms of government as described in depth by Aristotle. Differences notwithstanding, you see two city states whose influence increased exponentially whilst waging a war against a common enemy, only to get in the way of each other's interests and vie for dominance. A phenomenon that we also see during the cold war. It is that recurrance of patterns which causes the classical period to remain an important field of study within the discipline of history. Do not let your emotions and base sense of logic get in the way of your studies.
Every society ever existed is built on slavery, including Murica. Nowadays, we are "slaves" as well.
Except nowadays it's not Sparta and Athens but just Russia and the USA.
@World's Biggest Booty Hoes Actually you are the most butthurt person in all the comments, it's even cringy, Are you a black person who never get to study or read a book?, Can't believe you compare old forms of society with nowadays.
First of all the city called Athens was originally built buy blacks from the Nile valley latter control by invading white tribes from main land Europe. Whites keep talking about democracy out of Greece. A fat lie. Name me one ancient nations was a democracy. What about such titles as Pharaoh, king, his holiness, emperor
At the end of this episode you say that Sparta won an empire based on the myth from the Persians at Thermopylae. actually they won that empire by defeating Athens in the Peloponnesian war. Also you the Persian money you mention at the beginning of the episode was needed because Athens had become a thalassocracy and the Spartans being a land power had no way to react to this. Its worth thinking of a navy back then like aircraft in WW2, just changed the shape of warfare in general with the swift movement of troops and control of supply lines. If I remember correctly Athens spent the war hiding behind her walls until defeated. You also seemed to have totally missed the battle of Plataea, perhaps it didn't fit your argument?
Warp5p1d3r true true
i have 2 degrees in history. everyone perceives history differently and that is fine but you need to realise when you are just using it to suit your own arguments and bigotry.
Yakob Izzrael You seem to forget the Roman Empire, Knights, Germanic tribes, and likely a plethora of other 'white' warriors' I'm sure existed too. Also, it seems a lot of the stuff you show is exaggerated myth. One guy against 300? Quoting scripture? You can't be serious.
dude those are just hebrew myths. you are blanding in a hebrew god in the history of nations.
just ignore him and he will go and sit back under his bridge
God some of the "people" in the comments are saltier than the fields of carthage 😂🔥
Boiiii :DDD That's a comment of the year :D
Actually the Romans also never salted the fields of Carthage either.
That's hilarious.
Yeah that was an exaggeration
The romans never did that
The 700 Thespians represented all the hoplites of the city, 100% of them! And they accepted to stay, all of them, knowing their city was in the path of Xerxes. This is so much more than 300 guys...
🤔 I will hold the pass, bring backup as soon as you can.
😲 Wow thanks for sacrificing yourself for us.
🤔 wat.
Lol
nice hahaha
Please can you inform us of your source/s for your material? I am well learned in much of Greek history and find some of your information very contradictory to mainstream thought.
Just a thought, but to suggest the Spartans did not knowingly go on a suicide mission is fine, but to suggest that staying, when they could have left, was not a heroic act of sacrifice/suicide is to damn their memory Sir...
So the spartans were not strong brutes but smart people who protected themselves by making up legends. I don't think if this is a bad thing
@g % no
The main objective of every war, is to win the war of public opinion.
No they were still strong bad added but they were just as smart as strong
It also seemed that they were good at working together
I remember hearing that Spartans were banned from competing in the Pankration tournament in the ancient olympics because of their tendency to eye-gouge
They didn't want to enter the competition themselves they weren't ban.
If I’m not mistaken, eye gouging and low blows were totally legal in the event, so I don’t think they’d be banned because of it.
@@yopappy6599 Eye gouging and finger breaking were forbidden. Pankration can be translated as "the one who dominated" . It was used in combat as a last resort when the weapons had be broken and all you had to defend yourself was your hands. Spartans didnt want to be obliged by the rules of the olympics so they stopped entering in this sport.
You should bust the Viking myth next.
S.F. P. You! I like you!
Pink Panter71 I'd like to see that.
only viking myth is the horns upon their helm's
Yeah, vikings are really fetischized in certain quasi-intelectual communities. The differences between the lifestyle and warmaking of the nordic peoples in comparison to other peoples of the time is often HUGELY exaggerated..
The myth is that they were capable soldiers, the reality is that they got absolutely thrashed when they fought any capable army. They got assfucked by Wessex despite being having a vastly more experienced army and using regional dissent to weaken the English Kingdoms, They got beat down by a bunch of poor ass Irishmen, they turned tail and ran whenever a Carolingian force of any size came around, and even the Kievan Rus (who were probably the toughest of the Vikings/Quasi-vikings) got beat down every couple of decades by the Byzantines.
11:45 -- "Neither Plutarch nor Xenophon make mention of martial arts..." -- *HANG ON,* you should be very careful about distinguishing the difference between a Spartan occupation force *residing in Athens* and one which is at home, in Sparta. The Athenian contingent is *far* more likely to engage in behaviours *impossible* in Sparta, itself, if only because there was no easy access to gold and silver.
Xenophon, especially, should be considered as an historical source who couldn't see some of the relevant details for historical pursuit, in large part due to the impression of the Spartans he took when they were far afield from Sparta, itself. He doesn't discuss martial arts training, but he *does* discuss the actual army, in the field; the fact that they're mercenaries is largely unimportant.
This raises another interesting issue with the Spartan System after Lycurgus -- while it was enduring, so much so that the Romans were able to treat Sparta like a theme park, it wasn't Reformed enough to work when the Spartan armies left Sparta. That is to say, the political pressure inside of the civic boundaries of Sparta kept the Austerity ideal in check; the moment the army marches to the field or to an enemy city, Austerity at an individual level is thrown out of the discussion.
It took an embarrassingly long time for me to realize you were saying "Spartiates" and not "Sparshits" the whole time...
he can't speak
He mispronounces many things. Whether its on purpose or on accident is another thing entirely.
@@aliveli-hq6zk stfu
"Couldn't take a punch?" "Never lost a pitched battle in 150 years..." yep. Love your stuff but really contradicting statements in here and alot of comments point out the lack of sources
1stNightingale because they rarely went into direct battle.
The Spartans were really good poker players
You are bad at literature it seems. The Spartans were a glass cannon, in fact it was so well known after The battle of Leuctra that Epirus tried to conquer Sparta, which allied themselves with Argos and Corinth during the Phyrric wars, and failed as defending a city was easier than attacking one.
"Lack of sources"
Why are people so lazy? He has sources listed in the. . what the fuck do they call it again. . doobly doo. The written description.
@@ousamadearudesuwa He attacked Sparta because Areus was on Crete. At least try to say the story right if you try to discredit a story. Lmao
You just ruined by childhood
I luv Bs read my comment, it's not as bad as you think
*my not bad
Yeah and a lot of people can't seem to accept what he says in this comment section. They're a little biased
Your childhood must've been pretty bleak
Why? Despite the clickbait title and wild claims, this video only confirms Spartiates were the best warriors with unmatched discipline and very likely also skill and physique. That's what the whole second part of the video is about. The only documented group of soldiers of Ancient Greece that could match or even surpass the Spartiates (Spartiates x Spartans, a difference that Invicta often confuses in this video) was the Theban Sacred Band, which however became dominant at the time of Sparta's decline, when the number of Spartiates was only in hundreds and they were reluctant to wage wars.
Spartan armies were always composed in a large part of helots and perioeci, precisely because the Spartiate population was so low. Which is of course completely the opposite of what Invicta said, that Spartans relied on numbers. It would be nice if Invicta focused on facts rather than on interpretating history to fit his clickbait. Spartiates got full citizenship only at age of 30. They could only marry and have legitimate heirs then. THAT was their main problem. As you saw in the video, their population was ridiculously low by 400 BC. They simply could not afford to go to every battle, because they would die out. If your population is in hundreds and half of it is on the battlefield, well...you propably do not want that, do you? Logic, huh. "Thermopylae gave Sparta its moment of fame." - Hahahaha, yeah. This "moment" is still here 2500 years later. And it will be forever. This comment just further shows how "objective" Invicta is. Dunno why. Hey Invicta, you were born in Athens or something?
I don't think there is any 'myth' that the Spartans were particularly aggressive, it has been put into popular culture perhaps, but the 'myth' of the Spartans is that they were stoic (in attitude, not philosophy ofc), and especially skilled warriors, which seems to be borne out by the evidence, in actual fact. It does not follow that they would therefore be aggressive or that they would win more battles, since so many other factors come into play in warfare. Anything else may have arisen in popular culture through developments from these facts.
Sorta true but also cherry picked interpretations to back up your thesis.
An opposite interpretation can easily be made.
Which is typical when it comes to Sparta. I favor Sparta over Athens although I can understand why one would consistently interprete to their disadvantage.
Too few coherent sources but for those who'd like some coherent and unbiased interpretations here's a few books i'd recommend:
1)
Sparta at War: Strategy, Tactics and Campaigns, 950-362
2) In the Name of Lykourgos: The Rise and Fall of the Spartan Revolutionary Movement (243-146BC)
3) The Spartan Army
4) etc
Plenty of good books about it.
Sparta is like everything a grey matter.
They were in the microcosmos that was Hellas the premiere warriors, professional and trained to be the best at what they needed to be. High morale, a lot of social pressure to perform, drilled to be better at moving and acting as hoplites. The lack of cavalry etc is relative as cavalry though useful in the context of Hellas and especially their homeland is limited in use.
Also they actually innovated and improved phalanx warfare more than people seem to credit them with. Using the runners, experimenting first with lightly armored hoplites and especially tinkering with advanced drill.
They also treated their women insanely good compared with the 'pseudo democracy' that was Athens or many others.
On the other hand they also had a society that by accident had grown entirely crooked due to the takign of Messenia. Slavery was rampant in Hellas but the unique and psychedelic result of the Messenian Wars was surreal though only with the hindsight of the centuries to come does one truly realize what had happened.
Furthermore Spartans were the elite warriors of Greece and probably the Western World at the time but they were actually introverts and defensive always occupied with their own business.
They were crueller than other Greeks in some regards. Fascist in some. But more democratic in others. They were culturally good at dance, music and had a badly misunderstood excellent ability to tackle their own way of diplomacy and communication but they were too focussed on war and agriculture to develop the concept of trade.
As for the 300. Not a single fact diminishes their sacrifice within the context and zeitgeist of the time. Like many other moments in history, these 300 stood their ground for what they believed was right, for their king, their country, their ideas. And with postmodern hindsight we might judge em because of our so called 'superior' virtues but within the context of time and place what they did took balls. Insane balls.
Sparta knew an example had to be set or the coalition would falter. And they hoped to lock the Persians there for a long time but it is pretty clear they didn't think their odds high.
The fact they and some allies lingered to let the others escape and allow Sparta to show how one Polis can sacrifice for others... says enough.
Overall I rate Sparta morally in the right post Persian Wars. And morally in the wrong after they defeated Athens. They were justified to deal with Athens Imperium and they grew corrupted in turn being too introverted and isolationist to deal with money, power and interaction with others.
The tale of Sparta is a tragic one and there is much to learn from it.
...and I certainly wouldn't want to be a citizen hoplite facing any of their barracks-raised warriors.
World's Biggest Booty Hoes maby you should do some research and not rely on someone else to give you information if you did any research at all you would know how wrong he is
Nerds
@World's Biggest Booty Hoes So you want him to buy a go-pro , get a time machine , and make an interwiew with Leonidas himself to prove all of that? WRITTEN RECORD IS ALL WE HAVE YOU DUM DUM
Well said. OP should see this comment
*"Argos was an enemy of Sparta."*
*Me, a Brit: **_confused shopping noises_*
Hmm... Herodotus wrote his "Histories" around 50 years after Thermopylae. He was born in 484 bC (Thermopylae was 4 years later in 480 bC) and died in 425 bc.
About the rest, you are primarily referring to historical hypotheses on the training given in "Agoge".
Herodotus may be known as the father of history, but he is also called The Father of lies. He recorded everything he heard and made no real distinction between what was rumor or hyperbole vs actual known facts. In short, he is a very unreliable source.
@@talyn3932 that's a tradition many a historian still cherish :-)
@@talyn3932 There's a word for people who call Herodotus an unreliable source: freshman. Nah, you're not wrong, it's just such a naive oversimplification of the relationship between historians and Herodotus. We know not to take him literally, but we also need him as a baseline for constructing much of ancient history. Besides he's right about far more than he's wrong about, so what's your point? Toss him out and know nothing?
Misunderstood only by people that only know about Sparta from the movie 300
300 is bullshit but so is this vid. The difference is one is at least entertainingly whack.
@@jcnom6606 300 was attempting to be faithful to the graphic novel by Frank Miller, not actual history.
“They weren’t trained from birth to be warriors” ... “by 7 years old they were expected to join the Agoge and become warriors by 20”
High on Comics were you born at 7 years old?
Did you even watch the video? He said they were expected to join the agoge ath the age of 7 and after 13 years at the age of 20 they trained for another 10 years to become citizens, which included things like poetry, dancing and basic weapons training.
@@heinrichmirgrautsvordir6613 right
Sparta had no training, but had better tactics, better officers and could outmaneuver their opponents. The beat Corinth, Athens and intimidated Alexander the Great into leaving them alone.
I smell a heavy does of iconoclasm in this narrative.
Yeah this video tries too hard an falls on it's face.
This kind of a classic example of making a point and then taking that point far past any reasonable case for it. Sparta and Athens were the two superpowers of the ancient world with Sparta’s military having the most fearsome reputation. That it might have been blown out of proportion is a fair point, arguing there was no basis for it is ridiculous.
*298 of the 300 surviving Spartans. Two were missing from the last stand at Thermopylae. One was injured and couldn’t fight, and the other was sending a message to allied troops and didn’t return in time for the fight.
Nope. One had his eye injured from disease. The other is said to have been mostly blinde. Both were told to head back to sparta. One charged the persians like an idiot. The other went back and was disgraced. Later he did manage to kill 7 persians in another battle before dying though. But he didn't sent any message.
Yoir forgetting about the King and potebtially the two ephors that accompany him.
This video reminds me a lot about psychologies history. You have people who have a strong belief in psychoanalytical psychology and people with strong beliefs in behavioral psychology. Both are psychology but have very distinguishing differences when it comes to treatment, causes, and importance. I have professors that praise Freud as a god of psychology, which is somewhat fair seeing how he is the father of psychoanalysis. Then you have professors that really hate him and claim most of his ideas were quite over the edge which I also agree with. But in each case the professors never discounted the contribution of both psychologies.
You think that since there is this imagery of Spartan discipline, immortality, and military prowess that the best thing to deny any of it. I don’t know enough about Spartan history to argue with you or your source but your wording is quite troubling. As mentioned by others you seem to only include parts of the story and only sources that agree with your perspective. If you want to make a completely unbiased video then you would show evidence on both sides and then critique the reliability.
Many psychologists may not like Freud but none of them would ever deny his contribution. Just as people will never deny the contribution of Watson and Skinner. There is a middle ground, something this video does not have.
And to anyone who says I’m butt hurt over this imagery of the Spartans not being some bad ass warrior culture. I don’t give two shits about the Spartans or the Athenians. The only Greek civilization that ever really peaked my interest were the Macedonians. I don’t think the Spartans were immortal, since you know they don’t exist anymore. Honestly I think a lot of you that are against the notion of Spartan romanticism are just people who like to be apart of the counter culture. You think that disliking popular things makes you appear cool when no one really gives a fuck what you or I think. If you want to be apart of the counter culture so be it, but if you’re doing it just because you want to seem “unique” and think it makes you appear as some sort of intellectual then I have to shatter that idea with the reality that it makes you look more like an attention seeking hipster
What wording was troubling? It's been pointed out:Sparta wasn't war machines while other cities were more to be. If anything,their battle formation was slightly more effective. The way they disciplined their force (including their allies) was,according to the video,"impressive" and helped them win some. But that didn't make dominating,just win some lose some.
If anything,the ruling class of Sparta was smart,cunning,manipulative to enjoy their lifes,which I would say wasn't necessarily a bad thing in that time.
“I’m not mad but here’s an essay.” Certainly an approach. The Spartans are mostly myth. This video isn’t biased.
You skipped the "invaders from Crete" ... you know, like the whole beginning!
Thank you, misthios.
Chaire, stranger
Ah, i see you’re a man of culture as well
Can we talk about how Leonidas knew he was outflanked, sent mant of the Greeks back, took the rear guard so they could get away, and thought to the death despite knowing he was screwed? And how about how none of the Spartans surrendered? There wrre even accounts of them continuing to fight despite their king dying. I believe it was Herodotus that said despite their weapons being destroyed, they began throwing rocks, punching, biting, etc, all while trying to keep their dead king from being taken away by the Persians.
Whaaaambulance.
Excellent video! Spartans were an intriguing society of extremes and like the Vikings they have been mythologized for being outliers. Reality was far more complicated and does them more credit. They were human beings, not demigods.
A great shoutout for these modern historians who used time machine to go back in time and see what really happened!
I generally enjoy your videos but this one lost me. You can’t claim “the ancient sources don’t mention any training for war” then minutes later discuss the Spartans unique chain of command, discipline, logistics, drill formations and ability to efficiently manoeuvre on the battlefield.
None of the above would be achievable without regular, sustained training. I mean, look at the pre-Marian Roman Army - it wasn’t staffed by professional soldiers, but they spent considerable time training (route marches, individual fighting drills, large scale formation attacks) prior to major campaigns and battles. If they didn’t, Rome would never have survived long enough to be worthy of historical memory.
Why would the Spartan military be any different?
but do those ancient sources mention any training for war though? I think you glossed over the point that their training couldn't of been like modern bootcamp, as ancient sources don't mention war training. They certainly did train for war, but not as fanatically as pictured in popular culture. I don't think there is a single civilization in history that didn't train for war...
Mr Muzu Evidently you don’t understand how the Greek Civilisations worked. Sparta did have military training and all Spartans were soldiers for a great portion of their life. Obviously they were modern style boot camps, that’s a ridiculous thing to claim. What made Sparta better however is that every other Greek state couldn’t afford to have professional soldiers, because they needed all their manpower on other, more necessary things such as agriculture. A “Hoplite” wasn’t trained in any way formally, if you had the funds to buy armour then you had the privilege (because that’s what it was back then) to be a Hoplite in your city’s phalanx. Sparta, having conquered Messenia, enabled the use of Helots for all the other stuff, so that actual Spartans could be soldiers. The video is actually incredibly inaccurate, if you look at their sources there’s no books in there at all - it’s all just documentaries found from across the Internet.
Yeah... he did kind of trail off and lose focus on what he was trying to say in this video. He seemed so focused on showing that Spartans were nothing like how they're depicted in 300, that he ended up contradicting himself a couple of times.
Though he is right in that Sparta were not particularly amazing warriors, but rather a creature of reputation and myth. As for their military prowess, they were ahead of the curve when it came to *tactics* for some time, however once the rest of Greece caught up, they really were nothing special militarily.
So basically the Spartans were superior soldiers at least in terms of heavy infantry to other Greek city states but they were not as superior as the myth which they themselves cultivated let on. Also doesn't the video indicate that we don't know why the Spartans and others stayed behind. I thought that they did so in order that the main army could make good on its escape.
300 was based on a dramatic comic that was not meant to be historically accurate
Was the comic not inspired by the propaganda?
It was still a dumb-as-fuck film.
@@lindenstromberg6859 ur mum's a dumb ass fuck
@@josesosa3337
No, it was inspired by the Truth
Jindosh
You wouldn't know history, if it smacked you upside the head..
Duffus...
The Thermopylae was infact about Leonidas decided to hold in order for the majority of the others to retreat, since they have been backstabbed. Leonidas realised they could not be able to retreat all intact, so he put a small force to slow the Persians, and decided to join this stand.
I agree. But this video omits this context.
300 was a comic where the narrator was a survivor telling the story the reason things are so inaccurate was the story tellers exaggerations and lies
I wont like or dislike this video as it sets some myths about Sparta right, on others, it's unnecessairly critical.
I thought you already made this but clearly there was a misunderstanding.
I had to make it 20 minutes clear haha
Sparta is just another settlement that needs your help preston
ShiftyRelic Airsoft it seems like I waited too long.
maybe Invicta should do one episode about Janissary, another big myth of the history.
What?
What's the myth about janissaries?
They were the mamluks of the Ottoman Empire basically but nothing they did was really outlandish or mythisized
I remembered listening to this video a couple years back and it stuck with me. I've now read a fair amount on the Spartans and much of this video now seems biased and too reliant on hostile sources and historians
Finally a person that gets it that this video isnt 100% the truth
That's because the views of critics often avoid self-aggrandisement. But, it's also true that they may also be overly biased on the other direction.
Then you later compare the insider view vs the outsider view and draw an interpretation. This is because written history doesn't always reflect true history.
I had a feeling,but with all the knowledge you have could you tell me one lie in the video ?
@@domenicc1839 he didnt really said there where lies. he said that the information was like the spartan myth is an entire lie when really only 80% wasnt truth but 20% was
@@domenicc1839 Easy. He lied about Thermopylae not being a suicide mission. He lied about the degree to which we could say Herotodus was biased. But the most easily debunked is at ~9:15 when he says the agoge was not tied to battlefield training, which is directly contradicted by both Xenophon and Plutarch (the two primary sources for the agoge). Plutarch describes mock fighting and directly says the training was calculated to make them conquer in battle. Xenophon goes so far as to say "there can be no doubt" the education was planned to make them better fighting men. Invicta not only doubts, he straight up lies about it.
So what's next? A video about the absurdity of round earth?
I can only think of "meet the spartans" when he shows movie clips
Apparently, the one who made this video lacks knowledge about ancient Greece as a whole or was not well informed. Spartans were known for their military training as they were taken from their families at the age of 7 (ΑΓΩΓΗ). They perfected the battle formation of the Greek phalanx and their weaponry was mainly focused on this battle formation (big shields, short daggers). Unfortunately there is so much more to say about their courage and commitment that a simple comment in this video is not enough. Last but not least, I would like to, personally, thank the person who made this video, because it will make people who are interested in ancient Sparta and the Greek culture as a whole to search the truth for themselves.
Let's not forget where the majority of todays advanced world was when the Greeks were making history
Wow I never knew Invictia was a mercenary who was paid in Persian denarii to spread false information
This guy was definitely called a beta at school and took it personally!
lol you sound pathetic
Do they really have to mention in books that they trained with weapons for it to have happened
for a society that apparently had brutal military training and the supposed best soldiers in the known world at the time? Yes.
@@JaelaOrdo The reason they 'apparently' had brutal military training is because that's exactly what the sources tell us they had. Those would be the same sources that are being used to claim, via absence of evidence, that they didn't train with weapons (despite Xenophon specifically saying it was military training and that they engaged in 'mock battles') Technically, Herodotus never said the Spartans has spears at Thermopylae, either, so I guess we could assume they used harsh language or yknow... we can use our fucking brains and not use the space between the lines to insert whatever regressive thing you desperately want to believe.
Jaela Ordo No. What would civilizations have gone to war and done? Slap each other?
It depends a lot on what else you compare it to. If everyone else writes in detail about weapons training, and the Spartans don't, then answering why is important.
@@umjackd except the spartans didnt use a writing system... so its all conjecture by others
The Spartan wank reminds of the ol samurai wank that was all over the place about 10 years ago.
However it seems like people have gotten over the samurai wank and realized that they weren't the invincible warriors who could destroy modern tanks that they may have initially thought to have believed.
Unfortunately the same cannot be the same for the current spartan wank.
Mostly because Hollywood movies I think
Because the spartan is a western cultural thing so everybody wants to cling to it as much as they can. I've personally grown to hate that movie, 300, due to how overused and overmentioned it is, although initially I actually loved it (even bought the PSP game).
@@xyAKMxy Same. I really enjoyed the movie when it came out until all the weird fetishists attached themselves to it.
I enjoyed the Greco-Persian wars until a psychotic fascist wrote a comic book about it and a talentless director made a movie about it
@Dami Fash but the fact that alot of people view the movie as some kind of reliable piece of history film and attach themselves to the Spartans fighting against barbarian eastern hordes is very prevalent. ever heard of the "Molon Labe" people?
This video seems to just say “The Spartans weren’t invincible” which everybody knows as logically, there is no military force in history that was undefeated in any war. Arguably except for Alexander the Great, though so much of what we know about him and his exploits may be largely based on myths, and people argue over whether he may have lost the battle of Hydaspes. But yeah, Napoleon (even at his height) wasn’t invincible, nor was Frederick the Great, nor Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan, or Richard the Lionheart etc. Not even the greatest military power in world history (the modern US military) is invincible.
To be fair, Admiral Yi's victories were very well recorded and the the fact that even his biggest enemies admitted he remained undefeated goes to show he never lost. Emperor Akbar was also undefeated in battle, but that one can be given to the fact that there really was no one who could challenge him around the Indian subcontinent. But yes, Alexander and Ramses II's undefeated status is questionable because of unreliable records from the passage of time.
The video is trying to say that the Spartans soldiers were good, but not great. They were nowhere near, for example, Roman legions, Napoleon's grand army or Mongol's horse archers as the world believed them to be.
"there is no military force in history that was undefeated in any war"
The Spanish Tercio formation would like a word
DoesNotExist305 the US is definitely no where near the most powerful in human history. They literally have a losing record with wars lol
Sandon Kamaunu a losing record?
Let’s count them.
Wins:
1. American Revolutionary War
2. Barbary Wars
3. Mexican-American War
4. Civil War
5. Indian Wars
6. Spanish-American War
7. World War I
8. World War II
9. First Gulf War
10. Second Gulf War
11. War In Afghanistan
Inconclusive:
1. War of 1812
2. Korean War
Lost
1. Vietnam War
That’s a record of 11-2-1. You’d bust a load in your pants if your football team started the season with that record. Keep in mind that Korea and Vietnam were not even outright defeats or draws. Korea had to be stopped because of the Chinese getting ready to intervene. Vietnam was blown to hell. The US was forced to withdraw due to how unpopular the war was.
Obvious winning record aside (which only grows if you factor in all the minor wars that the US also participated in, but let’s not), the United States has an undeniable position as the leading force in the world. When America mobilizes for war, the great powers of the old world follow suit. This unquestioned role as world leader is supported further when you remember that the United Nations not only meets in New York but that the US is a permanent member of its security council. Never in the history of the world has a military power been so dominant as to practically head a coalition of all the world’s most powerful nations. Throw in the fact that the US has the most technologically advanced fighting force in world history and close the book on this discussion.
Am I saying that the modern US is invincible? No. The US cannot win a prolonged conventional land war against China or Russia. But then again, nobody can either. The geography ensures it is a monumental task and a costly venture. It’s a logistical nightmare. However, Russia and China do not even _possess_ the capability to launch a conventional land war on the United States let alone have a realistic expectation of winning one.
I think one of the greatest misunderstanding about Sparta regarding their "Military Proficiency" is the fact that their education was mainly focused in the creation of a "spirit de corps" in their ranks, which was essential for maintaining the formation of the phalanx. The spartans were harsh in social punishments for perceived cowardice in battle. But, it's not that they were "super men". In fact, Thebes was able to defeat Sparta when Theban reformers were able to instill the same tenacity in their ranks. I think the roman army is a good example of creating a far better army of semi-militia citizens (in their first incarnation), simply because they were much more flexible in social mores.
You sound completely unbiased and emotionally detached from the subject at hand. Of course I will believe what you say.
Red Sands In trying to destroy a myth he went completely to the opposite extreme claiming the idea their military was strong was a total myth.
@@Prometheus7272 Right, this guy obviously came into this video project trying to sensationalize and shit on Sparta and its ideals. Fact remains that they were by far the most feared, best trained Hoplite armies in all of ancient Greece. You can read plenty of sources from across the land and see this. I mean, this entire states foundation was built on a warrior ethos. They purposely made themselves poor for f*cks sake to wash away what parts of modernity were affecting their Greek brothers North of them.
@@arroganceinvictus This guy is a tool. Regardless of what you say about them. Leonidas did stand at Thermopylae and he truly believed he was gonna die. Thats a fact, he told his soldiers to retreat while he stayed with a chosen few. The spartans were very superstitious bunch and the oracle of delphi told him he would die in that battle and he still stayed to defend greece and buy time. That is something to be honored.
@@arroganceinvictus Spartan armies had a big reputation, but their actual battle records don't back that up. The lost as much as they won during the 4th and 5th century, their record was no better than average. And although having a feared reputation is a good intimidation tactic, which it was, it doesn't last forever as it was witnessed during the end period of Sparta.
@@dadude4719 You say this like you're telling me something. Their military dominance was long over by the 4th and 5th centuries. That's like saying Western Rome was a weak Empire who couldn't defend their borders based on the Goths sacking them after their prime.
So, if you're a Carthaginian, looking at the Romans coming at you during the first Punic War, why would you hire a Spartan mercenary (Xanthippus) as Polybius mentions if they're more known for their political prowess over their military dominance? Sometimes, I think historians seek relevance in todays world by theorizing against known histories. But, I could be wrong.
Exactly.
This
Hannibal Barca's victories against Rome was entirely his own. Him crossing the Alps and his performance at Cannae was entirely his unique work and not some Spartan. No Greek has ever achieved what he had done. The Romans clearly had better units than Hannibal Barca's units yet Hannibal Barca still won multiple times to the point that Rome had to use the Fabian way while Alexander's units are clearly superior to that of the Persians.
Plus, the Spartans are only good at using infantry and not other things such as cavalry. But Hannibal Barca is not only good at using his infantry but also other units. In other words, it was his smart mind that made the different while the Greeks are only great at using infantry units and following traditional established ways.
Sorry.
@@jasondelrosario5523 You're not wrong about Hannibal at all...but you're talking about two different wars. Xanthippus was solicited during the first Punic War. Hannibal swung his bat during the 2nd. Completely different stuff going on.
I'd wager that military practice and warfare study from the age of 7 is the most realistic approach we'll ever get to try and make super soldiers....
When I watched this video, there was 300 views. Coincidence?
TONIGHT WE DINE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION! (aka hell)
They will fill the skies with their dislikes! Then we will have some shade to post under!
THIS IS INVICTA!
No, that's God telling you that you will become the man that will unite humanity, if only you send me 300 dollars per month. Rise oh Great of all Greats: the power is yours to be taken!
and 300 dislikes? ;)
Rigorous Spartan training: drinking, dancing, singing, sleeping around...They were the envy of the ancient world
their video sucks, read herodotous. they lie so much. it says some historically correct events but also says many things that are not written by Herodotous. F.E. thermopylae was not a suicide mission but when the Greeks learned about Efialtis, Leonidas decided to make his last stand and to buy time for the rest of the army to fall back. also they lack of the knowledge of the spartan philosophy and they do not know that ancient greeks were fighting all the time with each other OR they are trying to tarnish the Greek legacy.
And they were still marginally better than everyone else and won the Peloponnesian wars hahaha
Baron Warborn
That was what they did in free time, they did indeed have rigorous training.
@@mobeenkhan824 indeed. A spartan hoplite was trained from seven years old up to thirty years old. 23 years of training. That's why they had perioikous and helots. To do the jobs for then so that they can train the whole day.
Sparta was the 'Uncle Rico' of the Mediterranean.
You speak of the way their phalanxes could move across the battlefield and maneuver without seeming to understand the training required to accomplish this.
Indeed, they were the only ones on the entire greece to master basic field manuevers
I read Plutarch and the history of the Peloponnesian war. You are correct, but you're still not giving them enough credit. They were elite hoplites.
Shane The Bold we never state that they were bad fighters. They were certainly a top tier greek power just not for the reasons people think
Invicta Fair point. Great video, by the way.
I remember reading about a battle in History of the Peloponnesian War, where the Spartans had their left flank, I believe, wrapped up. They defeated the hoplites that enveloped them through sheer skill, and caused a rout. I can understand being critical of Plutarch, but Thucydides was there at their waxing, and he had reason to be biased against them, but he still reported on their superiority in all things infantry.
Just pointing out that they were in fact, incredible fighters that built an unparalleled martial society. That's the only thing admirable about the Spartans though.
Romano: "extend privileges to slaves"? Sparta? You're joking, right?
@@InvictaHistory you never stated they were bad fighters? you literally said that they are strong man who in the final can't take a punch
Oh God, this video washes me from inside. Too many misunderstood myths in this world, Sparta is one of them. Thank you for revealing the truth.
I think Leuctra can be attributed more to Epamindos' brillance rather then Spartan failures. The decision to shift the Theban phalanx in depth to the left side of the line rather then the right was highly Clausewitzian in nature, knocking out the Spartan centre of gravity. I mean a 50 rank deep phalanx....bold move.
Commissar0 the video isnt trying to prove that the spartans were a failure, just that they were a top tier greek power but not for the reasons people think. We will be hosting a livestream with the historian to answer specific questions. For now check out their post here: www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6rvusy/is_the_military_worship_of_the_spartans_really/
I'll check it out! Oh I wasn't attempting to undermine the general thesis of the video. Just throwing my own 2 cence into the debate. Currently doing a degree module on Ancient Warfare and quite honestly the opportunity to use the information attained through research is few and far between!
Romano Coombs Spartans decided to let themselves be humiliated after Leuctra? Come on. They were top notch for centuries. But Thebes destroyed the Spartan backbone when they ended their system of alliances and liberated the helots. There was no way that such an underpopulated polis could regain their power, even if Alexander hadn't come later to mop the floor with Greece. This is the kind of myth stuff that this video was meant to end
@@InvictaHistory Your source is a fucking reddit post?
Thank you for the video , Finally someone who lets all those know that 300 did not stand alone against millions. Want to look at someone who outnumbered still managed to successfully win, Alexander the Great.
Whether they were the people we think they were or not, king Leonidas and the other Spartans did fought to the end. Even if they didn't think this would be their last battle they were there nevertheless. They could have just stood back home drinking and dancing and singing as you said but they chose to go and fight an enemy against terrible odds.
And they certainly, certainly weren't no confident at all about winning and they couldn't have been no matter how much they themselves or anyone else thought they were the best of the best.
It was a sacrifice indeed.
King Leonidas is a Legend.. The twat that made this video.. is and always will be ... a nobody.
shaolindreams, you a 300 fanboy? Nobody? What are you, 10?
Sky Waybright, I enjoyed the film but i wouldn't say i'm a fanboy over a film lmao Yes nobody did you get it this time? And no mate i'm not a number, I'm human if you really want to know.
I mean, it's quite possible that King Leonidas was a genuinely brave and heroic person.
There's nothing saying that the Spartans were cowardly or weak, just that the Spartans as a whole were not nearly as exceptional as the stories/propaganda make them out to be. There are exceptional individuals within every society though and maybe Leonidas was an exceptional Spartan.
There were 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans that stayed behind to fight with the 300 Spartans... Everyone always seems to forget that. Sparta does not get all the credit for it. The other Greeks fought just as valiantly and heroically as the Spartans did.
I'm not so sure about the accuracy of this video. What's next? Are you going to try to tell us that Spartans didn't go into combat wearing only a helmet and airbrushed abs?
300 vs 1 million. That is not correct. Wasn't it like 300 vs 200.000?
No if we see that in Platae the Persians left 200000 men to continue the struggle and the cause that forced Persians had to return because the empire used most of its labor force as army, the one million is not over stretching.
Actually it was 300 against 100000 and 1 year later 10000 Spartans against 1000000 Persian.
6:25 Leonids was compelled to stay because retreating is the most dishonorable thing to do for a Spartan
@Ryan Serdan Nah the spartans were the chads of ancient Greece, with their chiseled pecs they fought off all the other simps and virgins of their time