We actually made a video tour of ancient Sparta in Assassin's Creed Odyssey with an actual historian as our guide: ua-cam.com/video/joZkYwcK6ts/v-deo.html
Great video. However, Sparta was never a superpower. Even at the height of its power, it was more like a regional power - and even then, it still shared dominance of the region with Athens.
Yes I saw your ancient Sparta Assassin's Creed Odyssey video. The depiction of the Spartan peer drilling with sword in hand against a post was utter "whacked". Very little is actually known about Sparta...with certainty, but even so the glaring inaccuracy of that sword drilling depiction is glaring. And by the way even at the apex of Spartan power it never had anything even remotely as grand as other Greek cities. In the words of Thucydides, the look and layout of Sparta would never allow an observer to believe that was ever as powerful as it in fact was.
If I may ask for a video topic; what are logistics of night battles? Both for attacking and defending armies and how experienced need generals be to use the cover of night to their advantage? Thank you for your time and videos!
"just today, our apollo day super sale: a brand new golden apollo statue in spartan hoplite gear for your attic. get it now for the charge of earth and water!"
Yeah, some places. But it’s not otherwise extinct like Rome is, or Sparta was when Romans resurrected it. Some day the US might be gone and people will travel to special places to dress up in jeans, some name brand shirt, Jordans and a cowboy hat. They’ll ride horses and harleys while shooting machine guns with gangster rap blasting then have barbecues while listening to country music.
Fun fact: Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos restored the Spartan war-like tradition by creating a squadron called the "Lacedaemonians" composed of 10.000 elite warriors and if we believe Anna Komnena's Alexiad they were trained near Mystras (almost Sparta) following their traditional "agōgē" plus Byzantine generals at this time were encouraged to memorize the tactis of erlier Spartan kings most notable Agesilaus and Leonidas.
@@kosmasfostinis8017 Ήταν Έλληνες, είμαστε Έλληνες, ο κόσμος ήδη γνωρίζει πλήρως ότι ήταν οι ανατολικοί Ρωμαίοι. Πρέπει να αγκαλιάζουμε τον Ελληνισμό μας πιο συχνά.
@@dimitrisg45 Macedonians: Bring the good old salpinx, boys, we'll sing another song Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along Sing it as we used to sing it, 30000 strong While we were marching through Boeotia Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the jubilee Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free So we sang the chorus from Thebes to the sea While we were marching through Boeotia
@Hernando Malinche I mean that’s true for a lot of civilizations though, “chivalry” for example was never a consistent code until after the age of knights was over and it started to get heavily romanticized.
My roots are from Sparta, I have family that still lives in Sparta, I’ve stayed in Sparta many times, and I can unequivocally tell you that there is nothing cool going on in modern day Sparta.
I thought people were quite grumpy there but I was so excited anyway and the amount of freaking olive trees on the way there was like anything I ever seen, SO gorgeous!!!
I heard the seleucids were quite eager to re-enact there Though choosing romans for Persians was quite anachronistic. Well at least they lost the battle in a similar manner to sparta
More like the middle aged dude bro who likes to flex and talk about that one or two awesome things his granddaddy during the war (pick whichever war) and how he honors that legacy with his gucci AR and molon labe shirt.
I would think so. In that way, Sparta's not so different from some regions of the US that try to relive the former glory of the antebellum era, when they had plantations and slaves and, in their mind, everything was "genteel" (though there was nothing genteel about the way African American slaves were treated - medieval-style punishment props and literally pouring salt into whip wounds, among other things).
@A Velsen That's not racist though that is the truth whether or not you like it. Is the South as a whole racist? No. Do they want to go back to the good ol days? Yes. Not hard to figure out.
I also had no idea that Sparta became a big mock up of itself, very interesting. The antagonistic relationship of Sparta to the rest of Greece may have been why Phillip didn't bother to conquer them, better to have the threat of them force the rest of Greece into his hegemony.
My understanding was they where such a small power at the time that he just didn't think it was worth it. He did defeat them but they just didn't accept it. Sense their city was never attacked they where able to get away with it. They also did a revolt that got put down. Not sure if that was under phillip or Alexander tho
@@coreyostrander1763 So essentially, it's like expecting the USA to forcibly (militarily) conquer Serbia to integrate them onto NATO, to move against Russia, for modern day context, long story short, it wouldn't go well for them. People tend to confuse early Macedonian hegemony of Greece, which was always carried out in an enlightened and respective spirit towards their fellow Greek city states, with the Hellenistic Macedonian rule of Greece, that was carried out in an authoritarian and forceful fashion, mostly because the Greek city states had tremendously declined by that time and they had became really weary of Macedonian hegemony, which in turn lead to revolts to assert their independence in order to make their city states "great again", which the Macedonians saw as a betrayal to their common cause (against the Persians) and really tight bonds by that time, moving to quell such revolts under the pretext of preserving the status quo, but essentially spiraling into an increasingly authoritarian way of rule to preserve their grip over the Greek city states
He wrote a letter to them calling them to surrender detailing what he would do to them if he conquered their city and the godamn Madmen answered him IF... Realistically why would he want to juke it with these madmen?
@@coreyostrander1763 Under Alexander. He was way to the east at the time, so his regent in Macedon, Antipater, put down the revolt. When Alexander heard of it, he called it "a battle of mice".
Technically, Phillip didn't really conquer Southern Greece. To use the word "conquer" is actually a big disservice to the true genius of Phillip. Phillip convinced everyone to join a an alliance (The Corinthian League). Which required some serious 5D chess skills. One of the methods Phillip used,was by forcefully taking and then redistributing Sparta's territory. Sparta had territorial disputes with everyone around them. These guys were extremely happy to receive those "gifts" for on Phillip. But, the only way they could possibly hope to defend those territories, was yo join j the League. Basically, everyone in Southern Greece was buttered up and made happy by Phillip at Sparta's expense (and also at the expense of Thebes). No one liked Sparta or Thebes😅. Even Athens was buttered up. For a short period, Phillip was so popular in Athens, that they built a huge statuein honor of him. That small windows of good favor was just enough for the Athenians to join the League competely willingly. (Athens held a vote and Phillip won by a landslide). Once inside the League, it was extremely difficult to leave, not because of force or threat. But because the rules of the League were very carefully crafted by Phillip. Phillip basically imprisoned Greece in a prison, thathad no walls and no guards. There was virtually no Macedonian military presence in Southern Greece...no forts or garrisons. Phillip, nor his army, never set foot on Athenian territory (this was very intentional...he needed their navy). Most people don't realize just how much of genius Phillip really was.
@12:50 Hey Roman parents! Do your children disrespect you? Talk back to you? Refuse to stand when you enter the room, or bring honor to the family name? Give them a one-way ticket this summer to the "Spartan Agoge for Troubled Kids!" (Disclaimer: The "Spartan Agoge for Troubled Kids" is not liable if your son returns slightly more gay than when he left. Prospective clients are advised: "Caveat Emptor.")
"TONIGHT YOU DINE IN HELL...as most famous restaurant for traditional Spartan dishes! Come and try our black broth! And if you celebrate your birthday here, you'll get a Leonidas figurine extra!
16:40 I didn't realize Sellasia was that close to Sparta. To those who are wondering, that was the sight of the battle where the Macedonian-Achaean armies of Antigonus III Doson defeated the Spartan army (armed in a Macedonian-style phalanx) of Cleomenes III. That was also the first time where Sparta was militarily occupied by a non-Spartan general (i.e Antigonus III)
In between the final abandonment of the city and it's reestablishment in the 1800's, the inhabitants fled to the more fortified and mountainous peninsula of Mani. There they more or less maintained their own lifestyle isolated from the outside world. Last we hear of them is around the ~800's, where a bishop is sending them a letter to abandon their pagan ways and convert to Christianity.
@@piotrgrzelak2613 Mani was the only part of Greece that was never conquered by the Ottomans.It had his own 'mpei' like a local warlord who at the Greek revolution of 1821 supplied most of the guns,ammunition and manpower
The city was destroyed in the third century A.D. if I remember correctly...by barbarians. The presence of barbarians produced something of a shield that protected the Greeks of old from the Byzantines and with that, from the advent of ugly Christianity. When the Byzantines took over Greece, they soon put an end to this remnant of Greek paganism.
because, "take an objective on that hill and get a reward before anyone else" is an actual measured approach to training that isn't just trying to beat you into a super soldier.
In Sparta Land 3.0 they should bring back the steal the cheese attraction. However, the how many whips does it take to get to the center of a spartan is a crowd favorite.
@@ThZuao They knew about gambling, but it was forbidden. Not that they didn't do it, but it would never be an official and legally accepted institution, which limited it as business.
@@DarkPsychoMessiah They told him, "Don't you ever come around here" "Don't wanna see your face, you better disappear" The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear So beat it, just beat it
@@DarkPsychoMessiah nah during the start of Peloponnesian war they replied on phalanx only ,but after seeing the catastrophic results of the peltasts they quickly adobted it by hiring thracian mercenaries . The downfall of Sparta was due to population decrease and the unwillingness of adopting ideas and thank God for that.... Prefer Macedon or Athens over Sparta to form the hellenic league 😂
Nice Video. My father is from Sparta, he used to take me as a kid to the archeological sites of our city and teach me its history. From the old Sparta emerged Eleutherolacones "Free Laconians", a league, southern of Sparta, at Mani Peninsula, protected by the mountain range of Taygetus and the sea, in the territories previously owned by Spartans, in the form of a league, having old Sparta as an example", which was quite impressive and transformed to the glorious "Mani" and it's fierce citizens, which served as mercenaries in all European armies -as well as pirates, which never fell to any foreign power including Ottomans until the creation of the Modern Greek State 1830s. A small but important and underatted offshoot of glorious Sparta.
If they didn't rely so much on the phalanx and actually implemented more fighting tactics or even built fortifications for sparta they could have been a superpower for way longer than they were but they never had enough soldiers to fight rome but granted roman legions were what? 4 to 6 thousand troops nobody in Greece not even united could have held them off
Thank you so much for this video! There's so much information about early Sparta and it's pinnacle, but little to no coverage of it's slow decline! Sparta's reputation lingered for much longer than it's actual political relevance.
There was no way to become a Spartan elite unless born into a family. They could not replace their loses. If they followed Rome army and allowed the best to join the ranks they be unstoppable
That was not an intrinsic problem on itself, as long as you have an large enough population. In my view, their problem was political: the elite didn't have strong enough institutions to dominate the other classes. They were always in constant fear of rebellion. That fear influenced a lot of their policies, both internal and external. Besides, there were basically no self made men in antiquity in general. All elite was born into a family. That is what means to be a patrician or a noble. Competition between elites was already hard, plebeians couldn't really compete.
Later in the Republic the Romans allowed any peasant or pleb to join, as they were very confident that their training could turn the lowliest farmer into a decent soldier.
Only 1 or 2 countries can be superpower at any given time. Building industry and commerce has always been the more reliable route to prosperity. Prosperity allows culture to flourish, and culture attracts tourists, that's not a bad thing.
@@lama99654 Nothing, poor and suffering people always look for every little positive thing they can find to not go crazy. I saw a video of North Korean refugees who fled to South Korea and they had the audacity to say that people in the North are happier than the southerners who chase money. Like freaking what? If you were so happy, why did you escape?
Great video, Invicta. This really helps shed light on the creation of the modern myth of Sparta, which, as many historical myths in the present day, it all starts with Roman authors.
It may seem funny that Sparta became a theme park, but you do what you have to do to get by. Even the Romans when a general returned from a great victory or campaign, and received a Triumph: "A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."
Words cannot describe how much I live and appreciate your channel. As a teacher of ancient history in high school, you are the conduit between the academic world and the high school/life long learner world. May you please just bite the bullet and do a series on the Greco Persian wars, battle and peace 500-440BC : )
I’m Spartan on my moms side and Macedonian on my dads so I’m Greek 100% so one thing I gotta wonder about is why are the Spartans depicted as being as dark or even darker than the Egyptians of Ptolemaic Egypt? In ancient texts there were 3 ways of describing the skin colour of people, and the ones that represented any shade of dark or tan had never been used to describe Spartans or Greeks all together in that matter in fact they were usually called fair skinned or in more specific cases “Ξανθός” (in modern day Greek meaning “blonde”) which back then didn’t have the same meaning as modern day Greek it meant white or pale compared to the Egyptians Persians and other surrounding nations and peoples. Another group of people who had the same skin colour would be those on the Italian peninsula and rarely comparisons would sometimes be made with the Celts as well although they were not nearly as common since the Celt were mostly way Paler that both Greeks and Italians/Romans.
"GREEKS, Persians, Chinese and Japanese could be cited as examples of ETHNIC CONTINUITY since despite massive cultural changes over the centuries key identifying components such as name, customs, language and territorial association were broadly maintained and reproduced for MILLENNIA" Anthony D Smith, Anthropologist, Emeritus professor of Nationalism and Ethnicity
This is true, and the Greeks and Japanese might be the only people who understand this, because their Ethnos is tied to their homogeny. If you read the history of Agia Lavra, and the revolution of 1821, you will understand that. Unfortunately, Western Europeans and Americans don't study those events.
@@royalrajput8127 India has a huge history but according to expert scholars on nationalism studies such as Smith, there is a lack of core components in order to speak of ethnic continuity for the case of the Indians. Common language is a core component for example. Indians never spoke a single language, but hundreds of different and totally diverse languages. This is not my personal opinion. This is what expert scholarship supports.
Sparta's decline happened because they were a nation of athletes and soldiers with no room for eggheads and strategists. They couldn't adapt to changing warfare, and started having mostly losing battles, with even their victories being mostly Pyrrhic since they couldnt replenish their ranks like other city states could due to their strict selectiveness (Athens on the other hand, lost a third of their population at one point due to a typhus outbreak and still remained a hegemon for some time). Strong naval power also became more important in Greek warfare and that was something Sparta could never really do well, so they relied on Corinth who were shaky allies at the best of times (they simply shared a common rival in Athens, and even then, Corinth threatened to side with Athens on a few occasions if Sparta didnt help them). During their brief period of hegemony they had over all of the Greek city-states, Sparta also managed to alienate the few allies they had. By the time of Macedon's ascendancy, they were an irrelevant backwater who nobody even really cared enough about to conquer They were the equivalent of the popular chad who was star quarterback on the high school football team, but ended up getting fat, is stuck in a crappy dead-end job, and his only friends are the regulars at the bar who like to listen when he reminisces
Modern Sparti should rebrand as Sparta, and invite Dudebros from all over Earth to come live and lift. 60% of all whey protein on Earth should be consumed there. It should be a monument to muscle, and it could be accomplished through modern marketing.
@@windowsxp9120 Knowing a few actual dudebros, I cannot imagine one ever saying "no" to this, especially if the accommodations are Olympic-village level.
@@nosupes929 I just said, marketing. You know how cheap it'll be to make training based on rocks and calisthenics? Open-air natural lifting. The idea prints its own money.
Sparta was one of the last survivors of the Greek Dark Ages. Everything falls into place when you consider their existence was a response to the anarchy of that period. Athens represented not just a rival but an existential threat: Athens was the future, an all-encompassing polis that could prosper where Sparta cannot; and this is why Sparta had to fight. It won the war but became the one thing it was never meant to be: an empire.
Looking at it now, Romans visiting Sparta would probably have a similar reaction to people who visit places like historical Williamsburg. They could see well over 400 years in the past travelling to Sparta.
Yes. The writers of New Vegas were drawing on a recurring trend in human history, wherein you see anti-democratic political forces try to create these highly fictionalized past societies where people were supposedly inherently 'stronger,' forces which get more horrifying the further back in history they imagine their utopia was. Sparta was an example of this just decades after it's fall.
Yeah the Legion in NV feels way more Like He combined Roman aestitcs with a Roman Spartan Tourist Guide because lets BE honest a real Fallout Caesar would have better Organisation and province Management than what the Legion in NV does.
@Some thing seems like a display of tactics, physical strength, and agility would be more impressive. Plus I'm sure they're beating the hell out of each other with those sticks, so you'd think that would be enough for the blood thirsty. Watching torture just sounds boring once you get past it being horrific.
I'd say it's because tourists would go "pfft, anyone can do that" with the cheese thing. Torturing the shit out of your own people. Now that's original. Achieves fuckall phisically or militarily for soldiers. But it was low effort enough for them to try it, so they did and the people that built the Coliseum liked it, so that's that. They found the trick that gets people to come. Imagine how many idiotic gimmicks they tried before settling for that one.
@@ThZuao we'll see who can eat the most cheese without vomiting! We'll call it, Cheese Whipping! or maybe Reeds of Cheese... or maybe, uh, string cheese? To hell with it let's beat the shit out of someone.
The Sparta of old ,was long diminished,well before the Roman domination of the Hellenic world,the rise of the power of Macedonia ,and it’s future God King Alexander the Great saw to that..The Spartans took Persian gold to be mercenaries for the Shah of Persia,and fought against Alexander,and in a defeat of the Spartans,Alexander sent back three hundred suits of armour back to Sparta ,as a way of saying how they had dishonoured their ancestors like that of King Leonidas ,by the Spartans siding with the old enemy of Greece..Enjoying the Channel,A👍👍👍up
Actually, Sparta was never fully abandoned until 11-12th century. lt was the Latin occupation and the foundation of the nearby citadel of Mistras who contributed to the abandonment of the city. At the 1800s, after Greek independence, the newly found city of Sparta was populated by citizens of Mistras
It's crazy that all we remember is their military prowess at that brief height of their time. Although I guess it does go to show if you're really good at something you get remembered for it and for the time that they were good at it they were damn good at it.
Sparta was never a superpower. Even at the height of its power, it was more like a regional power - and even then, it still shared dominance of the region with Athens.
If i'm not wrong, Sparta couldn't be a greek superpower due to the fact they shouldn't be far from home for long times, since they needed to back home to the harvest and to guarantee a slave rebelion didn't happens.
@@jimmyandersson9938 that's like asking "if you call ancient Rome a super Power, what do you call USA, a ultra godly hyper power?". For its time, it was considered a superpower, which, after the peloponisian war, had control over the Greek world for a time, until Thebes became a thing (and a bit later, Macedonians)
I was just reading Plutarch's biographies of Agis IV and Cleomenes III and they're some of the most underappreciated characters of antiquity, especially Cleomenes.
The "Cheese Stealing" tradition sounds a lot like how the Spartans from Halo trained. Maybe they took some of their methods from the real ancient Sparta and not the exaggerated mockery of itself it became.
Man, I love the plane with the flag "What is your profession" written on it at 14:37 I already answer "AHOOO!!! AHOOO!!!" in my brain when I just read it.
I LOVE this episode, can you do one for Venice? It was once a proud power that went toe to toe with the ottoman empire, but today it feels like Disneyland museum.
Blud cam from "TAKE FROM THEM EVERYTHING BUT GIVE THEM NOTHING" to "Buy our replica shields swords and armor they are very high quality we also have an assortment of cheeses"
@@natetwehues2428 so you prefer the city that was filled with phedophiles and sexism over the militaristic but not phedphilic and sexist city instead? I'd much prefer Sparta be the captial over a city with such a evil legecy oh yeah also they commited gencioide the Athenians I mean they loved gencioide and war crimes and inslaving other Greeks.
Don’t forget that Spartas population decline can also be attributed to spartas extreme policy of male infanticide and deaths during the agoge training program.
No it can't. Our idea of brutal agoge comes exactly from this period the video covers. Sparta did not had as much a problem of reduction in population as a reduction in the percentage of the population that could "afford" to be considered a citizen. Spartan citizens were forbidden to work, for example, so they had to be very wealthy or they would lose their status of citizenship. That plus war attrition, is what explain it's decline in population. When only the elite are citizens, concentration of wealth and social inequality causes reduction in population.
Here's the thing. There was not really infanticide going on in Sparta. It's a huge misconception that has been propagated through Hollywood and even early historians. Since then kaiadas the area in which supposedly they threw kids has been searched meticulously and not a single infant skeleton has ever been found. They have found though skeletons of adults which probably were their enemies. Do remember most of the sources we have about Sparta are pro Athenian.
It wasn't actual population decline. Less Spartans could afford to be full Spartiates and so there were a few desperate attempts at land distribution but they were too little too late.
Only full citizens could fight in the army, and to be a full citizen you must have a certain income. The Spartan laws on inheritage were bound to reduce the full citizens (Spartiates), and so the army since: 1) Spartans could only own land, not commerce. 2) inheritance had to be equally divided among sons. 3) Spartiates had to sit in a Syssitia, and each member was required to contribute monthly with 77 litres of barley, 39 litres of wine, three kilograms of cheese, 1.5 kilograms of figs, and ten Aegina obols, so you had to be pretty rich to sit in one. This way, families with many sons (that could have contributed to the army) became too poor to be full citizens, while the wealth concentrated in fewer and fewer families with few sons.
Constantine the Last's brother Demetrius was in control of a city near the ruins of Sparta(Mystra) before the final fall of the Roman empire in the east.
Who in modern times even really thought of Sparta being a powerful nation of supersoldiers that trained in childhood EVEN WHEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE FINALLY CONQUERED ALL OF GREECE?!! I just thought that they're "supersoldier training" was already gone when Rome conquered all of Greece.
6:38 This implies Philip didn't subdue Sparta because it wasn't strong? But it is often told that is because, though a shadow, Sparta did still have some bite left. It's often told through the two single word replies Sparta gave. When Philip was approaching Sparta, he sent a letter saying, "If I invade Laconia, not even the women and children will be spared." The Spartans replied with one word. "IF." Years later, his more famous son Alexander took a crack at it with his own letter. "Would you rather I enter your city a friend or a conqueror?" The Spartans replied with one word. "Neither." Sparta was considerably weaker than they had once been, but Philip and Alexander didn't ignore them for being too weak to care about, but because they feared invasion would result in bloody quagmire or just too costly to net returns on invading.
@@Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaa By that logic, neither does the Video. Therefore, also making what they inferred about Philip and Alexander's reasons for not invading being nonsensical as well.
The running theory is that the macedonians knew the spartans weren't a real threat, but let them be independent to focus old fears and resentment away from themselves and on the spartans. With the spartans in the leauge macedon would be the bad guy, with sparta outside it they were the bad guys.
When you've built a reputation as a warrior society that held off the mighty Persians--and then a thousand years later your region will just be labelled for silkworms
I always considered the fall of Sparta to be an economic thing. It took enormous resources to raise and train one warrior, and the economy just couldn't support all that after a while.
Agree - I think it was this, together with population decline, a conservative "citizenship" sytem, their succession laws and the freeing of the Messenian helots. After a certain point, the system couldn't work.
@@pitsinokakinot just couldn't work it's just wouldn't have been Spartan. Sparta was nothing without it slaves, Spartans were nothing special without their rituals. Which themselves worked against their growth and recovery. Alot of the old rituals were probably dismantled because they worked against recovery. Every baby culled was a baby that themselves would not have children.
@@Basedlocation married with children m8 but above all is possible to understand you know nothing about history cause that phenomenon was rather common in all ancient greece INCLUDED athens. greetings
13:44 Leonidaea already existed in the 3rd century BC... "A Leonidaea commemorating Leonidas was instituted from the third century bce to the second century ce. Physical education for Spartan girls is alluded to by Xenophon and Aristophanes, and evidenced by bronze figurines of the sixth century bce." (Paul Cartledge , Oxford)
I find it quite surprising that you didnt include Friedrich Schillers study on the legislation of Lycurgus and Solon. A useful contrast between the law givers that essentially shaped European civilization since.
Great vid that gives a lot to think, like capitals of former great European nation slowly turning into touristic attraction for Chinese (the Roman of this century). Also, talking about Roman imperial propaganda, depicting the Spartan with African looking icons is a great example of our own modern Imperial propaganda.
We actually made a video tour of ancient Sparta in Assassin's Creed Odyssey with an actual historian as our guide: ua-cam.com/video/joZkYwcK6ts/v-deo.html
Great video. However, Sparta was never a superpower. Even at the height of its power, it was more like a regional power - and even then, it still shared dominance of the region with Athens.
Yes I saw your ancient Sparta Assassin's Creed Odyssey video. The depiction of the Spartan peer drilling with sword in hand against a post was utter "whacked".
Very little is actually known about Sparta...with certainty, but even so the glaring inaccuracy of that sword drilling depiction is glaring.
And by the way even at the apex of Spartan power it never had anything even remotely as grand as other Greek cities. In the words of Thucydides, the look and layout of Sparta would
never allow an observer to believe that was ever as powerful as it in fact was.
@@Intranetusa I hope someone was fired for that error
Actual actual actual actual actual
If I may ask for a video topic; what are logistics of night battles? Both for attacking and defending armies and how experienced need generals be to use the cover of night to their advantage? Thank you for your time and videos!
Sparta then: "THIS. IS. SPARTA!"
Sparta now: "Buy our replica spear and shield at the gift shops! Only 50 Denarii."
>incoming barbarians getting ready to invade Sparta
>Sparta selling spears and shields for citizens
>Citizens getting to defend Sparta
"just today, our apollo day super sale: a brand new golden apollo statue in spartan hoplite gear for your attic. get it now for the charge of earth and water!"
And don't forget to stop at Capitoline Brotherhood of Millers, the only place that serves true Roman bread for true Romans
@Aung Un'Rama tbf it fits cause Sparta would be a part of the empire, thus would be using Roman coins.
Disney needs to make a Spartan ride!!!!
*And, two thousand years later, Roman civilization itself is a giant tourist trap.*
Makes you wonder how today's super powers will be, after maybe 500 years
@@rahulvarma001
America is already a giant tourist trap, but it's still a superpower.
@@rahulvarma001 They are already tourist attractions.
@@rahulvarma001 dead
Yeah, some places. But it’s not otherwise extinct like Rome is, or Sparta was when Romans resurrected it.
Some day the US might be gone and people will travel to special places to dress up in jeans, some name brand shirt, Jordans and a cowboy hat. They’ll ride horses and harleys while shooting machine guns with gangster rap blasting then have barbecues while listening to country music.
Fun fact: Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos restored the Spartan war-like tradition by creating a squadron called the "Lacedaemonians" composed of 10.000 elite warriors and if we believe Anna Komnena's Alexiad they were trained near Mystras (almost Sparta) following their traditional "agōgē"
plus Byzantine generals at this time were encouraged to memorize the tactis of erlier Spartan kings most notable Agesilaus and Leonidas.
Μην λες Βυζάντιο να λες Ανατολική ρωμαϊκή αυτοκρατορία (ERE)... Βυζάντιο μας ονόμασαν οι Γερμανοί γιατί αυτοί είχαν "Αγία ρωμαϊκή αυτοκρατορία" ....
@@kosmasfostinis8017 Ήταν Έλληνες, είμαστε Έλληνες, ο κόσμος ήδη γνωρίζει πλήρως ότι ήταν οι ανατολικοί Ρωμαίοι. Πρέπει να αγκαλιάζουμε τον Ελληνισμό μας πιο συχνά.
Can I get source?
@@duhtoolazy6776 The "Alexiad" of Anna Komnena, she tries to represent her father as a new Odysseus as the very title of her book shows.
Fun fact: black lives matter
I always wonder how Sparta felt when Alexander was conquering the world, sending back gifts to "All the Greeks... except Sparta."
Well I guess shit but not as shit as Thebes who got burnt to the ground for being traitors once more.
@@dimitrisg45 Macedonians:
Bring the good old salpinx, boys, we'll sing another song
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along
Sing it as we used to sing it, 30000 strong
While we were marching through Boeotia
Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the jubilee
Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free
So we sang the chorus from Thebes to the sea
While we were marching through Boeotia
@@comradekenobi6908 beautiful song . And I say Thebes deserved it 😂to burn to the ground
My guess is, very bitter. One of the greatest insults a former hegemon can be dealt, I imagine, is to be ignored.
from* all the Greeks. "Alexandros and the Greeks minus the Spartans" is the literal translation to the text.
Modern Greece: “We need more tourism!”
Spartans: “I have an idea. Gimme that whip.”
Always were sick bastards , how many children had to die for their stupid shit ?
@@garywhite7886 they needed warriors not kids (this is a joke btw)
@@alangutierrez9359 I hope so lol ,where will your warriors come from ? basic mathematics .
Now if only we can get giant moving gold statues in Rhodes
@Hernando Malinche I mean that’s true for a lot of civilizations though, “chivalry” for example was never a consistent code until after the age of knights was over and it started to get heavily romanticized.
Perfect, now everyone knows that Sparta was the ancient equivalent of Disney Land
Yes, as we all know Disney employees a secret police force to randomly brutalize their slaves so they’re too afraid to rebel.
@@InquisitorThomas what do you think the walk around mascots are for?
Wait, doesn't that make Sparta the Florida of the Greek world?
@@jnliewmichael4235 Florida man kicks Iranian Ambassador down a giant hole while shouting “THIS IS FLORIDA!”
@@InquisitorThomas water table is too high for deep wells in Florida. Don't worry, the gators will take care of him.
Tourists? This is Sparta!!!!
Come, enjoy our museum. It's at the bottom of this giant hole...
Beginner history buffs "This, is Sparta?! 😄
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
And eventually, This is Sparti 😶
I wonder how many people visit the modern town just so that they can yell that there. 😀
My roots are from Sparta, I have family that still lives in Sparta, I’ve stayed in Sparta many times, and I can unequivocally tell you that there is nothing cool going on in modern day Sparta.
Is there an army camp of the Hellenic Army at the very least?
sparta 3.0 is the lowest-rated Sparta
I thought people were quite grumpy there but I was so excited anyway and the amount of freaking olive trees on the way there was like anything I ever seen, SO gorgeous!!!
Hating your own people that much uh? Pathetic.
I wanted to do the group tour to Thermopylae, but they were sold out.
They had space for only 300.
Oooooooooooooooooh!
Please say this is a true story. If they actually had trips going to Thermopylae that were limited to 300 that would be so cool
They allowed 700 actors to join them though
I thought that you are talking about Efialtes ;)
I heard the seleucids were quite eager to re-enact there
Though choosing romans for Persians was quite anachronistic. Well at least they lost the battle in a similar manner to sparta
So Sparta essentially was the middle-aged man who spent the rest of his life trying to relive his high school football glory days?
Alexios Bundy
Alos Bundyos.
More like the middle aged dude bro who likes to flex and talk about that one or two awesome things his granddaddy during the war (pick whichever war) and how he honors that legacy with his gucci AR and molon labe shirt.
I would think so. In that way, Sparta's not so different from some regions of the US that try to relive the former glory of the antebellum era, when they had plantations and slaves and, in their mind, everything was "genteel" (though there was nothing genteel about the way African American slaves were treated - medieval-style punishment props and literally pouring salt into whip wounds, among other things).
@A Velsen That's not racist though that is the truth whether or not you like it.
Is the South as a whole racist? No.
Do they want to go back to the good ol days? Yes.
Not hard to figure out.
"It do be like that sometimes"
-Every civilization to ever exist
"That will never be me..."
@@nunyabiznes33 "I won't disappear and get humiliated I'm sure of it "
-China in the 1800's
@@cruzaider5339 - USA in 2021
@@cruzaider5339 China: "Westerners who? They all look barbarian to me."
@@nunyabiznes33 "All westerners are to be expelled"
Top ten famous last words
I also had no idea that Sparta became a big mock up of itself, very interesting. The antagonistic relationship of Sparta to the rest of Greece may have been why Phillip didn't bother to conquer them, better to have the threat of them force the rest of Greece into his hegemony.
My understanding was they where such a small power at the time that he just didn't think it was worth it. He did defeat them but they just didn't accept it. Sense their city was never attacked they where able to get away with it.
They also did a revolt that got put down. Not sure if that was under phillip or Alexander tho
@@coreyostrander1763 So essentially, it's like expecting the USA to forcibly (militarily) conquer Serbia to integrate them onto NATO, to move against Russia, for modern day context, long story short, it wouldn't go well for them.
People tend to confuse early Macedonian hegemony of Greece, which was always carried out in an enlightened and respective spirit towards their fellow Greek city states, with the Hellenistic Macedonian rule of Greece, that was carried out in an authoritarian and forceful fashion, mostly because the Greek city states had tremendously declined by that time and they had became really weary of Macedonian hegemony, which in turn lead to revolts to assert their independence in order to make their city states "great again", which the Macedonians saw as a betrayal to their common cause (against the Persians) and really tight bonds by that time, moving to quell such revolts under the pretext of preserving the status quo, but essentially spiraling into an increasingly authoritarian way of rule to preserve their grip over the Greek city states
He wrote a letter to them calling them to surrender detailing what he would do to them if he conquered their city and the godamn Madmen answered him IF...
Realistically why would he want to juke it with these madmen?
@@coreyostrander1763 Under Alexander. He was way to the east at the time, so his regent in Macedon, Antipater, put down the revolt. When Alexander heard of it, he called it "a battle of mice".
Technically, Phillip didn't really conquer Southern Greece.
To use the word "conquer" is actually a big disservice to the true genius of Phillip.
Phillip convinced everyone to join a an alliance (The Corinthian League). Which required some serious 5D chess skills.
One of the methods Phillip used,was by forcefully taking and then redistributing Sparta's territory.
Sparta had territorial disputes with everyone around them. These guys were extremely happy to receive those "gifts" for on Phillip. But, the only way they could possibly hope to defend those territories, was yo join j the League.
Basically, everyone in Southern Greece was buttered up and made happy by Phillip at Sparta's expense (and also at the expense of Thebes). No one liked Sparta or Thebes😅.
Even Athens was buttered up. For a short period, Phillip was so popular in Athens, that they built a huge statuein honor of him. That small windows of good favor was just enough for the Athenians to join the League competely willingly. (Athens held a vote and Phillip won by a landslide).
Once inside the League, it was extremely difficult to leave, not because of force or threat. But because the rules of the League were very carefully crafted by Phillip.
Phillip basically imprisoned Greece in a prison, thathad no walls and no guards. There was virtually no Macedonian military presence in Southern Greece...no forts or garrisons.
Phillip, nor his army, never set foot on Athenian territory (this was very intentional...he needed their navy).
Most people don't realize just how much of genius Phillip really was.
@12:50 Hey Roman parents! Do your children disrespect you? Talk back to you? Refuse to stand when you enter the room, or bring honor to the family name? Give them a one-way ticket this summer to the "Spartan Agoge for Troubled Kids!"
(Disclaimer: The "Spartan Agoge for Troubled Kids" is not liable if your son returns slightly more gay than when he left. Prospective clients are advised: "Caveat Emptor.")
😆😆😆
"TONIGHT YOU DINE IN HELL...as most famous restaurant for traditional Spartan dishes! Come and try our black broth! And if you celebrate your birthday here, you'll get a Leonidas figurine extra!
"every guest will receive the 'earth and water' gift pack".
16:40 I didn't realize Sellasia was that close to Sparta.
To those who are wondering, that was the sight of the battle where the Macedonian-Achaean armies of Antigonus III Doson defeated the Spartan army (armed in a Macedonian-style phalanx) of Cleomenes III. That was also the first time where Sparta was militarily occupied by a non-Spartan general (i.e Antigonus III)
In between the final abandonment of the city and it's reestablishment in the 1800's, the inhabitants fled to the more fortified and mountainous peninsula of Mani. There they more or less maintained their own lifestyle isolated from the outside world. Last we hear of them is around the ~800's, where a bishop is sending them a letter to abandon their pagan ways and convert to Christianity.
Maniots lived off piracy and frequently rebelled against ottoman turks, and were notable for their part in the Greek war of independence iirc
@@piotrgrzelak2613 Mani was the only part of Greece that was never conquered by the Ottomans.It had his own 'mpei' like a local warlord who at the Greek revolution of 1821 supplied most of the guns,ammunition and manpower
Should make a video about this
@@vasilissirakos4090 i think Sfakia remained unconquered as well, I might be wrong though
The city was destroyed in the third century A.D. if I remember correctly...by barbarians. The presence of barbarians produced something of a shield that protected the Greeks of old from the Byzantines and with that, from the advent of ugly Christianity. When the Byzantines took over Greece, they soon put an end to this remnant of Greek paganism.
Why does stealing the cheese actually sound fun
I like stealing, and I like cheese, so it is natural that it is fun for me to steal cheese.
did they use _cheesy_ exploits to gain access to the temple? 🤭🙃
because, "take an objective on that hill and get a reward before anyone else" is an actual measured approach to training that isn't just trying to beat you into a super soldier.
The Spartans should have adopted a mouse as their mascot. Then they would truly be the Disneyland of the ancient world.
In Sparta Land 3.0 they should bring back the steal the cheese attraction. However, the how many whips does it take to get to the center of a spartan is a crowd favorite.
Crazy how quickly one can go from being on top to an irrelevant backwater at the bottom.
Kinda like England today.
Half joke lol
@@canadious6933 they still have they Channel Islands, so not a total loss
Kinda like what happened to the Western Roman Empire and then to the Byzantines a millennium later.
Welcome to Greece 😅😅😅😭😭😭😭😭😭
@A Velsen ok dutchi what ever you say 🤣🤣🤣 careful in neighborhood 😉
Curious and greedy tourists: *appear*
Spartans: *I can milk you*
milking in the happy way?
Milking by murdering children ? Where a you from ?
@@garywhite7886 milking in the happy way?
@@beepboop204 Whats your problem ?
@@garywhite7886 sobriety is my biggest problem (ง'̀-'́)ง
It's amazing how we see even ancient cities relying on a tourist economy ultimately doom themselves but we keep doing it.
Elizabeth, ur pretentious!
They were doomed way before they started relying on a tourist economy.
Actually, what ended sparta was war, like many other communities.
A functional tourist economy can work, but it can also fail at the same time (Butler Model).
That's because they hadn't found out about Gambling yet.
@@ThZuao They knew about gambling, but it was forbidden. Not that they didn't do it, but it would never be an official and legally accepted institution, which limited it as business.
The problem was Sparta didn't research or build the buildings required to train Horse Archers and Hellenic Cataphracts.
They also built buildings and implemented policies that had a negative buff on population growth, trade, and the economy.
I understood this reference
They relied on the phalanx while everyone else had ways to beat it
@@DarkPsychoMessiah They told him, "Don't you ever come around here"
"Don't wanna see your face, you better disappear"
The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear
So beat it, just beat it
@@DarkPsychoMessiah nah during the start of Peloponnesian war they replied on phalanx only ,but after seeing the catastrophic results of the peltasts they quickly adobted it by hiring thracian mercenaries . The downfall of Sparta was due to population decrease and the unwillingness of adopting ideas and thank God for that.... Prefer Macedon or Athens over Sparta to form the hellenic league 😂
Sparta: We have no walls!
Pyrrhus: Looking in interest...
And he still got his ass handed to him.
@@barbiquearea He forgot his helmet that day...
Nice Video. My father is from Sparta, he used to take me as a kid to the archeological sites of our city and teach me its history. From the old Sparta emerged Eleutherolacones "Free Laconians", a league, southern of Sparta, at Mani Peninsula, protected by the mountain range of Taygetus and the sea, in the territories previously owned by Spartans, in the form of a league, having old Sparta as an example", which was quite impressive and transformed to the glorious "Mani" and it's fierce citizens, which served as mercenaries in all European armies -as well as pirates, which never fell to any foreign power including Ottomans until the creation of the Modern Greek State 1830s. A small but important and underatted offshoot of glorious Sparta.
"from a superpower to a tourist atraction" - that's pretty much any european country
Russia is in europe too. Part of it.
@@michaeldiekmann6494 ain’t exactly the beast it used to be, now is it?
@@lucaslabarca idk, why is half of the world so bent out of shape for some silly peninsula then, for the last 5 years
@@michaeldiekmann6494 Lenin's tomb has a gift shop.
@@piotrgrzelak2613 cause is a war flashpoint, still Russia is nowhere near the level of power it once had
Earth and water. Oh you’ll find plenty of that in SPARTALAND! Everyone’s favorite Water Park!
Well, Homer did describe Sparta as a land of beautiful women. That alone would make me wanna go visit Sparta.
People have different preferences and views on beauty though. I thought the Greeks liked women with unibrows for example
@@PackHunter117 the greek ideal of beauty can be seen in their idealised statues of the Gods and Godesses. Afaik none have unibrows
@@Talematros They also created the dreadlocks that you don’t see on their statues either.
@@PackHunter117 unibrows was a Roman thing
You would only visit for the gay sex and oil wrestling
6:05
other cities: so... did you to beat down athens?
sparta: yes
other cities: what did it cost?
sparta: everything
If they didn't rely so much on the phalanx and actually implemented more fighting tactics or even built fortifications for sparta they could have been a superpower for way longer than they were but they never had enough soldiers to fight rome but granted roman legions were what? 4 to 6 thousand troops nobody in Greece not even united could have held them off
@@domanicsinger3355 Greece valued quality of quantity. Hordes of lowly Romans vs the highest of Greek warrior aristocrats
@Zhong Xi Na i wish they did but due to poor command and defenses they fell after giving athens the roman special beat down
Tourist: "Where for Sparta?"
Spartan: "THIS IS SPARTAAAA!"
Tourist: "Ok, thanks."
And the tourist is falled in the dead 😂
Thank you so much for this video! There's so much information about early Sparta and it's pinnacle, but little to no coverage of it's slow decline! Sparta's reputation lingered for much longer than it's actual political relevance.
There was no way to become a Spartan elite unless born into a family. They could not replace their loses. If they followed Rome army and allowed the best to join the ranks they be unstoppable
@Joey Wheeler agreed.. And roman empire made what alexander the great wanted
That was not an intrinsic problem on itself, as long as you have an large enough population. In my view, their problem was political: the elite didn't have strong enough institutions to dominate the other classes. They were always in constant fear of rebellion. That fear influenced a lot of their policies, both internal and external.
Besides, there were basically no self made men in antiquity in general. All elite was born into a family. That is what means to be a patrician or a noble. Competition between elites was already hard, plebeians couldn't really compete.
That's what adds to the mystique and exclusivity of the Spartans though. They didn't let just anyone in.
Later in the Republic the Romans allowed any peasant or pleb to join, as they were very confident that their training could turn the lowliest farmer into a decent soldier.
"From superpower to tourist attraction". Isn't that nearly all of Europe?
The people of Europe (generally) live much better lives now then they did during the age of colonial empires, so it’s for the best.
Modern Europe fights for resources with words and coin, rather than guns and steel. . . but things can change.
Only 1 or 2 countries can be superpower at any given time. Building industry and commerce has always been the more reliable route to prosperity. Prosperity allows culture to flourish, and culture attracts tourists, that's not a bad thing.
@Hernando Malinche I would like to know what made lives more meaningful in the past
@@lama99654
Nothing, poor and suffering people always look for every little positive thing they can find to not go crazy. I saw a video of North Korean refugees who fled to South Korea and they had the audacity to say that people in the North are happier than the southerners who chase money. Like freaking what? If you were so happy, why did you escape?
Great video, Invicta. This really helps shed light on the creation of the modern myth of Sparta, which, as many historical myths in the present day, it all starts with Roman authors.
Step 1 for having wider regional dominance for more than a handful of generations.
Have more than a couple thousand citizens.
Step 2, don’t send your tiny population to a decades long war of attrition against the rest of Greece
@@DarkPsychoMessiah step 3 incorporate more ppl into your empire through infrastructure and diplomacy
Step 4: Profit
Step 5, have some weird Italians idolize you and make you look way more significant than you actually are
What if Caesar wasn't assassinated part 3 when ?
👀👀👀
This comment needs more recognation
It may seem funny that Sparta became a theme park, but you do what you have to do to get by.
Even the Romans when a general returned from a great victory or campaign, and received a Triumph: "A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."
"Remember you too will die"
Idk man, a cheese stealing competition seems like more fun than an actual whipping
Yeah, but it doesn't make for as good a story as much as the idea that they were so badass that they took whippings.
Spartan: "Hay Romans you're a violent bunch do you wanna see some serious sh**t violence? The old Spartan way??"
Romans: *Nod frantically*
Words cannot describe how much I live and appreciate your channel. As a teacher of ancient history in high school, you are the conduit between the academic world and the high school/life long learner world. May you please just bite the bullet and do a series on the Greco Persian wars, battle and peace 500-440BC : )
sparta is the guy who peaked in high school
I’m Spartan on my moms side and Macedonian on my dads so I’m Greek 100% so one thing I gotta wonder about is why are the Spartans depicted as being as dark or even darker than the Egyptians of Ptolemaic Egypt? In ancient texts there were 3 ways of describing the skin colour of people, and the ones that represented any shade of dark or tan had never been used to describe Spartans or Greeks all together in that matter in fact they were usually called fair skinned or in more specific cases “Ξανθός” (in modern day Greek meaning “blonde”) which back then didn’t have the same meaning as modern day Greek it meant white or pale compared to the Egyptians Persians and other surrounding nations and peoples. Another group of people who had the same skin colour would be those on the Italian peninsula and rarely comparisons would sometimes be made with the Celts as well although they were not nearly as common since the Celt were mostly way Paler that both Greeks and Italians/Romans.
Because Americans like to change history.
What depictions are you referring to?
@@omegacardboard5834 like the ones in the video, and in other video like the extra history UA-cam channel
Of all the foes that could have put Sparta to rest, it was the f***ing Visigoths who did it.
Life can be cruel.
"GREEKS, Persians, Chinese and Japanese could be cited as examples of ETHNIC CONTINUITY since despite massive cultural changes over the centuries key identifying components such as name, customs, language and territorial association were broadly maintained and reproduced for MILLENNIA"
Anthony D Smith, Anthropologist, Emeritus professor of Nationalism and Ethnicity
This is true, and the Greeks and Japanese might be the only people who understand this, because their Ethnos is tied to their homogeny. If you read the history of Agia Lavra, and the revolution of 1821, you will understand that. Unfortunately, Western Europeans and Americans don't study those events.
India too
India was pioneer in this and still is
@@royalrajput8127 India has a huge history but according to expert scholars on nationalism studies such as Smith, there is a lack of core components in order to speak of ethnic continuity for the case of the Indians. Common language is a core component for example. Indians never spoke a single language, but hundreds of different and totally diverse languages. This is not my personal opinion. This is what expert scholarship supports.
@@vangelisskia214 but they are following the same religion?
Almost 1 million subs! Way to go Invicta!
Sparta's decline happened because they were a nation of athletes and soldiers with no room for eggheads and strategists. They couldn't adapt to changing warfare, and started having mostly losing battles, with even their victories being mostly Pyrrhic since they couldnt replenish their ranks like other city states could due to their strict selectiveness (Athens on the other hand, lost a third of their population at one point due to a typhus outbreak and still remained a hegemon for some time). Strong naval power also became more important in Greek warfare and that was something Sparta could never really do well, so they relied on Corinth who were shaky allies at the best of times (they simply shared a common rival in Athens, and even then, Corinth threatened to side with Athens on a few occasions if Sparta didnt help them). During their brief period of hegemony they had over all of the Greek city-states, Sparta also managed to alienate the few allies they had. By the time of Macedon's ascendancy, they were an irrelevant backwater who nobody even really cared enough about to conquer
They were the equivalent of the popular chad who was star quarterback on the high school football team, but ended up getting fat, is stuck in a crappy dead-end job, and his only friends are the regulars at the bar who like to listen when he reminisces
Modern Sparti should rebrand as Sparta, and invite Dudebros from all over Earth to come live and lift. 60% of all whey protein on Earth should be consumed there. It should be a monument to muscle, and it could be accomplished through modern marketing.
This, actually might work
@@windowsxp9120 Knowing a few actual dudebros, I cannot imagine one ever saying "no" to this, especially if the accommodations are Olympic-village level.
Cannot happen, were will we find the recourses to do such a thing
@@nosupes929 I just said, marketing. You know how cheap it'll be to make training based on rocks and calisthenics? Open-air natural lifting. The idea prints its own money.
@Zhong Xi Na !? -4000 social credit points for zhong xina
I laughed at that 300 billboard dude haha. These new animations are awesome.
I am sorely disappointed, I walked into the city in full phalanx formation and no one stopped me
I hate when that happens
Explaining history in this fashion makes the timeline easier to comprehend, I find; well done and thanks!
Sparta was one of the last survivors of the Greek Dark Ages. Everything falls into place when you consider their existence was a response to the anarchy of that period. Athens represented not just a rival but an existential threat: Athens was the future, an all-encompassing polis that could prosper where Sparta cannot; and this is why Sparta had to fight. It won the war but became the one thing it was never meant to be: an empire.
Given that Athens is the capital of Greece and Sparti is just some city, its clear who won the rivalry.
What's your source for sparta being the last survivors cause by default all of Greece were survivors of the Greek dark ages post bronze age collapse.
Looking at it now, Romans visiting Sparta would probably have a similar reaction to people who visit places like historical Williamsburg. They could see well over 400 years in the past travelling to Sparta.
So Roman Sparta was the Legion from Fallout NV?
Yes. The writers of New Vegas were drawing on a recurring trend in human history, wherein you see anti-democratic political forces try to create these highly fictionalized past societies where people were supposedly inherently 'stronger,' forces which get more horrifying the further back in history they imagine their utopia was. Sparta was an example of this just decades after it's fall.
@@dashiellgillingham4579 ngl thats pretty cool
Yeah the Legion in NV feels way more Like He combined Roman aestitcs with a Roman Spartan Tourist Guide because lets BE honest a real Fallout Caesar would have better Organisation and province Management than what the Legion in NV does.
Why would you want to watch someone get whipped when you could watch what sounds like a potentially awesome game of cheese thievery?
@Some thing seems like a display of tactics, physical strength, and agility would be more impressive. Plus I'm sure they're beating the hell out of each other with those sticks, so you'd think that would be enough for the blood thirsty. Watching torture just sounds boring once you get past it being horrific.
This statement just proves that we are better than our ancestors
I'd say it's because tourists would go "pfft, anyone can do that" with the cheese thing.
Torturing the shit out of your own people. Now that's original. Achieves fuckall phisically or militarily for soldiers. But it was low effort enough for them to try it, so they did and the people that built the Coliseum liked it, so that's that. They found the trick that gets people to come.
Imagine how many idiotic gimmicks they tried before settling for that one.
@@ThZuao we'll see who can eat the most cheese without vomiting! We'll call it, Cheese Whipping! or maybe Reeds of Cheese... or maybe, uh, string cheese? To hell with it let's beat the shit out of someone.
@@kylewilliams8114 You, with that Germanic barbarian name. Come here, you want to make some boy?
Man Thucydides just KNEW exactly what to say to convey a point even to modern audiences
The Sparta of old ,was long diminished,well before the Roman domination of the Hellenic world,the rise of the power of Macedonia ,and it’s future God King Alexander the Great saw to that..The Spartans took Persian gold to be mercenaries for the Shah of Persia,and fought against Alexander,and in a defeat of the Spartans,Alexander sent back three hundred suits of armour back to Sparta ,as a way of saying how they had dishonoured their ancestors like that of King Leonidas ,by the Spartans siding with the old enemy of Greece..Enjoying the Channel,A👍👍👍up
Sounds like Sparta serves as a warning against extractive economies.
Interesting take. Though the steppe hordes would pull if off with more success 1000 years later.
Those too eventually collapsed, though.
Actually, Sparta was never fully abandoned until 11-12th century.
lt was the Latin occupation and the foundation of the nearby citadel of
Mistras who contributed to the abandonment of the city. At the 1800s, after Greek independence, the newly found city of Sparta was populated by citizens of Mistras
YES, another on Lakedaimon!
It's crazy that all we remember is their military prowess at that brief height of their time. Although I guess it does go to show if you're really good at something you get remembered for it and for the time that they were good at it they were damn good at it.
Sparta was never a superpower. Even at the height of its power, it was more like a regional power - and even then, it still shared dominance of the region with Athens.
Regional power is a much better discription, but it seems to be a must to allways exaggerate when it comes to Spartan history.
If i'm not wrong, Sparta couldn't be a greek superpower due to the fact they shouldn't be far from home for long times, since they needed to back home to the harvest and to guarantee a slave rebelion didn't happens.
They did defeat Athens at the third peloponisian war, leading to them becoming a super power for a while.
@@notisttt1240 If Sparta was a super power with just controlling a chunk of greece, what would you call Rome or the Persians? Super hyper ultra power?
@@jimmyandersson9938 that's like asking "if you call ancient Rome a super Power, what do you call USA, a ultra godly hyper power?". For its time, it was considered a superpower, which, after the peloponisian war, had control over the Greek world for a time, until Thebes became a thing (and a bit later, Macedonians)
absoloutely brilliant - thankyou for posting
I was just reading Plutarch's biographies of Agis IV and Cleomenes III and they're some of the most underappreciated characters of antiquity, especially Cleomenes.
This, so much. My dream is that one day someone would make a film about him, but of course it won't happen. 😛
this is a great video. this is the only vid so detailed about Sparta post it's fall. Learned so so much!
Truly amazing, that "I" could find this after 36 seconds
wuh?
Calling it this video will bump them to 1 mil congrats!!!!
The "Cheese Stealing" tradition sounds a lot like how the Spartans from Halo trained. Maybe they took some of their methods from the real ancient Sparta and not the exaggerated mockery of itself it became.
You are by far my favorite youtuber!
So basically Sparta became a theme park.
Man, I love the plane with the flag "What is your profession" written on it at 14:37
I already answer "AHOOO!!! AHOOO!!!" in my brain when I just read it.
blacksmith, master!
I LOVE this episode, can you do one for Venice? It was once a proud power that went toe to toe with the ottoman empire, but today it feels like Disneyland museum.
Blud cam from
"TAKE FROM THEM EVERYTHING BUT GIVE THEM NOTHING"
to
"Buy our replica shields swords and armor they are very high quality we also have an assortment of cheeses"
Also cause a French archeiogist destroyed a large part of ancient monuments
Wtf really? That is so sad.
@@thechosenone1533 yes, look up Michel Fourmont
This is Sparta and beautiful kick
Its so sad that Sparta lost her prestige,even in modern times Athens is the capital and Sparta is just a regional capital.
Given how Sparta raised people, I'm more than happy to see it relegated to the back hall of history.
@@natetwehues2428 Agreed.
@@natetwehues2428 so you prefer the city that was filled with phedophiles and sexism over the militaristic but not phedphilic and sexist city instead? I'd much prefer Sparta be the captial over a city with such a evil legecy oh yeah also they commited gencioide the Athenians I mean they loved gencioide and war crimes and inslaving other Greeks.
@@Demicleas bro you’re arguing over things that havent been relevant for like 2000 years, chill
@@Demicleas Your profile picture/name does not at all match the things you say.
Ever thought of making a fun children's book on history? The artstyle that Beverly Johnson has would fit perfectly.
Don’t forget that Spartas population decline can also be attributed to spartas extreme policy of male infanticide and deaths during the agoge training program.
And a Slave majority population.
No it can't. Our idea of brutal agoge comes exactly from this period the video covers.
Sparta did not had as much a problem of reduction in population as a reduction in the percentage of the population that could "afford" to be considered a citizen.
Spartan citizens were forbidden to work, for example, so they had to be very wealthy or they would lose their status of citizenship. That plus war attrition, is what explain it's decline in population. When only the elite are citizens, concentration of wealth and social inequality causes reduction in population.
Here's the thing. There was not really infanticide going on in Sparta. It's a huge misconception that has been propagated through Hollywood and even early historians.
Since then kaiadas the area in which supposedly they threw kids has been searched meticulously and not a single infant skeleton has ever been found. They have found though skeletons of adults which probably were their enemies. Do remember most of the sources we have about Sparta are pro Athenian.
It wasn't actual population decline. Less Spartans could afford to be full Spartiates and so there were a few desperate attempts at land distribution but they were too little too late.
@@ArmouredProductions Based
Sooo close to a million subs!! You deserve it!!
“Make Sparta great again”.
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a tourist attraction
oh im this early, 108 viewers... god damn
edit: GOD DAMN FAM YOU ARE NEARLY AT 1 MILL, LOVE IT! been with you since 300k I think
Some one give this guy a freaking medal.
6:00 how can wealth inequality make the population shrink? COuld you explain a bit more about this because i find no correlation, thank you !
Only full citizens could fight in the army, and to be a full citizen you must have a certain income.
The Spartan laws on inheritage were bound to reduce the full citizens (Spartiates), and so the army since:
1) Spartans could only own land, not commerce.
2) inheritance had to be equally divided among sons.
3) Spartiates had to sit in a Syssitia, and each member was required to contribute monthly with 77 litres of barley, 39 litres of wine, three kilograms of cheese, 1.5 kilograms of figs, and ten Aegina obols, so you had to be pretty rich to sit in one.
This way, families with many sons (that could have contributed to the army) became too poor to be full citizens, while the wealth concentrated in fewer and fewer families with few sons.
Did they also set up brothels and casinos like Venice when it collapsed?
this channel is awesome as always
Constantine the Last's brother Demetrius was in control of a city near the ruins of Sparta(Mystra) before the final fall of the Roman empire in the east.
So even back then we greeks resorted to ridiculous lengths to get some tourists.. Nice to know some things never change.
From superpower to tourist atraction without importance in international relations - this is history not only of Sparta, but entire Greece.
Who in modern times even really thought of Sparta being a powerful nation of supersoldiers that trained in childhood EVEN WHEN THE ROMAN EMPIRE FINALLY CONQUERED ALL OF GREECE?!!
I just thought that they're "supersoldier training" was already gone when Rome conquered all of Greece.
6:38
This implies Philip didn't subdue Sparta because it wasn't strong?
But it is often told that is because, though a shadow, Sparta did still have some bite left.
It's often told through the two single word replies Sparta gave.
When Philip was approaching Sparta, he sent a letter saying, "If I invade Laconia, not even the women and children will be spared."
The Spartans replied with one word.
"IF."
Years later, his more famous son Alexander took a crack at it with his own letter. "Would you rather I enter your city a friend or a conqueror?"
The Spartans replied with one word.
"Neither."
Sparta was considerably weaker than they had once been, but Philip and Alexander didn't ignore them for being too weak to care about, but because they feared invasion would result in bloody quagmire or just too costly to net returns on invading.
Nonsense. You don't know what Philip or Alexander were thinking.
@@Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaa By that logic, neither does the Video.
Therefore, also making what they inferred about Philip and Alexander's reasons for not invading being nonsensical as well.
The running theory is that the macedonians knew the spartans weren't a real threat, but let them be independent to focus old fears and resentment away from themselves and on the spartans. With the spartans in the leauge macedon would be the bad guy, with sparta outside it they were the bad guys.
When you've built a reputation as a warrior society that held off the mighty Persians--and then a thousand years later your region will just be labelled for silkworms
Except that reputation wasn't all that real either...
Dude, at 14:36 , the plane with the slogan made me laugh out loud.
I always considered the fall of Sparta to be an economic thing. It took enormous resources to raise and train one warrior, and the economy just couldn't support all that after a while.
Agree - I think it was this, together with population decline, a conservative "citizenship" sytem, their succession laws and the freeing of the Messenian helots. After a certain point, the system couldn't work.
@@pitsinokakinot just couldn't work it's just wouldn't have been Spartan.
Sparta was nothing without it slaves, Spartans were nothing special without their rituals.
Which themselves worked against their growth and recovery.
Alot of the old rituals were probably dismantled because they worked against recovery.
Every baby culled was a baby that themselves would not have children.
Thank you so much for the help
Sparta is not just a town, is a philosophy, a way of life.
Unlike athenian “boy lovers”
Keep dreaming bucko
@@Basedlocation married with children m8 but above all is possible to understand you know nothing about history cause that phenomenon was rather common in all ancient greece INCLUDED athens. greetings
Yeah. Become a citizen by killing an innocent man doing is daily work. What a way of life.
13:44 Leonidaea already existed in the 3rd century BC... "A Leonidaea commemorating Leonidas was instituted from the third century bce to the second century ce. Physical education for Spartan girls is alluded to by Xenophon and Aristophanes, and evidenced by bronze figurines of the sixth century bce." (Paul Cartledge , Oxford)
Kinda sad, but every dog has his day...
I find it quite surprising that you didnt include Friedrich Schillers study on the legislation of Lycurgus and Solon. A useful contrast between the law givers that essentially shaped European civilization since.
Great vid that gives a lot to think, like capitals of former great European nation slowly turning into touristic attraction for Chinese (the Roman of this century).
Also, talking about Roman imperial propaganda, depicting the Spartan with African looking icons is a great example of our own modern Imperial propaganda.
Fascinating! Thank you, Invicta!
8:36 their understanding of their past was also through the pov of other Greeks because the Spartans didn't keep records.
Best documentary's on YT
Tourist Trap Sparta?
Aristodemus would pluck out his one good eye.
Every time I hear the Greek intro from Rome 1 I hear the voice speaking about Alexander and Hercules good times