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A Comm for Historymemes @lemmy.world

PugJesus @lemmy.world

4w ago

Sparta's not that great

30 comments

I wonder if future societies will view North Korea with the kind of "they're cool because they had a harsh society that invested everything in military" attitude we reserve for ancient Sparta
- No one's exporting myths about NK's military superiority. And they don't have any accounts of them rebuffing a larger army to exaggerate.
- The fact that many people think ancient Sparta is cool blows my mind. When someone praises ancient Sparta, I typically estimate there’s a 75% probability they’re a right-wing conservative.
  
  Nah, I dont think they are necessarily right wing. There's just so much propaganda about Sparta being awesome, (much of which is from spartans themselves,) that is become a commonplace idea.
  Now personally I think we should have a 300 style movie about the Sacred Band in Thebes, they were legit badasses.

Defended that one pass and have been coasting on it ever since...
Okay, also conquered Athens, but they had help.
- They had help at the pass too. It was 300 Spartans out of about 7k total forces. Even the last stand had more non Spartans than Spartans.
  
  Indeed, I find the sacrifice of the 700 Thespians more impressive.
- Athens? If those boy lovers and philosophers have the courage to stand up to Persia, then Sparta will not bend.
  
  I know this came from 300 but
  Homosexual attraction sometimes existed in the form of pederasty, which influenced ancient Greek and especially Spartan military practices.[17] This usually consisted in romantic relations and mentoring by adult men with male youths. Pederastic relations are thought to have played some role with Sparta’s overarching “contest-system” or the agoge, which aimed to shape male Spartans into soldiers.[18]
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_the_militaries_of_ancient_Greece

US lost in Vietnam and Korea but don't want to admit it. Let's just call a spade a spade and admit military powers all suck.
- invade thier front lawn
  Bit of a difference there. We'll literally had to travel to the jungle.
  Still lost? But a comparable country for us to invade would be Canada or Mexico.
  
  That's true and very fair, but also you did try to invade Canada and failed so badly they burned down the white house.
  
  invade would be Canada
  How boot not, eh?
  
  So give it a couple months and we find out?
- And Afghanistan
  
  I dunno, if you look at the track record, Afghanistan is a pretty impressive military power. They defeated the US, Russia, Britain...
  
  Who didnt?
- Losing a trade war right now.
  
  I think the drugs won the war on drugs too

Does this mean the Spartans injected bulking oil into their muscles, too? Was 300 just a big fucking lie?

30 comments