The idea that Sparta was a militaristic society, in which war and training for war dominated the lives of its full citizens, the Spartiates, is currently standard orthodoxy in both academic and popular circles. This webinar will question this consensus, arguing that it constitutes a ‘modern mirage of Spartan militarism’.
Professor Hodkinson will start by considering the relevance of this modern mirage to early 21st century politics, outlining its exploitation by Far Right groups around the Western world, especially in the USA. He will argue that, although stimulated by the mass popularity of Zack Snyder’s 2006 film 300, this mirage has a much longer pedigree. Similar militaristic images have been a prevalent feature of Western political thought, among both liberal critics and right-wing admirers of Sparta, since the American and French revolutions. Scholarly approaches have been closely intertwined with these broader intellectual trends.
In reality, classical Sparta during its heyday in the fifth and early fourth centuries BC was a society in which war played an important but not a dominant role. This is how it was viewed by contemporary external observers before the advent of hostile or critical commentaries sparked by its lengthy war with Athens and subsequent imperial decline. The Spartiates were not full-time soldiers, spending limited time on active service or training. Thermopylae, nowadays viewed as their military paradigm, was untypical of normal practice. Their military superiority derived from well-organised elementary drill and stratified command structures, not warrior heroics. The Spartiates did not always fight to the death; honours for their war-dead were low-key; cowards were treated pragmatically. Finally, weapons were not a prominent feature of their daily life; like other civilised Greeks, they went about their everyday lives unarmed.
More information on the webinar series main page.
Image credit: Julian Winchester