Spartans Alexander the Great

[Palaiologos]

I seriously cannot understand how can anyone associate fasicm with Spartans. Facism was "invented" by musoliny, not the case in Lakedemonia. Anyway as others said, no Spartans didn't took part in Alexander's campaing

?
Well they didn't mean that  it was called fascism back then.
That the politico-social Spartan system was based on the same principles. In explaining, a totalitarian state-controlled society.

 

[Majhudeen]

I seriously cannot understand how can anyone associate fasicm with Spartans. Facism was "invented" by musoliny, not the case in Lakedemonia. Anyway as others said, no Spartans didn't took part in Alexander's campaing

?
Well they didn't mean that  it was called fascism back then.
That the politico-social Spartan system was based on the same principles. In explaining, a totalitarian state-controlled society.

What your describing is a Despotism/Oligarchy/Dictatorship. Of which Sparta was.

Fascism is rule by an authoritarian state that supports strength through unity: A sense of nationalism thats often associated with a particular religion or ethnicity in a nation.

 

[Phalanx300]

The Spartan system is amazing in that it is completely alien to modern governments or lifestyles. If anything, I would say that Sparta really cannot and should not be compared with any other society. To understand Sparta, I think you have to rationalize it as a culture of its own. It wasn't fascist, it wasn't democratic, it wasn't a republic, it wasn't communist, it wasn't capitalist......it was Sparta. It is in a category of its own.

I think the problem with the Spartan legacy is that it is compared regularly to other cultures and societies. The movie "300" is a perfect example. It turned the Spartan system, and I would argue that "system" is the appropriate word, into democracy loving  and freedom loving blather.     

Yes, 300 didn't do much to reaffirm the real image historians would like to give about Sparta.

But let us not be fooled by propaganda: Sparta was not so Spartan. The Spartan system lasted so long because it got washed down, and the "every citizen is equal, there's no aristocracy" thing was not true as early as the Second Medic War.

Which is why the glory age of the Spartans wasn't when they were Hegemon and after. It was before when their unique system was full up and running.


I also don't see why people complain about 300. Was a nice action movie. But still, it got people interested in Spartans and history, so why is it bad? Earlier people probably wouldn't even know who the Spartans were.

 

[FrisianDude]

I know I knew about Sparta before the 300 movie. And it's not bad if they would be interested in actual history. Instead, most of what 300 has made was twits going "zomg sparta was tteh best, they sent 300 dudes and didn't afraid of anything." While I think Sparta would have been a pretty abysmal place to live, if all the stories are true.


Edit 22 Juli 2011; I've seen said movie yesterday though.

 

[Palaiologos]

"300" and Frank Miller rule. Period.

 

[Jec94227]

"300" and Frank Mark Miller rules. Period.

 

[Phalanx300]

I know I knew about Sparta before the 300 movie. And it's not bad if they would be interested in actual history. Instead, most of what 300 has made was twits going "zomg sparta was tteh best, they sent 300 dudes and didn't afraid of anything." While I think Sparta would have been a pretty abysmal place to live, if all the stories are true.

Yes but your part of this forum. You probably are interested in History. Most people aren't and probably wouldn't even know about Sparta before 300, or even a war between Persians and Greeks...

The movie did more good then bad regarding that...

 

[omzdog]

I mean do you actually think Hollywood would bother to go in depth for historical accuracy for the nerds.

 

[!!noice!!]

At the very least, knowing that Sparta was an old Greek "country", and that they were very militaristic, is common knowledge, even if any further specifics is not. Hence why people's conceptions of them is mislead by the movie; it fills out that blank-of-details, but it does it with false information. Thus, people will know less about the real Sparta if they base their knowledge on that movie. Which, I should add, one doesn't automatically do just because you don't know anything else about them, even if it's probably hard to not be influenced.

 

[omzdog]

Kind of doesn't matter though. As long as it doesn't affect their lives at least. I mean we are talking about a city and its provincial landings 3000 to 2000 years ago. I personally don't care if people are mislead, at the end of the day the movie was awesome.

Wouldn't call it a country btw, it was a city-state.

 

[!!noice!!]

I used "country" because that's about as deep as the least common knowledge goes. That's what the quotation marks was about