Of Spartans And Being Spartan

If you want some very intersting reading, see what Ymarsakar's got to say in the comments section of my post on the movie 300, "Troop Shortage? I Have A Solution."

Ymarsakar's blog, Sake White, is always challenging and entertaining, and his knowledge of military history illuminates it. Here's a bit of what he passed on via his comments to my post:

Let me address the main point [of another commenter]. Was Spartan society a terrible one? No, it was not.

Why wasn't it? Because not every society is going to match your individual specifications and engineering requirements. You are not God, societies are made up of all the people in it, and of the traditions of those that have gone before. You will never 100% like your society. Hell, Americans don't 100% like their society. It's just the reality, deal with it.

The standard used to judge the relative worth of a society then should be based upon justice, goodness, order, and law. Virtues so to speak, equivalent to Aristotle's virtue theory.

The martial virtues were very present in Sparta's world. Courage, bravery, valor. The ability to shirk pain and to surpass it. Remember, this was the day before electricity people. Muscle power dominated.

Unless you wanted your city and people sacked, mutilated, cut up, and torn apart to feed the dogs... you will train an elite force of protectors. ...

And guess what. Islam treats women probably worse than the Greeks ever did back in ancient times. Same would go for Persia. All those slave girls and comfort battalions of women trailing the Persian army.

So they were fighting against Sparta (US Marines), who gave their women freedom and worth... hardy har har.