What are the most disturbing facts about Ancient Sparta that most people do not know?

 

Not only were the Spartans known for their military prowess, they were also known for their one liners. Spartans were famous for the way they spoke. Oratory was a popular discipline in ancient Greece and Spartans were known for their blunt replies. This is where the term laconic comes, deriving from Laconia, a region in the Peloponnese, where Sparta was situated.

According to Plutarch, at the Battle of Thermopylae, the famous battle that was immortalised by the movie 300. Spartan King Leonidas was told to lay down his weapons by the opposing Persian force which massively outnumbered the Greeks. Leonidas responded with the now famous line, “Molon labe,” meaning, “Come and Take Them.”

That same battle historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus reported that a Spartan warrior name Dienekes was told the Persians had so many archers that their arrows would block out the sun, to which Dienekes replied, “That is good news. It would be nice to fight in the shade.”

Another great example comes from a correspondence between King Phillip 2nd of Macedon and a Spartan envoy. At this time Sparta was a shadow of its former self and the Kingdom of Macedon was the overwhelmingly dominate military power in the region. Philip sent a message to Sparta asking if he should come as a friend or a foe to Laconia, the Spartans responded with “Neither.” Annoyed, Phillip stated, “if I invade Laconia I shall turn you out.” To which the Spartans simply responded, “If.”

While the ensuing conflict went poorly for the Spartans, you must admire there spirit.

Plutarch reports a whole lot of these famous quotes in his “sayings of Spartans.”

From Agis, son of Archidamus, came this Iconic quote, “Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy? Instead we ask where they are.”

Ariston, when asked how many Spartans there was merely stated, “Enough to keep away our Enemies. The Spartan general Lysander was a key player in the victory of Sparta over Athens, during the Peloponnesian war, was once engaged in a discussion about with a man from the neighbouring city of Argos. Getting tired of the argument Lysander drew his sword and said, “He who is master of this talks best about boundaries of land.”

Plutarch recorded how the Spartan Brasidas was wounded when a spear pierced his shield. Brasidas pulled the Spear from out of himself and killed his attacker with it. When asked about the scar he would say “Twas when my shield turned traitor.”

Shields played a symbolic role in Spartan culture. Usually quite large and hard to handle, it was common for retreating Greek hoplites to abandon their shields when fleeing. This was not so for the Spartan citizen soldiers, who considered fleeing an unforgivable act of cowardness. Plutarch records how Spartan mothers would tell their sons before departing for battle “Return with your shield or upon it,” basically, either come back victorious or come back a corpse.