Did Spartan Warriors Win Every Battle?

~800-200 BC, Sparta (a region within Modern Greece)

“Spartans, see,” Jay said, waving his phone. “Incredible warriors. Principled heroes! Real men! Nothing like them has ever come later. Undefeated to the end!”

The Spartans have gained a superhuman status in modern times—chiseled warriors who never back down and were made famous by the movie “300,” based on a comic book (not exactly historical sources), which portrays the famous conflict between the Persians under King Xerxes and Spartan King Leonidas.

This masculine glamorization has transformed them into brutal, infallible fighters who could take on any army and win (or cause great damage even when outnumbered, depending on who’s writing the Facebook post). The memes with “Spartaaaaa” have made many rounds, teams are named “Spartans,” and their plumed helmets possess a certain allure.

But how much of this is true versus exaggerated? Did they never lose a battle? Who were they, really? It’s worth spending some time in… say after me, Spartaaaaaa!

The earliest and best sources for Spartan society came from Herodotus, the Greek historian writing around the 5th century BC, and Xenophon, another historian with direct, firsthand experience in the 4th century BC. There were a few other notable authors too, like Thucydides in the 5th century BC and Plutarch in the 1st century AD.

The Spartans weren’t called “Spartans”—they were often referred to as Lacedaemonians, meaning people from the region of Laconia in Ancient Greece. The full citizens of the kingdom were known as Spartiates, and these were the ones who underwent the famed rigorous military training.

The Battle of Thermopylae

Before we dig deeper into the story of the invincible Spartans (we’ll call them that because Lacedaemonians is painful to write), let’s establish a timeline. The most famous Spartan event is the Battle of Thermopylae, first described by Herodotus in his Histories. This battle probably took place in August or September of 480 BC in a place called Thermopylae (Gates of Fire), a narrow pass in Central Greece. Today, it isn’t so narrow as the sea has receded, but in ancient times, the pass was a spot between a rock (mountain) and a wet place (the sea).

But Spartan history goes well before that, and much of its founding aspects came from a lawgiver called Lycurgus around 800 BC, although the city-state of Sparta probably began about two or three centuries earlier. It’s not clear if Lycurgus was a real figure, but many ancient writers mention his name.

The Spartan city-state thrived and became a notable local power by the 5th century BC. Local, because they really were local to Greece. They fought mostly with their neighbors and first gained great international fame in that fateful Battle of Thermopylae, where, according to Herodotus, three hundred Spartans under King Leonidas took on the vast army of Xerxes of Persia.

The Spartans fought exceedingly bravely, holding off the Persian army for three days until they were betrayed by one of their own. The Persians outflanked the Spartans, leading to their defeat.

This is what Herodotus says in Book VIII of Histories:

…By this time the spears of the greater number were all shivered, and with their swords, they hewed down the ranks of the Persians; and here, as they strove, Leonidas fell fighting bravely, together with many other famous Spartans, whose names I have taken care to learn on account of their great worthiness, as indeed I have those of all the three hundred.

Much of the Spartan myth derived its power from this battle. We also have to temper the glory with the fact that the tale of Greek heroism comes from a writer who is Greek. If we had Persian accounts of the same battle, perhaps we’d see another angle.

That said, even as we note the Spartans’ exemplary courage, it’s important to take a step back. History is littered with the corpses of the bravely defeated against overwhelming odds. It’s just that the vast majority are forgotten. When Caesar invaded Gaul in 58 BC, he is said to have killed over a million Gauls and enslaved as many. Whatever the number (because ancient narrators are notoriously unreliable when it comes to numbers), think of all the tribes who bravely fought for their independence against a powerful, organized force. We barely know about the “300s” of Gaul.

Or what about the Mallians on the Indus River? They took on Alexander, almost killed him, and were butchered by his men for the only fault of existing and not wanting to surrender. What about those “300”? Or what about all the forgotten tribes and small kingdoms that succumbed to any major invading empire? It’s true: history is often written by the victors.

In the movie 300, based on Frank Miller’s comic about the Battle of Thermopylae, Xerxes (~486–465 BC) is portrayed as a strange monstrosity. In reality, Xerxes was a successful Achaemenid emperor whose rule extended from Macedonia in the west to nearly the borders of the Indus in the east. He was also a capable administrator and religiously tolerant, allowing many people, including Greeks, to thrive in his kingdom.

If we were to really compare practices, the Persians probably had more tolerant and educated methods compared to the Spartans, who were known for their brutal and, honestly, pretty backward ways, even for their time.

For example, infanticide involved leaving weak or deformed babies to die. Slaves vastly outnumbered the citizens (by more than 5:1) and were treated terribly out of fear of overpowering the citizens (not too unlike the Romans). Here’s a passage by Pluratch in his “Life of Lycurgus” describing the practice of judgment upon infants.

A father had not the right of bringing up his offspring, but had to carry it to a certain place called Lesché, where the elders of the tribe sat in judgment upon the child. If they thought it well-built and strong, they ordered the father to bring it up, and assigned one of the nine thousand plots of land to it; but if it was mean-looking or misshapen, they sent it away to the place called the Exposure, a glen upon the side of Mount Täygetus; for they considered that if a child did not start in possession of health and strength, it was better both for itself and for the state that he should not live at all. Wherefore the women used to wash their newborn infants with wine, not with water, to make trial of their constitution. It was thought that epileptic or diseased children shrank from the wine and fell into convulsions, while healthy ones were hardened and strengthened by it. A certain supervision was exercised over the nurses, making them bring up the children without swaddling clothes, so as to make their movements free and unconfined, and also to make them easily satisfied, not nice as to food, not afraid in the dark, not frightened at being alone, not peevish and fretful. For this reason, many foreigners used to obtain Lacedaemonian nurses for their children, and it is said that Amykla, the nurse of Alkibiades, was a Lacedaemonian.

In the coming years, the Spartans gained fame and power, becoming a major regional force due to their staunch and nationalistic kings. You would think that the six-pack, intense-gaze army would be unbeatable in larger numbers.

Defeat and Decline

In 371 BC, Sparta went to war with the Thebans under the rule of a talented general called Epaminondas. Things didn’t turn out as the Spartans wanted, and they were defeated. From what we know, this was the first time a full-strength Spartan army faced a similarly sized (or probably a little smaller) army and lost.

This grievously injured Spartan reputation, which was further hammered by another loss about ten years later in another battle at Mantinea. They never really recovered after these defeats, becoming a second-rate power in Greece with the rise of the Thebans. Soon, a new player entered the scene, a man named Philip II of Macedonia, who took advantage of the infighting and weakened Greek states to lord over them. Then came his son, Alexander, yes, the same Alexander the Great.

By then, Sparta was no longer “number one” in Greece.

After that, Spartan influence diminished over time, even though they remained a regional power. In 333 BC, they were defeated again by another general of Alexander. By 146 BC, they had become a city under Roman rule and likely an attraction for Roman elites who came to see the “cool” customs of the Spartans.

For all the Spartan power and their influence in Greek politics and regional affairs, they didn’t win every battle and didn’t last forever. In fact, their most influential span lasted only a few hundred years, even though they were notable. It would be too glib to forget that Spartan resistance led to a better-organized fight against the Persians a few years later, which eventually led Xerxes to abandon his quest for Greece. They were, without a doubt, a culture skilled in fighting, but that didn’t last long, as other peoples figured out better ways to wage war.

Thus was the story of the Spartans—a brave stock indeed. Militaristic and nationalistic, with many great stories of bravery and strength. But like all kingdoms, big and small, their day came too.

To buy this in book format: here | For sources and acknowledgments see here.