11 Little-Known Facts About Ancient Spartans and Their Culture
Ancient Sparta — The Ways of the Legendary Civilization.
Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece known for its military might. The Spartan hoplites, with their unique crimson cloaks and long hair, were perhaps Greece’s strongest and most feared combatants, fighting with distinction against the Persian army at Thermopylae and Plataea in the 5th century BCE.
Sparta was also constantly at odds with the other great Greek towns of Athens and Corinth. It was involved in two lengthy and devastating battles, the Peloponnesian Wars in the mid-to-late-5th century BCE and the Corinthian Wars in the early 4th century BCE.
Here is a collection of lesser-known facts about the famous Spartans and their culture!
1. The Legendary 300?
Sparta is most commonly associated with 300, both the 2006 Zack Snyder film (based on the graphic novel) and the 300 Spartans who fought in the infamous battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE. This, however, is not entirely correct…
The battle was won by two Spartans sent to Thermopylae. According to Herodotus, two Spartans, Eurytus and Aristodemus, were receiving treatment for serious eye infections when they learned that the Persians had…
