by cypezokyli » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:53 pm
as for the spartans ...
when a person visits greece he would go to parthenon most propably and not sparta.
the reason?
they created -in copmarison to athens- no civilization to be rememberred.
theater, comedy and tragedy , democracy and so on are not things related to the spartans
they were the first fascists in the history of mankind who killed new born children just because they were not good enough.
but even if one admires great armies...
great armies are judged in regard to efficiency
it took them 30 years to win athens - a city not praised in our history books of having great army-
in just half of the time alexander the great walked to india.
if they were so great why did it take them that long?
in regard to the wars with the persians...
the first persian attack was completely held back by he athenians (with 1000 help from platees). the great worriors at the time were waiting for the moon
in the second persain attack 300 of them proved to be brave, but they were defeated.
if the athenians decided to be as brave, they should have stayed in athens and not abandon their city as cowards. yet it was the fleet of the cowards which saved greece from the persian threat.
in the final defeat of the persains by alexander the great, the great woriors were ofcource absent
(i guess our history books dont allow us to admire the winners. the greek mythology is full of stories of how one should use his brain to win , yet we still admire the ones who loose. it has become sth so deep in our psycology that we just admire the brave and not the winners. i am not sure if that is what we should do. i guess that is also the reason that all kinds of defeats are blamed on the barbaric acts of the enemies, on their bigger armies, on traitors, on bad luck, on the americans the english the imperialists the communists the fascist the referee the bad weather, but it is never our fault. ...we were brave....
a mere example of the greek mythology leson is the trojan horse. so many brave leaders did not manage to defeat troja for ten years. the idea of odysseas was not brave. it is not how "real men" fight. it was unethical and unjust. but HE WON. if he continued to think bravely well... who knows how long it would have taken or if troja would have ever fallen. )
but even if bravey is sth to admired... in thermopulas there were 300 spartans and 700 thespieis. more than double than the sparetns... nobody cares who these guys were, what they did, where they came from, how they were trained, why they were more than the brave spartans, and where the hell were the rest of the brave warriors?
.....
lastly ,
aristotel in politics says about the spartans that their system lasted so long they were in war but then broke down because were unable to live in peace ( i ll give u the whole quote in a couple of weeks when i return )
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