Hi, thanks for tuning in to ancient Greece declassified.

Episode 54, rewriting the history of Sparta.

There is a massive debate that's been raging over the past few years about Sparta.

On the one hand, you have the traditional image of the Spartans as the ancient world's most fearless warriors, an image that's been unquestioned for thousands of years.

On the other hand, there's a recent group of scholars who've

been arguing that that entire image is a lie, a fiction, a fabrication. Now, I invited one of

those scholars on the show to present his case that the Spartans were not only unremarkable

militarily, but also really bad role models for our society. As you'll see, our conversation

turned into quite a spicy debate about his two main claims, which were, A, that the Spartans did not

train for battle, and were thus not particularly skilled at arms, and B, that they could and did

habitually murder their slaves with impunity.

As it turns out, we did not reach an agreement on either of these points in the space of this

conversation, but we did discuss the main sources that he and his colleagues rely on for

making these claims. And if you're watching the video version of this episode, you'll see the

passages on the screen when we get to them. So if you make watching the video version of this episode, you'll see the passages

on the screen when we get to them. So if you make it to the end, I'm curious to hear your

thoughts in the comments. Are you convinced that the Spartans didn't train for battle

and that they routinely murdered their slaves? And if you're still undecided, well, at least

you'll be empowered to investigate these questions further because you'll know what the sources are that historians have to work with here.

And spoiler alert, there aren't that many.

So I hope you enjoy this conversation.

I want to thank my guest Brett Devereaux for being a good sport and sitting through an entire interview with someone who didn't necessarily agree with him on all points.

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