PBS Specials

The Spartans - A Nation Of Fighters (2003x5)

Date de diffusion: Août 06, 2003

THE SPARTANS opens at Thermopylae and with the epitaph of the Three Hundred — and very stirring it is to hear this spoken in the original Greek — before introducing some of the topics that will be addressed in the program. (Hmm. The claim that “male homosexuality was compulsory” is extremely dubious; the first boldfaced assertion as fact of a subject hotly debated among ancient and modern experts.) After the introduction, we journey to the Dark Ages of Greece, the end of the Achaean Age and the coming of the Dorian Greeks to the Peloponnesus and Laconia. An effective look at the development of hoplite warfare is presented. Next comes the Messenian conquest, then the establishment of the Spartan constitution. The upbringing of Spartan youths, warts and all, is then addressed at length. A good point is made that the sublimation of the individual as practiced by the Spartans can be very liberating – “the possibility of transcending your limitations as an individual and becoming part of something bigger and better.” Spartan institutions are credited for initiating a system of political rights and responsibilities among its citizens centuries before other Greek states conceived of such things.