In their youth, they had memorized verses of the poet Tyrtaeus, which they recited to themselves and sang and chanted as they marched on campaign. In Herodotus’ Histories, he writes that during the lead up to the battle of Thermopylae, King Xerxes, ruler of the Persian empire, “sent a mounted scout to see how many there were and what they were doing.” What did the scout observe? “He saw some of the men exercising naked and others combing their hair.”īefore battle, Spartan warriors kept their nerves at bay by staying busy with various tasks and physical rituals. Action, on the other hand, produces the appetite for more action.” - Gates of Fire If there is no work, make it up, for when soldiers have time to talk, their talk turns to fear. The power of the Spartans’ appearance softened up the enemy line before they even hit it, and added to a reputation for strength that sometimes deterred enemies from even going to battle against them at all. The clothing and equipment of the Spartan warrior worked to his advantage in two ways: 1) it made the soldier himself feel more ferocious, more invincible, more confident, and 2) it intimidated the living daylights out of his foe. The formidable appearance of the Spartan helmet was further enhanced by the fact it was “overtopped with a lofty horsehair crest which as it trembled and quavered in the breeze not only created the impression of daunting height and stature but lent an aspect of dread which cannot be communicated in words but must be beheld to be understood.” were the blank, expressionless facings of the Greek helmets, with their bronze nasals thick as a man’s thumb, their flaring cheekpieces and the unholy hollows of their eye slits, covering the entire face and projecting to the enemy the sensation that he was facing not creatures of flesh like himself, but some ghastly invulnerable machine, pitiless and unquenchable.” “Adding further to the theater of terror presented by the Hellenic phalanx.
#Spartans hold the line free#
For the Spartans, long hair symbolized being a free man, and they believed, Plutarch says, “that it made the handsome more comely and the ugly more frightful.” The Spartans kept themselves well-groomed, often braiding these long locks, and keeping their beards neatly trimmed as well.Ītop their heads was placed a crowning piece of equipment which the narrator of Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire (a work of historical fiction accurate in many details) describes as the “most frightful of all”: Spartan men wore their hair long - a style which had once been common all over Greece, but which Lacedaemonians held onto after other city-states had shifted to shorter cuts. Over his tunic and hung from his arm the Spartan hoplite carried armor and a shield which had been buffed to a brilliant shine and glinted in the sun. Spartan warriors were clothed in a scarlet tunic and cape (discarded prior to battle), for, Xenophon tells us, the color was thought to have “the least resemblance to women’s clothing and to be most suitable for war.” The latter statement gave rise to the apocryphal idea that red was also chosen because it hid blood better - concealing a wound, and a weakness, from the enemy. As they awaited the command to advance, they stood straight and steady in formation, and everything from their clothes to their equipment bespoke strength, discipline, and ferocity. The Spartans terrorized their enemy before they even got within spears’ length of them. Spartan men not only had the skills and training to back up their reputation as formidable warriors, they enhanced that reputation - and their efficacy on the battlefield - by cultivating an external appearance that matched their internal prowess.
In this final installment of the Spartan Way series, we’ll take an expansive, inspiring, and thoroughly fascinating tour of the essential mindset and tactics that allowed these warriors to battle fiercely and come out the victor.
#Spartans hold the line series#
Welcome back to our series on The Spartan Way, which seeks to illuminate the lessons the ancient Spartans can teach modern men – not in their details, but in the general principles that lie beneath, and can still be extracted and applied today.Īt its peak, the Spartan army was the most dominant, and feared, military force in ancient Greece, and its prowess was built on the singular mentality and strategy it brought to the art of war.
#Spartans hold the line Offline#
This article series is now available as a professionally formatted, distraction free ebook to read offline at your leisure.
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