SemperFiUSMC
Master
- Jun 23, 2009
- 3,480
- 38
1) Living on in the glory of their history.
2) Living on in the glory of their history.
Few battles can be recounted 100 years later. Few generals can be named after 100 years. Yet over 1500 years later, the story of Sparta's 300 is well known, even without Gerald Butler and Hollywood special effects. The campaign at Thermopylae is still taught at every war college in the world, and along with the battle of Marathon are probably the two most important battles advancing and shaping western civilization as we know it. Spartan bravery is the stuff of legend.
The Spartans epitimized the warrior spirit and the self sacrifice in order to protect the citizens of Sparta. They were brutal. They were hard. They were unforgiving. And they were among the best warriors in any time period, let alone against their enemies.
What happened to them? Technology, terrain, enemy, tactics. All the same things that have destroyed every great army and civilization through the ages.
James A. Warren wrote American Spartans - The U.S. Marines: A Combat History from Iwo Jima to Iraq comparing the Marine and Spartan warrior spirits. I for one am honored to be mentioned in the same breath as the warriors of Sparta, whom I believe have few equals.
