This is Sparta: Fierce warriors of the ancient world - Craig Zimmer
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/this-is-sparta-fierce-warriors-of-the-ancient-world-craig-zimmer In ancient Greece, violent internal conflict between ...
========== In ancient Greece, violent internal
conflict between bordering neighbors and war with foreign invaders
was a way of life, and Greeks were considered
premier warriors. Most Greek city-states surrounded
themselves with massive defensive walls for added protection. Sparta in its prime was a different story, finding walls unnecessary when it had an army of the most feared
warriors in the ancient world. So what was Sparta doing differently
than everyone else to produce such fierce soldiers? To answer that question, we turn to
the written accounts of that time. There are no surviving written accounts
from Spartans themselves, as it was forbidden for Spartans
to keep records, so we have to rely on those of
non-Spartan ancient historians, like Herodotus, Thucydides,
and Plutarch. These ...