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Description
Few societies in world history have embodied the military industrial complex as much as ancient Sparta, but hey we're catching up, don't you fret. It's difficult to find exact numbers for the founding of Sparta, because it seems the city was less of a coherent unit like Athens and more of a conglomeration of shabby villages that just sort of expanded into one another. The city didn't even have a wall by the Classical era, though they later claimed they had no need for walls, because their citizen soldiers were just that badass. Spartan myth imagines a legendary ancestor king, Lelex, whose son-in-law and heir Lacedaemon named the ancient city after his wife. This dynasty would eventually go on to produce the 13th century BCE king Tyndareus, whose daughter Helen was such a hot prize that it united all of Greece to bring her back when she ran away with her personal favorite boy toy in Troy. Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, ultimately claimed her as his bride, and through her, kingship over Sparta. That whole family was cursed to all Hades, though, and eventually the dynasty was overthrown by the Heraclids, a royal house who claimed descent from Heracles himself, because big testosterone has to run in the family. However, the Heraclid king Aristodemus one day produced twin sons, Eurysthenes and Procles, and… somehow no one knew which one was actually older, so, in a shockingly level headed bit of brainstorming for Sparta, it was agreed that the two would rule the city as a dual monarchy, hence why there were always two kings in power over the same city until its society collapsed.

Of course, that's not what Sparta is really known for. I bet you can't even name the famous Leonidas's co-regent without looking him up. I'll know if you cheated, I see all, it's awful, please send help. No, we remember Sparta as the penultimate military state. Legend assigns the cultural shift into what would eventually give us 300 to Lycurgus the Lawgiver, a 9th or 8th century BCE statesman who may or may not have actually existed. Spartan soldiers were quite literally chosen from birth, with each newborn being inspected for any signs of weakness or malformities. The babies which didn't make the cut were said to be left to die from exposure at the foot of Mount Taygetos, because unfortunately eugenics was not a one-time invention (though to be fair, this particular tidbit may have been entirely made up by Plutarch). Boys who reached the age of seven were immediately instituted into the Agoge, which was basically mandatory Spartan boot camp. Here every citizen was broken to the brink of death, stripped of their individuality, and trained to become unyieldingly loyal, unquestioning soldiers in service to the kings. By the age of 20, they were deemed fit to go out and either serve Sparta's military interests… or brutalize the slaves. Did I mention the slaves? Let's talk about the slaves. Spartan society was built on a huge caste of conquered peoples from across the Peloponnese, known as the Helots, who were stripped of all their rights and forced to perform back breaking labor under threat of torture. Helot barracks were regularly raided by Spartan soldiers who caught even the faintest whiff of resistance, and truly most of Sparta's resources were spent not on fighting abroad, but keeping the slaves in check. Jesus Christ, can we stop glorifying these guys?

Indeed, this was one of the big contributing factors to the rivalry Sparta formed against its rival to the north: Athens. Athens, flawed as it was, had an extremely dangerous system of government to the Spartan way of life: democracy. Once you start telling one group of people they have the right to have their voices heard, that idea tends to spread… spread to people like the Helots. This is, afterall, why public education is always the first target of any freshly minted dictator. If the people can think for themselves, they might start to question why they need to be afraid of you! While Athens and Sparta had managed to find common ground during the 5th century BCE Persian Wars, once the common enemy was ousted, the two superpowers went at each other's throats in what would become the Peloponnesian War. Sparta would win that conflict, but the rise of Thebes in the 4th century BCE, and the simple fact of statistics that when you're that damn picky about who you give citizenship to, your population starts to cave in on itself, all began to whittle away at the power Sparta once held. It is often cited that Philip II of Macedon, while on his quest to conquer the entire Greek world, was still frightened away from Sparta after they replied to his threats to raze their farms and slaughter their people if he invaded with a single word: "if". Though, in reality, it was more Philip just couldn't be bothered with wasting resources on these inbred eugenic whackjobs, and Macedon would end up steamrolling over the Spartans in 331 BCE. By the 192 BCE, Sparta was a shell of its former self, having been absorbed into the Achaean League, being forced to ban the Agoge, and even, gods forbid, build a defensive wall for once. How the mighty have fallen, am I right?

Design notes, I think it's pretty redundant at this point to dunk on the movie 300, or the comic it's based on. Everyone and their grandma knows the Spartans didn't actually go into battle with nothing but their rippling pecs to protect them at this point. Unfortunately, the Internet algorithms still haven't seen to gotten the memo, and I still have to slog through shirtless Laconians to find historical sources to reference. Oh well, I'm actually quite happy with how this one turned out. It was fun to play around with designing a culture which by all means really should be made up entirely of heavies. I think the only one I'd probably revisit sometime is the elite. I like the silhouette, but the composition could be better. Ah well, project for another time.

Description
Few societies in world history have embodied the military industrial complex as much as ancient Sparta, but hey we're catching up, don't you fret. It's difficult to find exact numbers for the founding of Sparta, because it seems the city was less of a coherent unit like Athens and more of a conglomeration of shabby villages that just sort of expanded into one another. The city didn't even have a wall by the Classical era, though they later claimed they had no need for walls, because their citizen soldiers were just that badass. Spartan myth imagines a legendary ancestor king, Lelex, whose son-in-law and heir Lacedaemon named the ancient city after his wife. This dynasty would eventually go on to produce the 13th century BCE king Tyndareus, whose daughter Helen was such a hot prize that it united all of Greece to bring her back when she ran away with her personal favorite boy toy in Troy. Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, ultimately claimed her as his bride, and through her, kingship over Sparta. That whole family was cursed to all Hades, though, and eventually the dynasty was overthrown by the Heraclids, a royal house who claimed descent from Heracles himself, because big testosterone has to run in the family. However, the Heraclid king Aristodemus one day produced twin sons, Eurysthenes and Procles, and… somehow no one knew which one was actually older, so, in a shockingly level headed bit of brainstorming for Sparta, it was agreed that the two would rule the city as a dual monarchy, hence why there were always two kings in power over the same city until its society collapsed.

Of course, that's not what Sparta is really known for. I bet you can't even name the famous Leonidas's co-regent without looking him up. I'll know if you cheated, I see all, it's awful, please send help. No, we remember Sparta as the penultimate military state. Legend assigns the cultural shift into what would eventually give us 300 to Lycurgus the Lawgiver, a 9th or 8th century BCE statesman who may or may not have actually existed. Spartan soldiers were quite literally chosen from birth, with each newborn being inspected for any signs of weakness or malformities. The babies which didn't make the cut were said to be left to die from exposure at the foot of Mount Taygetos, because unfortunately eugenics was not a one-time invention (though to be fair, this particular tidbit may have been entirely made up by Plutarch). Boys who reached the age of seven were immediately instituted into the Agoge, which was basically mandatory Spartan boot camp. Here every citizen was broken to the brink of death, stripped of their individuality, and trained to become unyieldingly loyal, unquestioning soldiers in service to the kings. By the age of 20, they were deemed fit to go out and either serve Sparta's military interests… or brutalize the slaves. Did I mention the slaves? Let's talk about the slaves. Spartan society was built on a huge caste of conquered peoples from across the Peloponnese, known as the Helots, who were stripped of all their rights and forced to perform back breaking labor under threat of torture. Helot barracks were regularly raided by Spartan soldiers who caught even the faintest whiff of resistance, and truly most of Sparta's resources were spent not on fighting abroad, but keeping the slaves in check. Jesus Christ, can we stop glorifying these guys?

Indeed, this was one of the big contributing factors to the rivalry Sparta formed against its rival to the north: Athens. Athens, flawed as it was, had an extremely dangerous system of government to the Spartan way of life: democracy. Once you start telling one group of people they have the right to have their voices heard, that idea tends to spread… spread to people like the Helots. This is, afterall, why public education is always the first target of any freshly minted dictator. If the people can think for themselves, they might start to question why they need to be afraid of you! While Athens and Sparta had managed to find common ground during the 5th century BCE Persian Wars, once the common enemy was ousted, the two superpowers went at each other's throats in what would become the Peloponnesian War. Sparta would win that conflict, but the rise of Thebes in the 4th century BCE, and the simple fact of statistics that when you're that damn picky about who you give citizenship to, your population starts to cave in on itself, all began to whittle away at the power Sparta once held. It is often cited that Philip II of Macedon, while on his quest to conquer the entire Greek world, was still frightened away from Sparta after they replied to his threats to raze their farms and slaughter their people if he invaded with a single word: "if". Though, in reality, it was more Philip just couldn't be bothered with wasting resources on these inbred eugenic whackjobs, and Macedon would end up steamrolling over the Spartans in 331 BCE. By the 192 BCE, Sparta was a shell of its former self, having been absorbed into the Achaean League, being forced to ban the Agoge, and even, gods forbid, build a defensive wall for once. How the mighty have fallen, am I right?

Design notes, I think it's pretty redundant at this point to dunk on the movie 300, or the comic it's based on. Everyone and their grandma knows the Spartans didn't actually go into battle with nothing but their rippling pecs to protect them at this point. Unfortunately, the Internet algorithms still haven't seen to gotten the memo, and I still have to slog through shirtless Laconians to find historical sources to reference. Oh well, I'm actually quite happy with how this one turned out. It was fun to play around with designing a culture which by all means really should be made up entirely of heavies. I think the only one I'd probably revisit sometime is the elite. I like the silhouette, but the composition could be better. Ah well, project for another time.