Friday, June 23, 2017

Lecture One: “Why Study the Classics?” -- Athens and Sparta -- 25 Minutes

Athens and Sparta
 
The histories of Athens and Sparta—the most dominant cities of classical Greece—are of vital importance to understanding the story of Western Civilization. In Athens, great thinkers such as Plato examined universal philosophical questions. In Sparta, the martial virtues, including the virtue of courage, were mastered. A careful study of these two cities reveals timeless lessons about human nature and human conflict.

6 comments:

  1. What was it about those Spartans? A king of Sparta that had been thrown out of Sparta told Xerxes -3 million men against 300 Spartans is not an even contest. There simply was no way xerxes could win.

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    Replies
    1. Evidently fighting to the death was more important.

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  2. That is what Demaratus told Xerxes. That the most important thing to the Spartans was to obey the law. And they only had one law. Never Retreat.

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  3. I think there was something about Sparta that had a lot to do with training. In the Armada of Xerxus there were plenty of Ionians and other people of the exact same ethnic group as the Spartans. So it was not DNA. It must have been training and mental attitude.

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