The Bronze Lie: Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy
Written by Myke Cole
Narrated by Alexander Cendese
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The Spartan hoplite enjoys unquestioned currency as history's greatest fighting man. Raised from the age of seven in the agoge, a military academy legendary for its harshness, Spartan men were brought up to value loyalty to the polis (the city-state) above all else, and to prize obedience to orders higher than their own lives. The last stand at Thermopylae made the Spartans legends in their own time, famous for their brevity and their ability to endure hardship, to control their emotions, and to never surrender--even in the face of impossible odds, even when it meant their certain deaths.
But was this reputation earned? Or was it simply the success of a propaganda machine that began turning at Thermopylae in 480 BC? Examining the historical record, both literary and material, paints a very different picture of Spartan arms--a society dedicated to militarism not in service to Greek unity or to the Spartan state itself, but as a desperate measure intended to keep its massive population of helots (a near-slave underclass) in line, forcing them to perform the mundane work of farming, cleaning, building and crafting to permit the dandified Spartan citizens (spartiatai) the time they needed to focus on their military training.
Covering Sparta's full classical history, The Bronze Lie examines the myth of Spartan warrior supremacy against the historical record, delving into the minutiae of Spartan warfare from arms and armor to tactics and strategy. With a special focus on previously under-publicized Spartan reverses that have been left largely unexamined, it looks at the major battles as well as re-examining major Spartan "victories." Most importantly, it re-examines Thermopylae itself, a propaganda victory utterly out of proportion to its actual impact--a defeat that wasn't even accomplished by 300 Spartans, but rather by thousands of allied Greeks, all for the net effect of barely slowing a Persian advance that went on to roam Greece unchecked and destroy Athens itself.
Myke Cole
Following a long career in the military, intelligence, and law enforcement, Myke Cole is a fire/rescue responder in NY's Hudson Valley. He is a freelance historian and writer, and has published ten novels with publishers including Penguin Random House and Macmillan in addition to his history books for Osprey. Myke's short work has appeared in The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, McSweeney's, and Slate. He's starred on TV shows on CBS and Discovery, and has featured on NPR.
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Reviews for The Bronze Lie
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Myke Cole sets out to deconstruct the myth of Spartan warrior supremacy, not out of hostility to the Spartans, but frustration with the mythologizing of these very real people who had gifts and virtues, but also flaws. Another significant motivation is the misuse of the myth rather than the reality of the Spartans in support of hard right ideologies, and not just in the US, but at least throughout the cultural West.The Spartans are revered and nearly worshipped as the ideal warriors, men who valued war, despised money, and served the good of the state over personal reputation and comfort. What Myke Cole shows us, in this careful, well-researched, and very readable book, is a culture of men as variable and human as any others. They were in some ways better soldiers than others contemporary to them. The Spartan hoplites did some regular training. It was more than most other Greek city-states did, but nothing close to the professionalism attributed to them by myth. It did give them a degree of organization and discipline that was, for most of their history, rare in the armies of other contemporary armies. That was a real advantage, especially when fighting other Greek hoplites.Unfortunately, a serious look at their history shows Spartans displaying some real weaknesses as soldiers. They were slow to adapt to changes in military practice and tools. They regarded missile weapon (for instance, bows and arrows) as "effeminate," never developed their own cavalry forces, and were never very effective at naval warfare. They also were never very good at scouting the ground ahead of them, or posting lookouts when they were encamped.We also see Spartans, including Spartan kings, sometimes fleeing the battlefield, taking bribes, paying bribes. Sometimes, of course, these are the right military decision--but even when they are, they're contrary to the cherished myth of Sparta. More clearly from a modern viewpoint, Spartan use of diplomacy and soft power of all kinds, as well as really excellent spy work, seems obviously sensible. Why fight and lose soldiers' lives, if you can get what you need without fighting? It's not, however, in keeping with the Spartan myth.I'm not doing justice to Cole's thesis, and I strongly recommend reading the book. It is very readable, although at few points, in his commitment to presenting a solid case while honestly presenting where the evidence is incomplete, where sources disagree, and in analyzing as many battles as practical so that the reader can evaluate the evidence, I found it wise to take a couple of breaks to let the argument so far settle into my mind and think about it for a while. I kept coming back to it, though, and overall it was a compelling read.Highly recommended.I bought this book.