Do you remember the romantic and heroic tale of the last stand of the 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans? Probably not. It’s an incredibly romantic “going out in a blaze of glory” loss, I’ll admit, but they still lost, in part because their obsession with turning out perfect Soldiers impeded their ability to turn out sufficient numbers of fighters who were “good enough.”
People who imagine themselves inheritors of their traditions usually overlook these. The heroic tale of elite warriors fighting to their deaths at Thermopylae to protect an early democracy and stop a massive slave army has four major flaws.
Propped up by bombastically entertaining fodder such as the movie 300 and the presence of Gates of Fire on professional reading lists, the exploits of the ancient Spartans loom large in the modern warrior’s imagination.
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