雅典海军和斯巴达军队：古希腊最著名军事力量的历史和遗产

*包括图片
*包括古代账户
*包括供进一步阅读的参考书目
“前进吧，希腊人的子孙们，解放祖国，解放你们的孩子，你们的女人，你们父神的祭坛，你们祖先的坟墓：现在是为一切而战的时刻。”埃斯库罗斯在萨拉米斯战役前唱的希腊战歌
时至今日，雅典卫城的白色大理石建筑群一直占据着主导地位，雅典是一座对其过去感到无比自豪的城市。在大约三个世纪的时间里，雅典城邦即使不是在希腊的城市中处于无可争议的至高无上的地位，至少也是在其三个最重要的政体中。它羽翼未丰的帝国，虽然按照亚历山大或罗马人后来制定的标准，甚至按照其远古敌人波斯的标准，都很小，但却包括了远在小亚细亚和意大利南部的城市。考虑到这种扩张是由一个城市及其周边地区的居民实现的，而不是整个国家。
然而，尽管作为一个整体来看，雅典的军事传统仅次于斯巴达人，但人们对雅典的记忆主要有两个原因：一是它的政治制度，这一制度最终将成为西方所有民主政体的核心；二是在雅典的黄金时代，有大量杰出的个人在开明的城邦中生活和繁荣。古代雅典人构成了西方整个文化的支柱，从艺术到哲学，以及两者之间的一切。几乎在人类努力的所有领域，雅典都处于活力和创新的前沿，其最杰出的头脑所创造的产品不仅具有影响力，而且与今天完全相关。
古希腊最独特的城邦是斯巴达，它继续吸引着当代社会。目前还不完全清楚斯巴达为何如此强调军国主义社会，但其结果是，从出生起，军事健身就成了人们关注的焦点。如果一个斯巴达婴儿出生时看起来身体不适，那就让他去死。斯巴达儿童在7岁左右接受过军事训练，每个男性都必须在18岁左右参军。
斯巴达人以其精心构建的战争方式和斯巴达式的生活方式赢得了整个希腊的勉强钦佩，并在半传奇统治者利库格斯改革后的几年里成功地确立了自己的地位，成为全希腊最伟大的军事力量。雅典可能拥有最强大的舰队和最伟大的哲学家和剧作家，塞萨利可能拥有最自夸的骑兵，伟大的城邦阿尔戈斯、底比斯和科林斯都有自己的名声，但在战场上，斯巴达方阵无人匹敌。他们在希腊非常害怕，他们在战场上的出现可能会导致整个敌军在恐怖中逃跑。在历史上最著名的一场战斗中，300名斯巴达战士率领一支希腊联合部队，在塞莫皮莱将薛西斯入侵军队的数十万波斯战士阻挡了三天，估计造成了2万人伤亡，最后一人死亡，而不是撤退。
斯巴达军队：古代世界最著名军队的历史和遗产研究斯巴达军队的历史，以及它如何成为历史上最可怕的战斗力量之一。除了描绘重要人物、地点和事件的图片，你将前所未有地了解斯巴达军队。
The Athenian Navy and Spartan Army: The History and Legacy of Ancient Greece’s Most Famous Military Forces
*Includes pictures
*Includes ancient accounts
*Includes a bibliography for further reading
“Forward, sons of the Greeks,Liberate the fatherland,Liberate your children, your women,The altars of the gods of your fathers,And the graves of your ancestors: Now is the fight for everything.” – The Greek battle hymn sung before the Battle of Salamis according to Aeschylus
Dominated to this day by the sprawling white marble complex of the Acropolis, Athens is a city which is immensely and rightly proud of its past. For a period of roughly three centuries, the polis of Athens stood, if not in a position of unchallenged supremacy among the cities of Hellas, then at the very least among its three most important polities. Its fledgling empire, though small by the standards later set by Alexander or the Romans, or even by those of its ancient enemy Persia, nonetheless encompassed cities as far afield as Asia Minor and Southern Italy, a remarkable fact considering such expansion was achieved by the inhabitants of a single city and its immediate surroundings, rather than by an entire nation.
Yet despite a martial tradition that, if taken as a whole, was second to none save the Spartans, Athens is chiefly remembered for two reasons: its political system, which would in time form the nucleus of all Western democratic systems of government, and the remarkable number of outstanding individuals which, during the Golden Age of Athens, lived and flourished in the enlightened city-state. The Ancient Athenians formed the backbone of the West’s entire culture, from the arts to philosophy and everything in between. In virtually all fields of human endeavor Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but entirely relevant to this day.
The most unique city-state in Ancient Greece was Sparta, which continues to fascinate contemporaneous society. It is not entirely clear why Sparta placed such a great emphasis on having a militaristic society, but the result was that military fitness was a preoccupation from birth. If a Spartan baby did not appear physically fit at birth, it was left to die. Spartan children underwent military training around the age of 7 years old, and every male had to join the army around the age of 18.
The Spartans, whose carefully constructed approach to warfare and – there is no other word for it – Spartan way of life, earned the grudging admiration of all of Greece and succeeded in establishing themselves in the years following the reforms of the semi-legendary ruler Lycurgus as the greatest military force in all of Hellas. Athens might have the mightiest fleet and the greatest cadre of philosophers and dramatists, Thessaly might have had the most vaunted cavalry, and the great city-states of Argos, Thebes and Corinth all had their own claims to fame, but on the battlefield the Spartan phalanx stood without peer. So feared were they in Greece that their very appearance on the battlefield could cause entire enemy armies to flee in terror, and in one of history’s most famous battles, 300 Spartan warriors headed a combined Greek force which held off the hundreds of thousands of Persian warriors of Xerxes’s invading army for three days at Thermopylae, inflicting an estimated 20,000 casualties upon them before dying to the last man rather than retreating.
The Spartan Military: The History and Legacy of the Ancient World’s Most Renowned Army looks at the history of the Spartan military, and how it became one of the most fearsome fighting forces in history. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Spartan military like never before.

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