The Spartan Regime Quotes

“Those judged to have fallen short in the agōg were not just denied entrance into a sussιtíon and excluded thereby from the august ranks of “the equals, the similars, the peers.” They were deprived of what was called “the ancient portion [archaîa moîra],” and they were pointedly singled out and referred to, ever after, as hupomeíones or “inferiors.”55 Composed of about fifteen men of all ages, the sussιtíon was not just an arrangement for meals. It was an elite men’s club, a cult organization, and, at the same time, the basic unit in the Spartan army. If a single member found a candidate objectionable and blackballed him, the young man would be denied entrance. If admitted, he would dine for the rest of his life in what Persaeus called “a small polity [políteuma] of sorts,” eating what his companions ate and drinking only a moderate portion of wine, discreetly discussing public affairs and more private concerns, gently teasing his comrades, and otherwise comporting himself always in the dignified, respectful fashion which the old demand of the young and the young nearly always expect from the old.56 Until he was forty-five, he was classed as a néos or young man. Every ten days, he and the others within this age-category were expected to demonstrate that they were in good shape by presenting themselves naked for inspection by the magistrates; and, except when he was on active service abroad or doing garrison duty and conducting patrols elsewhere in Laconia or Messenia, each of these men would spend his nights in the men’s house of his sussιtíon or camped under the stars “with the other néoι.”57 The rationale behind these arrangements was perfectly evident to the shrewdest of the ancient observers. “In time of peace,” Dionysius of Halicarnassus remarked, the sussιtía “greatly aided the city by leading men towards frugality and moderation [sophrosúnē] in their daily lives.” This advantage he thought important, but not decisive. The Spartan institution accomplished something of at least equal, if not greater importance. “In time of war,” Dionysius explained, “it instilled in every man a sense of reverential shame [aιds] and a prudential concern that he not desert the man posted beside him in the city’s battle line—for this man was a comrade with whom he had made libations, conducted sacrifices, and shared in common rites.”58 At Lacedaemon, the pressure to perform never let up. In fact, acceptance into a sussιtíon marked not the end of competition, but its intensification.”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“an appeal to their own preeminence in honoring these same opinions in speech and in deed.”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“it is because their advocates have consolidated dominion there”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“if certain opinions reign and come to be authoritative within a given political community,”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Polybius, and those who came after were all persuaded of one thing:”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“It is not fortuitous that Polybius’ celebrated discussion of the Roman polιteía”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“for, as the peripatetic recognized, man is an imitative animal,”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“Plato pioneered the study of political psychology with regard to the rise and the decay of the different regimes.”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“In the decades that followed, Xenophon employed the same approach in interpreting the Persian monarchy;”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“At the end of that century, Thucydides depicted the great war between the Athenians and the Spartans”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“In the fifth century, Herodotus traveled about the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea;”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“constitution, and regime that makes it meaningful to speak of citizenship—first appears in The Inquiries of Herodotus”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“Its subject is the Lacedaemonian polιteía. The word—which denotes citizenship and the form of government,”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“The Spartans themselves were taken aback, and they were shaken.”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“They expected that such men would fight on for as long as they could and die with their weapons in their hands.”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“They thought it inconceivable that a shortage of food or any other necessity could induce Lacedaemonians to hand over their arms.”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“according to Thucydides, the news of their surrender left the Hellenic world dumbfounded”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“For they were all Spartíataι—we would say, Spartiates or Spartans”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“the Athenian victory a genuinely memorable achievement of real strategic importance”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“something about it that made the Athenian victory a genuinely memorable achievement of real strategic importance”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

“Then, they persuaded those who had survived the initial onslaught to give themselves up.”
― Paul Anthony Rahe, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy