Timeless Lessons on War

Thousands of years ago, what motivated the Ancient Greeks to engage in warfare? The answer could surprise you since, ironically, the "good" and altruistic motivations for fighting led to more conflicts than the "bad" and self-serving ones.

The Spartans are well-known today because to their image as fierce warriors, which is supported by movies like 300 and sporting competitions like the "Spartan Race." In sharp contrast to the stern and oligarchic Spartans, Athens is renowned for its shining temples and democracy.

Still, the democratic Athenians were not powerless. Inversely, the Athenians engaged in more battles, more often, and at a higher material and casualty cost. Understanding why democratic Athens fought more than militaristic Sparta during this season of Veterans Day and Remembrance Day serves as a reminder that living in a democracy and justifying military action as being done for the ostensibly "right" reasons may not stop conflicts from occurring—in fact, it may make them more probable.

The picture of Sparta that has stayed is that of three hundred Spartans making their final, hopeless struggle against Xerxes' massive army at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. Thermopylae is often cited by commentators as the historical model for valiant resistance against oppression. But the genuine Spartans of history could not have cared less about the struggle for liberty. Rather, they were inspired by Homer's epic poetry, in which the soldiers engaged in combat for honor and glory. The greatest Trojan War hero, Achilles, was notoriously so consumed with glory that, after being insulted by the expedition's captain, Agamemnon, he fled from the fight and begged the gods to execute his fellow Greeks—a move that would be considered treacherous.

After the Persian Wars, the glory-seeking Spartans actually fought less often, for shorter periods, and at less cost than the freedom-fighter Athenians did. The difference is readily quantifiable. While the Spartans fought in a handful of limited conflicts in the 50 years after the Persian Wars, the Athenians fought in virtually every one of those years, often far from home and with bloody results.

The connection between imperialistic war and democracy is even deeper, given that Athens forced its new subjects to adopt democratic forms of government whether they liked it or not. The Spartans were content with their reputation as glorious fighters; they didn’t claim to have liberated anyone, and left the imperialistic military adventures to democratic Athens.

The Peloponnesian War, which lasted 27 years and was sparked by Athens' expansion, was won by Sparta and was the only thing that forced the Spartans to engage in protracted combat. However, by behaving more and more as the Athenians had, as self-proclaimed liberators who accumulated an increasing amount of military involvement overseas, Sparta severely undermined itself in the years that followed. Because they compelled the newly freed Greeks to embrace pro-Spartan governments (usually oligarchies) after freeing them from Athenian rule and democracies imposed by the Greeks, the Spartans gained a great deal of adversaries as a result. Thebes, Sparta's competitor, eventually brought about Sparta's destruction in 371 BCE as a result of ongoing interventionism. For Sparta, as it had for Athens, the constant waging of war accompanied rhetoric of liberation, with disastrous results.

Ultimately, war is terrible. However, it concerns how we memorialize war and frame military duty. The antithesis of why we respect warriors today is fighting for glory. Rather, we highlight the unselfish sacrifice and efforts made by the war dead to protect both their own and other people's freedom. However, similar liberation rhetoric may also be used to defend wars that are fought in a way that causes instability and misery, or that may have less honorable goals. Furthermore, democracy is hardly a guarantee against a warlike impulse. We should not imitate many of the characteristics of the Spartan troops, such as their macho asceticism, their desire for glory gained through warfare, and their ruthless subjugation of most of their own people. However, their cautious avoidance of military expeditions overseas for the sake of "freedom" may teach us something.