A couple of months ago I wrote a piece talking about why the alt right/fascists/ whatever they want they want to call themselves* love Ancient Rome. It was met with some incredible feedback, as I wrote about afterwards, but I remain nevertheless determined to continue the series to talk about the true darling of the toxic male-led, ultra conservative, hard right, trad-posting, whatever you call them section of the internet: Sparta.
*(If you’re annoyed because you’re one of them but I didn’t get the right label for you, take a long look at yourself.)
I’ll of course begin with the disclaimer, since some of the insane feedback focused on this, that I love to learn, read, study and teach about the ancient world. I do not ‘hate’ this subject, but neither would I blindly idolise these cultures or take their propaganda on face value. Saying I have to idolise the ancient cultures I study is like saying you can’t study German history without liking the Nazis (maybe there’s a reason they don’t spot that one…). The actual study of history always should come with a critical lens. That’s the last I’ll say of that!
Now you’d have to live under a rock not to have seen the connection between various extreme online cultures and a love of Sparta. That is of course, not to say that everyone who likes Sparta is an extremist. However, they do tend to absorb a lot of their content second-hand as a result, and it’s really important to examine just why you might look up to this culture, and whether it is based on the truth or a mirage.
In writing this piece, it became quite heavy to read about and write about this topic without getting caught up in thinking of the backlash it could face - so I reached out to my followers for their own views, and I was overwhelmed by the response - you can read the replies here. It validated the idea that these types of people are a loud, vocal minority and do not represent the majority of people out there today. The Twitter-verse also pointed to some very useful resources and links, with people who have studied and written about this in far greater detail, like Brett Devereaux and Stephen Hodskinson.
I was also reminded of the 14 general properties of fascist ideologies proposed by Umberto Eco, and even a brief glance will suggest why the Spartans are so idolised:
1. The cult of tradition.
2. The rejection of modernism.
3. The cult of action for action’s sale.
4. Disagreement is treason.
5. Fear of difference.
6. Appeal to social frustration.
7. The obsession with a plot.
8. The enemy is both weak and strong.
9. Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy.
10. Contempt for the weak.
11. Everybody is educated to become a hero.
12. Machismo and Weaponry.
13. Selective Populism.
14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak.
As I look through several reasons below, I will try to refer back to these as they are incredibly relevant time and time again. Here are some general categories I can suggest for the rise and rise of Sparta in the fascist sphere:
1. The Film 300
It’s pretty hard to get into any conversation with someone about Sparta and not have the film 300 come up. For the vast majority of people it was an entry point into the topic, and for many more it remains their only real impression and source of information about the people and their culture. This would not generally be a problem, if the film were not incredibly problematic both in its portrayal of Spartan culture and history, but also in the hard-wired political ideas that lie just beneath the surface - see point 3 below.
Because this film has dominated popular knowledge of Sparta, it has had an incredibly negative impact on perceptions of the ancient world, and served often as a lightning rod for many of the issues and people I will discuss below. The film is also based on a graphic novel which presents the story as an exaggerated tale, but that is entirely lost in the film - it is to so many a simple presentation of fact, especially when seen alongside other historical films of this nature. The author, Frank Miller, is fairly controversial in his depiction of various topics, and openly admits that his story was only loosely based on truth and inspired more by the ‘sword and sandal’ films he grew up with. From this comes a distorted and dangerous presentation of Sparta, that has come to be seen as the default.
2. The Spartan elite fighting machine
Both in the film 300 and in many other modern depictions, we are shown the Spartan army as an unmatched killing machine, with each man able to take out thousands of people in return for his one life. That’s obviously a major exaggeration, and is essentially ancient propaganda, and has been written about extensively - see Brett’s article linked above. The Spartans spent much of their military peak using their reputation as a way to avoid battle, rather than fight them, as any sustained period of warfare could significantly shrink their already small population of Spartiates, and leave them open to revolt from their enslaved massed.
What is more problematic about this view is that it taps into an ultra-militaristic vibe that places value and worth in a man’s ability to kill a large number of people. As Eco identified, there is a huge value placed on warfare and fighting in the fascist ideology, and the perception of those who are different as ‘weak’. Of course, therefore, your incredible fighters should be able to wipe the floor. It also shouldn’t be so shocking that the same people who idolise 300 would be against the banning of assault weapons that are regularly used to mow down innocent crowds.
3. Sparta = White, Persians = Brown
In 300, the Spartans are presented as essentially a white culture, with white actors, and the Persians as a Middle Eastern. This taps into the rampant islamophobia that we saw in the post-9/11 context in which the film was made in. What is more interesting, however is that the original graphic novel also included many of these tropes despite dating back to the 90’s. Perhaps Miller was an early adopter of Islamophobia? While the tendency to over-victimise brown people has lessened somewhat in popular culture, this film has remained popular and essentially presents these extremely divisive views in a thinly veiled allegory.
Interestingly, not all these stereotypes are modern. The film also repeats many of the ancient Greek tropes of Persians as being effeminate, luxurious and petty, yet it exaggerates these to such an extent that Xerxes comes across as more Sphinx Cat than man. It is hard to watch the film without forming an extremely negative stereotype of the Persians. The association of Spartans and other Greeks as ‘white’ is a complex issue with too much nuance for this film, but it of course taps into the idea of ‘Western’ culture and the fearmongering over various threats to this. It also allows the Spartans’ enemies to come across as formidable (militarily) but weak (culturally), another of Eco’s features.
4. The Heroic Last Stand
One feature of the story of Leonidas that time and time again is idolised by the modern fascist is the idea of the heroic last stand against an enemy come to enslave them and rob them of their freedom. It’s perhaps a surprise to no one that the Nazis themselves specifically referred to Thermopylae after their shattering defeat at Stalingrad, trying to turn it into a propaganda moment - although this ultimately failed. You can also see parallels in American history in the way the Alamo became a heroic last stand that inspired more to their cause.
Of course, the link to ‘freedom’ is more than slightly ironic - the Spartans were brutal slave lords, much more so than other contemporaneous city states. Spartan society existed by virtue of enslaving the majority of their native inhabitants, often using indiscriminate killings to keep them from rebelling - not unlike the way many colonial powers ruled huge areas with few soldiers. Furthermore, citizenship was denied to a large number of others who became the ‘perioikoi’, free but not equal. This strict class system allowed the full-blooded Spartans to live essentially a life of luxury and focus on military training - the dream of many fascists.
5. The Agoge
Speaking of military training, there are some extremely deep-rooted misconceptions of the way in which young Spartans were raised and trained, not at all helped by the depiction of the agoge in 300. In that film we see young boys, crying, dragged away and thrown into the wild, to survive wolves and more. Only the strong survive under this system, which taps into Eco’s notion that ‘weakness’ is an obsession of the fascist. Furthermore, with the emphasis on ‘training to become a hero’, it’s no surprise that this brutal image of the Spartan education system has been allowed to spread.
The reality of the agoge was not dissimilar to the Nazi education programme, where children were indoctrinated into the state propaganda, separated from their parents, and a huge emphasis placed on physical fitness over free thinking. This allowed for a compliant citizen body which was devoted to their state over personal interests, with a strong link to tradition rather than new ideas. The status of the mythical founder Lycurgus shows how ingrained this was even by Leonidas’ time.
6. Anti-Progressive
With the focus on tradition and conservative values, you can kind of see how these people would assume that the Spartans were also in line with many modern anti-progressive ideologies, such as anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-feminist narratives. Yet it’s quite ironic that these views don’t align perfectly at all and are based on the male fantasy of the period, rather than any true understanding of ancient culture. While homosexual relationships were complex, they were also common, and many of these ultra-macho soldiers would no doubt have explored each others’ bodies…
Regardless, it once again shows the disconnect between any actual knowledge beyond vibes and pop culture that surrounds their perception of Sparta. Of course, this fits into the ‘social frustration’ aspect of Eco’s traits, and allows the past to become a blank slate for any current day issues that they wish to imprint. The use of ‘Molon Labe’ (‘come and take them’) is particularly ironic considering that the Persians did absolutely come and take all their weapons from them after they killed the 300. But what are a few details to these guys?
Right, I think that’s about as much as I can write. This piece has been extremely difficult to get out because of the nature of the subject matter, the potential violence of the audience, and the mental gymnastics it takes to understand the ideas of these fascist types. Please read through the various sources I’ve linked to, there are many more researched and learned people out there who have written much more about the subject. Thanks for reading, we shall return to something more light-hearted next week.
Im glad you got this off your chest, again. I'd be interested to read an article substantial to classical history and/or memes