#military history

[jeannereames]

I didn’t know about the Spartan Mirage. Could you please elaborate on it? Is it something from Antiquity or a modern distortion?

The Spartan Mirage

I will link below to a couple other write-ups on the Spartan Mirage that are reputable, and longer than I have time for here.

But in brief, the Spartan Mirage has become a shorthand for misperceptions of Sparta from antiquity to the present. The “imagined” Sparta versus actual Sparta.

People often prefer myths to reality (as we also see with Alexander), and some groups can get quite angry if you poke holes in their cherished myths. Sparta is elevated by the US Marines; I’ve given up trying to have a coherent conversation with the average marine about Sparta, as I’m either routinely dismissed as a wild-eyed Liberal, patted on the head as “Isn’t she cute, that she thinks she knows military history?” or corrected and mansplained to by guys (they’re always guys) who know jack shit about ancient Greece or the ancient sources, and can’t read Greek.

But we also have a quite serious historiographic problem, as virtually all our sources about Sparta, especially later Sparta, weren’t written by Spartans. And the people who did write them tended either to idolize Sparta, or thought she was batshit. Not helpful. Archaeology (and art history) are useful correctives. But the Spartans liked being mysterious, and cultivated it. They weren’t a tourist destination, and non-Spartans weren’t allowed to stay past a certain amount of time without special dispensation from the kings or somebody else very important. Literally, they kicked you out. They wanted to control how they were seen by outsiders.

So it’s important to understand the difficulties.

The Spartan Mirage goes back into antiquity; it’s not just modern, or even Renaissance. There are, to my mind, three chief contributors to it. Others aided and abetted, but we can lay the formation and continuation of the myth at the feet of Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plutarch. Take away those three, and much of the mythology of Sparta goes poof. Thucydides, predictably, takes a more nuanced approach, as does Aristotle, and the Attic orators (or they’re hostile). I’ll also add that Herodotus’s portrait is not uniformly positive; he’s a more careful writer than some credit him.

So yes, Sparta was a weird place, highly insular—but less weird than sometimes presented. She simply institutionalized/formalized some social dynamics common elsewhere. And the really wacky stories are largely from Plutarch, so late, and suspect. I’d submit that Sparta accidentally created her own myth during the second Persian War, but found it useful and kept it, until it broke down in the pressure cooker of the Peloponnesian War. But it kept coming back like a military zombie.

For just one example, the famous quip, “Molon labe” (“Come and get them” [Spartan weapons]) from Leonnatos to Xerxes is almost certainly fabricated. Plutarch records it centuries later, and it’s not even Doric (Spartan) Greek. There are serious problems with how the phrase would have been remembered or transmitted. Herodotus doesn’t record it. In the immediate aftermath of the Persian Wars, the story of Thermopylae suited the victory tale of the Persian Wars, but as noted, it fell apart after 27 years of ugly conflict in the Peloponnesian War when events such as the capture of Spartans at Sphacteria blew up the Spartan Mirage in ancient Greek pop culture.

Yet it remained a useful myth. Plutarch (et al.) used it in the era of the Second Sophistic, as Greeks under the heel of the Roman Empire needed to remember their “glorious past.” So like a Big Fish tale, the legend of Thermopylae just kept evolving in the ancient world—and later centuries too, right down to today.

Tales like Thermopylae, that promise eternal fame/glory, inspire later generations to lay their lives on the line, or even to give up their lives willingly. “Like Sparta.” A person needs something to hold onto in the face of their own death. Sparta (and the rest of Greece) knew that. So do the Marines.

So here are some articles on it:

Bret Devereaux’s cheeky “This. Isn’t. Sparta.” (Bret knows his military shit.)

Paul Rahe’s “Was There a Spartan Mirage?” (Presents differing ancient views, although he thinks a lot more highly of Plutarch than I do)

A rather decent look at Sparta on Reddit by some person named Iphikrates. Have no idea who he is, but it has a very useful reading list at the end.

Last … Sarah Pomeroy’s Spartan Women is not about the mirage, and a book, but excellently researched and she helps poke holes in aspects of popular ideas about Sparta.

[victusinveritas]

This was one of my introductions to military history. I was 14 and haven't ever really looked back. Big fan of star forts and Vauban.

[barbucomedie]

Halberd of the Life Guard of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich from Salzburg, Austria dated to 1589 on display at the Salzburg Museum in Salzburg, Austria

Photographs taken by myself 2022

[bantarleton]

The last of “The Few” turns 105.

Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway DFC, AE, is the last verified surviving pilot of the Battle of Britain. He was born in Dublin on 17 July 1919.

He served during the Second World War in the Battle of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the Allied invasion of Italy and the Invasion of Normandy. Following the death of Terry Clark in May 2020, Hemingway became the last verified surviving airman of the Battle of Britain. He was shot down four times during the Second World War.

Per Ardua ad Astra - "Through Adversity to the Stars"

[lionofchaeronea]

Men of the 369th Infantry Regiment, informally dubbed the "Harlem Hellfighters," pose for a picture. The Hellfighters were initially part of the American Expeditionary Force sent to fight on the Western Front in WWI. In April 1918, due to racist attitudes among the American high command, they were separated from the AEF and assigned to the French 4th Army. Fighting under French command both in the trenches and in the open field, the Hellfighters distinguished themselves at the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne. Their continuous six-month deployment was the longest of any American unit. Following the armistice, the French government awarded the Croix de Guerre to 170 members of the Hellfighters, including all nine men pictured here, for courage in combat.

[humanoidhistory]

Air traffic control radar consoles in the Combat Information Center (CIC) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation, 1988.

[thespookydookie]

happy holidays once again guys, have the obligatory xmas truce card

[dosesofcommonsense]

[67-romeo]

Carlos N. Hathcock II was born in 1942. Those of you with time behind the glass know the name, know the legend, and have probably read MARINE SNIPER by Charles Henderson, the book that immortalized Gunnery Sgt. (Ret.) Carlos N. Hathcock II, USMC. Vietnam was a watershed period in the history of both special operations and sniping, and MARINE SNIPER was a fascinating look at that period through a 10 power Unertl scope atop a .30-06 Winchester Model 70. Major E.J. Land writes in the foreword to Henderson’s book: “The sniper is the big-game hunter of the battlefield, and he needs all the skills of the woodsman, marksman, hunter, and poacher.” Future snipers take note.

•

Hathcock’s Silver Star would be awarded almost three decades after his experience in Vietnam, not for one or all of his 93 confirmed kills, but for dragging seven wounded Marines out of the back of an APC after it hit a mine and burst into flames, the same action that ended his time in uniform.

The citation reads: “with complete disregard for his own safety and while suffering an excruciating pain from his burns, he bravely ran back through the flames and exploding ammunition to ensure that no Marines had been left behind." In Carlos Hathcock’s obituary for the Washington Post in 1999, Stephen Hunter wrote, “In two tours in the 1960s, he wandered through the big bad bush in the Republic of South Vietnam...with a rifle made by Winchester, a heart made by God and a discipline made by the Marine Corps.”

[nicoleisttraurig]

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite historical figures with you.

This young man's name is Sergeant William Henry Johnson. Commonly known as Henry Johnson, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on the night of May 15, 1918. While defending French lines, he saved one of his men from capture, and blocked a German raid from advancing to his French allies. Johnson became one of the first Americans to be awarded France's highest award for valor, the Croix de Guerre avec Palme.

Sgt. Johnson died in July of 1929, due to his 21 injuries sustained during the war. He's buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

[theworldofwars]

Highland Dance by men of the 8/10th (Service) Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders outside Arras Cathedral, 24 January 1918.

[pukindog-v2]

American Volunteer Group - AVG - pilot and group candids

[victusinveritas]

[tacticallyaware]

Grumman TBM Avenger getting serviced by Aviation Ordance Men as they service the .50 caliber machine guns + plane turrets

Circa 1944-45

Source: NationalArchives

Color: Colourised PIECE of JAKE

[lionofchaeronea]

Men of the 332nd Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Forces, aka the "Tuskegee Airmen," pose with a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. The photo was taken between May 1942 and August 1943; the location is unknown but may have been North Africa or southern Italy.