The Black Vault

Spartans! Prepare for, well, embarrassment. It seems that far from being elite, noble warriors, each worth 1,000 of any rival soldiers, King Leonidas' crack troops were a bunch of bullying thugs. And Alexander the Great? A mummy's boy: in fact, his mum was a better fighter by a long chalk and died a soldier's death on the battlefield.

They and other figures from antiquity are to have their reputations shattered by a new British study which reveals the "truth" behind long-established legends. Michael Scott, a classicist at Cambridge University, points to evidence that could change the way we think about our classical heroes.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 97473.html

Seems everyone has an opinion without backing it up, I prefer to follow researchers like John Lash who got his information from fragments of ancient text.

It's one thing to call Alexander a 'momma's boy'; quite another to dispute the fact that he'd conquered pretty much the known world in his day. As for Sparta, bullying thugs they might've been, but they still held off the most fearsome army seen at the time - and they did it with superior tactics. Thermopylae was sheer brilliance - and guts by the ton.

ironrose2000 wrote:It's one thing to call Alexander a 'momma's boy'; quite another to dispute the fact that he'd conquered pretty much the known world in his day. As for Sparta, bullying thugs they might've been, but they still held off the most fearsome army seen at the time - and they did it with superior tactics. Thermopylae was sheer brilliance - and guts by the ton.

After all, war tactics is what keeps the world moving forward.....
It is called progress........

if ancient times are anything like modern times..all you have to do is look around you..usually the real heroes go by unnoticed while the sneaky snake, limelight seeking, shmoozers, a-kissers, back stabbers..'upwardly mobile' (as in they'll step on anyone else to get to the top of the heap) narcassists land up getting all the credit

just ask Tesla what he thinks of Edison, etc....

I studied Greek history aloooong time ago in college, the Spartans were known to be bullying thugs even back then, its hardly new news.