Characterised as super soldiers, formidable fighters who would rather perish than surrender - their reputation truly did proceed them.
But how accurate is this image - and does it correlate with what the ancient sources actually tell us?
In this filmed episode of The Ancients podcast Sparta mini-series, host Tristan Hughes welcomes Dr Roel Konijnendijk from the University of Oxford, to take a deep dive into the life of a Spartan.
Up Next in That's Ancient History
-
Live from the British Museum: The Scy...
2,500 years ago groups of formidable warriors roamed the vast open plains of Siberia. Ferocious nomads, they roamed from Southern Russia down into Iran – a whole region that makes up the middle portion of the Silk Roads. Feared, loathed, admired – but over time forgotten… until now. A new major e...
-
The Silk Roads with Peter Frankopan
In the East Meets West season, this is the starting point. Frankopan's rightly lauded book has done what it said on the cover: created a new history of the world. For way too long we Westerners have been espying history through the lens of our own success. But truth is, Britain only had its momen...
-
The Ninth Legion: The Mystery
In the second and final episode of this series, Tristan Hughes explores the numerous theories regarding the eventual fate of the Ninth Legion. Was it lost on the northern frontier of Britain, by the Rhine, or massacred in the East? Featuring Dr Miles Russell, Dr Rebecca Jones, Dr Simon Elliott, L...
4 Comments