The Battle of Plataea (479 B.C.) is the perhaps lesser known counterparts to the more famous Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C) and Battle of Salamis (480 B.C.) in which an combined and allied Greek army defeated the remaining Persian forces from the initial invasion and defeated the decisively, to the point that Persia never again physically tried to invade Greece.
As part of the battle (and recorded in Lycurgus' speech "Against Leocrates"), the allies took the following oath:
"I will not hold my life dearer than freedom nor will I abandon my leaders whether they are alive or dead. I will bury all allies killed in the battle. If I conquer the barbarians in war I will not destroy any of the cities which have fought for Greece but I will consecrate a tenth of of all those which sided with the barbarian. I will not rebuild a single one of the shrines which the barbarians have burnt and razed but will allow them to remain for future generations as a memorial of the barbarian's impiety".
Hmmmmmm.
ReplyDeleteScholars like BP have compared the American decline to that of Rome. I wonder if a more apt comparison might be the decline and fall of Sparta?
Hmmm. Sparta - at least in my understanding - had a little bit of a different issue. Sparta lost her manpower due to her rather severe social class limitations, which was even more denuded by the Battle of Leuctra in 371 B.C., in which Thebes adopted a new strategy different than the one that had been practiced for the last 100 years. She never really recovered - but then again, she was never truly invaded and did not fall until 222 B.C. She was never the sort of empire that Rome was. Had Sparta found a way to adopt to using money and a way to bring others into the social fold, they might well have continued as a much more powerful force in Greek politics.
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