[lit-ideas] Thebans learning how to fight
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 09:12:14 -0800
As we know, Thebes (during the time of Leonidas) sided with the Persians
against Sparta, Athens and the other city states. I don't know if they
thought "better red than dead," but they clearly didn't want to fight the
Persians. Their natural inclination seems to have been more or less
pacifistic (or at least leaning in that direction) at that time, but that
changed:
Plutarch in a "longer version" of one of the collections of Sayings of
Spartans wrote:
"[Agesilaus]was making war constantly on the
Thebans, and when he received a wound in battle
against them, it is said that Antalcidas remarked
to him: 'What splendid payment you are getting
from the Thebans for your instruction of them,
since you have taught them how to fight when
they had neither the wish nor the capacity to do
so.' In fact at that period the Thebans are said to
have excelled themselves in battle because of the
Spartans' many campaigns against them. This was
why Lycurgus of old in [one of] the so-called rhetras
[pronouncements, laws] forbade frequent campaigns
against the same people, so as to prevent them from
learning how to fight."
[Cartledge op. cit., pp 220-221]
Lawrence
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