Home is Where the Heart Is

The Spartans were a bunch of homebodies. Their idea of winning the war was to just march over to the territory of Athens not far away and devastate it. They figured that the Athenians would come to terms seeing their homes and farms destroyed. So each summer, year after year, they did this. At one point, Thucydides ( The Peloponnesian War, about the 27 year war between Athens and Sparta back in the fifth century B.C.) comments that the Spartans stayed slightly more than a month one year, and that this was the longest they ever did.

At another point he describes the Spartan leader Brasidas heading up north to Thrace to free Athenian subject cities there. This was astonishing and scary to the Athenians, because most of their so-called allies were far from Sparta, often on islands or across the sea. The Spartans had failed in their promise of aid to the Lesbians, and this had strengthened the hand of Athens. But now this marching of a Spartan army to an area dominated by Athens was very threatening.

Except it was not a Spartan army. The Spartan army always stayed close to home. It is kind of funny, in a way. The Lesbians sent word that they would revolt if Sparta sent aid, soldiers and a fleet. Basically, Sparta sent one man Salaethus. They did send some ships, but they turned away once they saw the Athenian ships. Later they would send Glyppus to Sicily pretty much by himself (one boat). And they would send Lysander to Asia. The Spartan army stayed at home.

It is like an old joke about the Texas Rangers. Rioting had broken out in a Texas town and they called on the Texas Rangers for help. They sent one man. Astonished, the city fathers asked him why they had sent only one man. “You only have one riot, don’t you?” he answered. It was as though the Spartans were saying, “You only have one war, don’t you?”

Brasidas was a Spartan, but his army was mostly drawn from the subject Spartan peasants, otherwise known as slaves. Their official name was “Helots.” From time to time the Spartans would recruit soldiers from the most aggressive and ambitious of the Helots. They would not be coming back. They would be trained, armed and sent off to war. If they did return, they were generally disposed of sooner or later. So Brasidas set off with an army of Helots and what mercenaries he could hire from the Peloponnesian allies of Sparta. He died from wounds in battle defeating the Athenians. Cleon was the Athenian commander and he also was killed. Thucydides seems to have had a lot of respect for his adversary the Spartan Brasidas, but he despises his countryman Cleon. Interestingly, Thucydides himself was an Athenian commander in the area when Brasidas first arrived. He failed to win against the Spartans. Typical of the Athenians, Thucydides was exiled for this crime. He was lucky. Later in the war the Athenians would pass death sentences on victorious generals, because they didn’t win big enough.