Too many people idealize Sparta and their warrior spirit. This book paints a more rounded history of the region and how its society sowed its own seeds of destruction through the oppression of its colonies, its political backstabbing of allies, and a system that concentrated more and more wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands. Some people are fond of noting that democracies tend to fail within two to three hundred years; Sparta reminds us that dictatorships and authoritarian governments often fare far worse and have neighbors who delight in bringing the bully down.
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