This is (Definitely Not) Sparta

300: Rise of an Empire hit theaters earlier this year. Like 300, it was blasted with the standard charges  leveled at any movie that seeks to glorify or lionize any phase of Western Civilization: it was racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, homophobic, and excessively violent. I don't really care about those (mostly) frivolous criticisms. But I do want to talk about  the difference between Laconophilia and Philhellenism, and why the latter should be embraced and the former eschewed.

Admiration is certainly due the ancient Greeks. Such affinity is called Philhellenism. I am a Philhellene because I believe that, while the Greek polis lacked some of our modern refinement (chattel slavery was allowed, Christianity unknown, women disenfranchised) it was a treasure trove  of enlightened ideals. Greece, or Hellas, was a land of farmers, a society that valued hard work, and was equally distrustful of aristocrats and radicals. Broad-based government (timocracy and democracy), written constitutions, rule of law, individual rights, trial by jury, civic militarism, and free enterprise all have their roots in the polis - not to mention, of course, Greek contributions to medicine, science, mathematics, historical inquiry, philosophy, and literature. The whole framework of modern intellectual endeavor is Greek - the flesh and bones of our political freedoms, too. If the ancient Greeks don't measure up to modern people in some ways, perhaps it is because we have a two-and a half millennium head start.

The problem is not with Greece, but with Sparta. Sparta and Athens were both extreme by Greek standards. Athens had radical democracy that frequently resulted in rule of law being tossed out in favor of mobocracy (i.e., the execution of the generals after Arginusae) and a penchant for imperialism that made her neighbors nervous. But Sparta was the true black sheep, a hyper-militaristic oligarchy whose prowess  in arms was built entirely on perpetual inter-generational slavery of a people called helots. Individual rights existed only for the Spartiates and freemen (Mothakes and Perioeci), the latter of which had only some voting/civic rights. Even the Spartiates had no real freedom; their entire lives were lived according to strict rules (a Spartan man was not allowed to travel, even to another town within Lacadaemon, and had to sneak out of the barracks to sleep with his own wife).  The Spartiate's only real right was to vote himself into a strange sort of militarized slavery. Helots were ritually murdered on an annual basis to discourage rebellion.

Contrast this with the average Greek city state, where  the city state's army was its farmers. The same men grew the food, made the laws, and marched out under arms to defend their territory. What a model for a political order. There was selective franchise - Greek farmers, like Alexis de Tocqueville, knew that giving the poor the power to vote themselves other people's money would destroy freedom.

The Spartans had their moments, no doubt, including the heroic, if strategically insignificant, action at Thermopayle. But they were absent at Marathon and contributed only six ships at Salamis, the two greatest Greek victories against the Persians.

I want to see a serious, mature film about Greek hoplites, one that introduces American moviegoers to the greatness of Greek culture, courage, and martial prowess in a historically accurate way, no Spartan rah-rah - not to mention Spartan social and political vices - needed.