25. The Theban Warrior who faced Ancient Greece’s most formidable military power
War broke out between the Greek city states of Thebes and Sparta in 378 BC, and the Thebans, led by Epaminondas (died 362 BC) had their work cut out for them. Back then, Greek city states, except for Sparta, staffed their phalanxes with citizen-soldiers – civilians who temporarily took up arms during wartime. By contrast, Sparta’s citizens were professional soldiers who began training at age seven in a brutal military academy, and spent the rest of their lives readying for war.
Sparta could afford that because of massive slavery. It conquered its Messenian neighbors in the eighth century BC, then turned the entire Messenian population into state slaves, known as Helots. To control the Helots, who outnumbered the Spartans ten to one, Sparta became a militarized state and society. It also became a police state, with secret police known as the Krypteia, to terrorize the Helots and kill any who seemed restive or showed leadership potential. It was lebensraum writ small – the Nazis drew upon Sparta when drawing their plans for conquering Eastern Europe and enslaving the locals.