Thermopylae without the Spartans is inconceivable. A lot has been written over the centuries about this proud warrior race that sprung from Lakedaemonia, most of it with justification. Here, truly, was a culture layered in castes, with a soldier at the top of the pyramid. This was seen as a natural consequence of their long, drawn out war with the Messenians. Sparta, contrary to popular belief, was also a highly democratized citystate, whose democratic methods predate those of Solon of Athens by at least a century. While the other, supposedly enlightened, city-states held slaves in total chattel, the lower strata of Spartan society were given many more rights. The next class was the pertoikoi, those who lived in the general vicinity of the Spartiates, or native Spartans, but did not enjoy the same privileges that full citizenship as a Spartan contained.
The lowest class was the helots. While these are sometimes equated with slaves, in reality they were more like serfs, and actually did all the mundane tasks found distasteful by the higher classes. Even they were allowed to marry and only turn over half their harvests to the Spartans. Athenian slaves had no such rights. Spartan women were given equal voice to men, allowed to participate in sports and could achieve the same levels of literacy as men. This scandalized the rest of Greece, whose females were largely illiterate and subservient. When asked why women were given such privilege, the wife of King Leonidas was rumored to reply: "because the Spartan women are the only ones to give birth to real men.."
In this defiant statement, perhaps, we have the clue as to why Leonidas could confidently make the decision to stand at Thermopylae knowing he would be obeyed, come what may. Quite simply, the Spartans viewed themselves as an elite: Hellenes, certainly, but first among the "other Hellenes". Their kings were thought to be direct descendents of Herakles (the true "hero-icon" of all Hellenic culture at the time) and Herakles himself ended his life atop those same brooding mountains overlooking Thermopylae. The pass there was to those Spartan defenders as "Ground Zero" is to us today.
Now, we can examine these men, who from birth were geared toward strength and violence. The weak were left to die of exposure, while the strong were trained in the martial arts starring at age 7. While this reduced the male population, it bred a powerful male. Their education consisted of literary, historical and military training. Their military training was harsh and rigorous, further toughening the student. The apocryphal story of the student who carried a live fox concealed in his tunic and refused to cry out during class as the fox ripped apart his innards is but one of the legends that grew around these people. Several died during training, reducing the army further.
At age 20, the student became a full-fledged warrior, moving to his barracks. If he lived through the privations of his (excuse the phrase) Spartan existence to age 30, then he was allowed to marry and live privately and raise children. Considering how few males lived to this age, the breeding population of Sparta was small. Spartiates made up only 10% of the population, and their main fear was revolt by the more numerous helots. When they absorbed neighboring Messenia, the conquered Messenians, upon learning that their new jobs were raising food for the Spartans, started an insurrection that nearly destroyed the city of Sparta before being put down. This taught the Spartans that they needed the strongest army possible.
The Spartan basic training consisted of discipline, the endurance of great pain, and survival. Their military training was practiced against live helots to inure them to killing without thought. The Spartan army achieved such a high reputation that the other Greeks felt that they had to exceed 40:1 odds to be able to best the Spartans in battle.
They were at first reluctant to join the rest of the Greeks against the Persians. Seeing this as a sign of possible submission, the Persian king sent envoys to them requesting the symbolic token of earth and water as a sign of Spartan submission. It is said that the Spartans threw the envoys into a convenient well with the admonition to seek their earth and water there. Regardless, the Spartans threw in their lot with the Greeks and sent troops, too late, though, to participate in Marathon. They renewed their alliance when the new king, Xerxes, sent another huge army and fleet to finish off the Greeks. It was during this campaign, in 480 BC, that the Spartan legend was born. Leonidas fought splendidly, but as we know, he was brought down through treachery and numbers, leaving a legacy of death before dishonor and a string of memorable quotes, including the epitaph of "Go tell the Spartans" (the actual word was Lakadaemonians).
Yet, just what sort of soldiers were they? Spartan infantry, being a smaller contingent, was trained to fight as one unit. Against the Persians, they used a tactic as intricate as the German High Seas Fleet's "battle turnaway". After grappling with the Persians, the Spartans would feign a retreat, wait for the enemy to break ranks and pursue, then turn and rend the disordered troops. This had two effects. One, it denied the Persian archers a static target, and two, it kept them too closely engaged for the archers to fire without hitting their own troops.
The Spartans preferred to fight in the open, being no better trained to fight in the mountains than any other Greek contingent (no chasseurs-alpines here), a factor that may have led to their being surrounded. Clearly, they were not warriors capable of operating in all environments, as legends and movies might suggest. They despised skirmishing in general and the bow in particular. Leonidas was psychologically and culturally incapable of organizing a fighting withdrawal into Greece because he and his army knew nothing of retreats or coordinating with those "other Hellenes" during this point in their history. Spartan peacetime training routinely featured night actions using small units to ambush the helots, but they were not commandos and had no experience prosecuting guerilla warfare.
In sum, they were the most successful internal security force ever created. They were so good at stamping out revolts that they also made implacable foes against external threats, something that would make them the envy of every modern dictator who needs a powerful and feared police force as well as a standing army unafraid of battle and able to proceed with considerable elan. Yet, the Spartan culture was one of the most unusual ever seen, an aggressive, well-led military force that expanded to a certain point and then, satiated, knew when to quit.
In a sense, then, Thermopylae created the legend, and planted the seeds of her eventual downfall. From then on, Spartan fortunes, while rising on the battlefield, ultimately spread these seeds of Sparta's decline.
Surrender was alien to them, probably, because they seldom lost. Prisoners were taken occasionally, so we know that they did retreat or were defeated occasionally, such as at Sphakteria in 425 BC and at Kromnos in 365 BC. The Peloponnesian War, a 30 year duel between Sparta and Athens and their various allies, proved to be the final flicker of Sparta's flame. This long war was eventually won by Sparta, but it wrecked Athens as a center of democracy and irreparably damaged the fabric of Greek Society. Economically, the whole peninsula was ruined.
Sparta, the victor, was so exhausted that it never recovered, losing its dominance to Thebes in less than half a century. By the time of Alexander, the Spartans had exhausted themselves as a race, to become just another province in the Hegemony. We remember them, though, as examples of ferocious fighting men, winning against innumerable odds, returning home "either bearing their shields, or being borne upon them". Nearly 2500 years after Thermopylae, their legend still resonates with us, either in over-the-top cinematic exploits, or in the title of a Vietnam film. "Go tell the Spartans" that their memory lives on.
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