cam . # .

I agree with most of that. The Peloponessian War went for so long because Athens would not meet Sparta's hoplites in battle (same as Germany and the UK wouldnt trade shots with Dreadnaughts in WWI) and Sparta wouldnt meet the Athenian Navy in a clean fight. So they fought assymetrically and consequently a city-state form of genocide appears to have been the common way to fight. Quite horrid really.

The Spartans were skilled at statecraft though. They did manage to keep a wide confederation in place throughout the war despite Athenian attempts to destabilise it through the Messinians and by establishing democratic ruling elites in cities. There was political genocide as well in cities because Sparta and Athens tried to install oligarchic or democratic elites into power. The locals would execute their political rivals and vice versa.

avocadia . # .

I only just saw 300 this week, after a mate dumped a whole bunch of rips on me.

Sparta understood only one kind of fighting: land battle, the hoplite shield-wall

I was vastly amused when, after shooing the hunchback away because he couldn't be part of a shield wall, the Spartans engaged the Persians in a phalanx formation only once for about fifteen seconds, and then broke it up to fight as individuals in the standard barbarian fashion that phalanxes tended to pulverize.

I guess there is less opportunity for posers posing in posing pouches when they are squeezed together in a shield wall.