Editing Sparta (section)

==Laconophilia==
[[File:Leónidas en las Termópilas, por Jacques-Louis David.jpg|alt=See caption|thumb|''[[Leonidas at Thermopylae]]'', 1814 painting by [[Jacques-Louis David]]]]
{{main|Laconophilia}}
Laconophilia is love or admiration of Sparta and its culture or constitution. Sparta was subject of considerable admiration in its day, even in rival [[Ancient Athens|Athens]].  In ancient times "Many of the noblest and best of the Athenians always considered the Spartan state nearly as an ideal theory realised in practice."<ref>Mueller: ''Dorians'' II, 192</ref> Many Greek philosophers, especially Platonists, would often describe Sparta as an ideal state, strong, brave, and free from the corruptions of commerce and money. The French classicist [[François Ollier]] in his 1933 book ''Le mirage spartiate'' (The Spartan Mirage) warned that a major scholarly problem is that all surviving accounts of Sparta were by non-Spartans who often excessively idealized their subject.<ref name="Hodkinson pages 222-281">Hodkinson, Stephen "The Imaginary Spartan ''Politeria''" pp. 22–81 from ''The Imaginary Polis: Symposium, 7–10 January 2004'' edited by Mogens Herman Hansen, Copenhagen: Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2005 p. 222.</ref> The term "Spartan Mirage" has come to refer to "idealized distortions and inventions regarding the character of Spartan society in the works of non-Spartan writers," beginning in Greek and Roman antiquity and continuing through the medieval and modern eras.<ref name="Hodkinson2002">{{cite book | author=Hodkinson S | title=Sparta: Beyond the Mirage | publisher=The Classical Press of Wales | chapter=Introduction | date=31 December 2002 | isbn=978-1-914535-20-8 | doi=10.2307/j.ctv1n357hd}}</ref> These accounts of Sparta are typically associated with the social or political concerns of the writer.<ref name="Hodkinson2002"/> No accounts survive by the Spartans themselves, if such were ever written.

[[File:Young Spartans Exercising National Gallery NG3860.jpg|thumb|''[[Young Spartans Exercising]]'' by [[Edgar Degas]] (1834–1917)]]
With the revival of classical learning in [[Renaissance|Renaissance Europe]], Laconophilia re-appeared, for example in the writings of [[Machiavelli]]. The Elizabethan English constitutionalist [[John Aylmer (English constitutionalist)|John Aylmer]] compared the mixed government of [[Tudor period|Tudor England]] to the Spartan republic, stating that "Lacedemonia [was] the noblest and best city governed that ever was". He commended it as a model for England. The philosopher [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] contrasted Sparta favourably with Athens in his ''[[Discourse on the Arts and Sciences]]'', arguing that its austere constitution was preferable to the more sophisticated Athenian life. Sparta was also used as a model of austere purity by Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.<ref name="The ">{{cite web|url=http://www.lacan.com/zizhollywood.htm|last = Žižek|first = Slavoj| author-link = Slavoj Žižek| title = The True Hollywood Left| publisher = www.lacan.com}}</ref>

A German [[Racialism|racist]] strain of Laconophilia was initiated by [[Karl Otfried Müller]], who linked Spartan ideals to the supposed racial superiority of the Dorians, the ethnic sub-group of the Greeks to which the Spartans belonged. In the 20th century, this developed into [[Fascism|Fascist]] admiration of Spartan ideals. [[Adolf Hitler]] praised the Spartans, recommending in 1928 that Germany should imitate them by limiting "the number allowed to live". He added that "The Spartans were once capable of such a wise measure... The subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible because of the racial superiority of the Spartans." The Spartans had created "the first racialist state".<ref name="un.org">{{cite web |last1=Kiernan |first1=Ben |title=Hitler, Pol Pot, and Hutu Power: Distinguishing Themes of Genocidal Ideology |url=https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/dpj_i.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/dpj_i.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=28 April 2021 |page=19}}</ref> Following [[Operation Barbarossa|the invasion of the USSR]], Hitler viewed citizens of the USSR as like the helots under the Spartans: "They [the Spartans] came as conquerors, and they took everything", and so should the Germans. A Nazi officer specified that "the Germans would have to assume the position of the Spartiates, while... the Russians were the Helots."<ref name="un.org"/>

Certain early Zionists, and particularly the founders of [[Kibbutz]] movement in Israel, were influenced by Spartan ideals, particularly in education. [[Yitzhak Tabenkin|Tabenkin]], a founding father of the Kibbutz movement and the [[Palmach]] strikeforce, prescribed that education for warfare "should begin from the nursery", that children should from kindergarten be taken to "spend nights in the mountains and valleys".<ref>''The Making of Israeli Militarism'', By Uri Ben-Eliezer, Indiana University Press, 1998, p. 63</ref><ref>''Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881–1948'', By Anita Shapira, Stanford University Press 1999, 300</ref>

In modern times, the adjective "Spartan" means simple, frugal, avoiding luxury and comfort.<ref>{{cite web |title=Spartan |work=Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Spartan |access-date=5 October 2021}}</ref> The term "[[laconic phrase]]" describes the very terse and direct speech characteristic of the Spartans.

Sparta also features prominently in modern [[Sparta in popular culture|popular culture]], most famously the [[Battle of Thermopylae]] (see [[Battle of Thermopylae in popular culture]]).