{"id":12797,"date":"2021-01-21T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12797"},"modified":"2021-01-20T10:19:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T18:19:29","slug":"the-spartan-way-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-spartan-way-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spartan way of war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ The New Criterion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sparta\u2019s check of imperial Athens in the inconclusive so-called First Peloponnesian War (460\u2013445&nbsp;B.C.) foreshadowed a remarkable subsequent twenty-eight-year growth in Lacedaemonian power and influence. At the war\u2019s end, Sparta had established itself as the only impediment left to an increasingly Athenian Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fourteen years later, a second, and far deadlier, Peloponnesian War broke out. The continuing, hard-fought Spartan upswing was capped off by her dramatic victory at the Battle of Mantinea (418&nbsp;B.C.), which saw Sparta prevail over Athens\u2014Sparta\u2019s chief Peloponnesian rival\u2014and surrogate Athenian allies. That battle mostly ensured that Sparta would not lose in any renewal of the stalemated Second Peloponnesian War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Spartan surge between 446 and 418&nbsp;B.C.&nbsp;is the theme of Paul A. Rahe\u2019s fourth volume on Sparta\u2019s history, its culture, and its rivalries with democratic Athens, entitled&nbsp;<em>Sparta\u2019s Second Attic War<\/em>.<a href=\"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/issues\/2021\/1\/59-77_NewCrit_Jan21_R.html#footnote-000\">1<\/a>&nbsp;His envisioned hexalogy will eventually cover three centuries of Spartan growth, dominance, and gradual decline. The final two books will presumably be devoted to the last fourteen brutal years of the Peloponnesian War (a proposed volume&nbsp;5, 418\u2013404\/3&nbsp;B.C.) and the post-war decades of Sparta\u2019s unilateral but shaky dominance, and her eventual decline (volume&nbsp;6, 403\u2013362&nbsp;B.C.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/issues\/2021\/1\/the-spartan-way-of-war\">Read the full article here <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ The New Criterion Sparta\u2019s check of imperial Athens in the inconclusive so-called First Peloponnesian War (460\u2013445&nbsp;B.C.) foreshadowed a remarkable subsequent twenty-eight-year growth in Lacedaemonian power and influence. At the war\u2019s end, Sparta had established itself as the only impediment left to an increasingly Athenian Greece. Fourteen years later, a second, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3kp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5581,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/delium-the-battle-only-one-man-wanted-part-v\/","url_meta":{"origin":12797,"position":0},"title":"Delium: The Battle Only One Man Wanted&#8211;Part V","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Military History Quarterly [Delium will appear this week in a five part series: 1)The Battle, 2) The Aftermath, 3) Armor and Ranks, 4) Innovation and the Battlefield, 5) Coalition Warfare] Part V:\u00a0 Coalition Warfare In coalition warfare in which several allied city-states fought alongside one another,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;December 2005&quot;","block_context":{"text":"December 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/december-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5574,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/delium-the-battle-only-one-man-wanted-part-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":12797,"position":1},"title":"Delium: The Battle Only One Man Wanted&#8211;Part II","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Military History Quarterly [Delium will appear this week in a five part series: 1)The Battle, 2) The Aftermath, 3) Armor and Ranks, 4) Innovation and the Battlefield, 5) Coalition Warfare] Part II:\u00a0 The Aftermath Delium was the first battle in or on the border of Attica\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;December 2005&quot;","block_context":{"text":"December 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/december-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4211,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/old-is-new-warfare\/","url_meta":{"origin":12797,"position":2},"title":"Old is &#8220;New&#8221; Warfare","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Iraq conflict shares uncanny likenesses with the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson National Post Listen to what the talking heads are saying, and it's easy to believe that we have entered an entirely new era of armed conflict. Since Sept. 11, 2001, military commentators have emphasized the bizarre nature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;November 2005&quot;","block_context":{"text":"November 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/november-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10536,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/preemptive-strikes-and-preventive-wars-a-historians-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":12797,"position":3},"title":"Preemptive Strikes and Preventive Wars: A Historian\u2019s Perspective","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Barry Strauss Strategika Preventive wars and preemptive strikes are both risky business. A preventive war is a military, diplomatic, and strategic endeavor, aimed at an enemy whom one expects to grow so strong that delay would cause defeat. A preemptive strike is a military operation or series of operations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Strategika&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Strategika","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/strategika\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/buyWarBonds.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5571,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/delium-the-battle-only-one-man-wanted-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":12797,"position":4},"title":"Delium: The Battle Only One Man Wanted&#8211;Part I","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Military History Quarterly [Delium will appear this week in a five part series: 1)The Battle, 2) The Aftermath, 3) Armor and Ranks, 4) Innovation and the Battlefield, 5) Coalition Warfare] Part I: The Battle By 424 B.C., the Peloponnesian War was at a stalemate. Perhaps a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;December 2005&quot;","block_context":{"text":"December 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/december-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":621,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wars-paradoxes-ii-from-the-peloponnesian-war-to-leading-from-behind-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12797,"position":5},"title":"War&#8217;s Paradoxes II: From the Peloponnesian War to &#8216;Leading From Behind&#8217;","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media 1. Why Did Athens Lose the Peloponnesian War? It really did not in a way: Athens no more lost the war than Hitler did the Second World War between September 1939 and May 1941. 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