What Is Spartan Courage?

Despite unravelling two different stories; the history of the Peloponnesian war in 411 BC and a Socratic dialogue from 380 BC, the texts give us insight to Ancient Greece unlike any other.

Archidamus highlights the four main Spartan ideals to be shame, self-control, good judgment, and moderation. He attempts to connect to this to the theme of courage by talking of it’s antonym; cowardice, “Let no one think that the many do not immediately attack a single city because of cowardice,” (Thucydides, History, 1.83). He outlines the consequences to a city of not being sufficiently courageous as being more susceptible to attack and defeat. The idea of self-control comes into play as one controls themselves regarding the shame they feel before others,

He thinks of it as highly traditional (Thucydides, History, 1.84) and the product of the hyper-traditional, rigorous and stern education system (Thucydides, History, 1.85), “we are both good warriors because our moderation is guided by our sense of shame, and our courage is bade upon honor. We have sound judgment because of our rigorous education, which makes us too ignorant to have contempt for our laws and too moderate to disobey them” (Thucydides, History, 1.84). Courage was based on meticulous behaviour, intensive training, punitive applications of social shame, and used punishment tactics such as legal punishment and social ostracism to instill fear in the

However, Socrates points out that there are many things people fear such as disease and poverty that one is not necessarily ashamed of. He instead defines shame as the fear of a bad reputation, partly coinciding with the Spartan view. Unlike the Spartans, Socrates valued moderation. Moderation created a strict, rigid and purged lifestyle for guardians, restricted to the point of creating a “city of pigs” according to Glaucon (Rep. 2.369b-372e). This will ensure guardians are not corrupt with temptations, making them just leaders with the common good as their sole