Expert: Maria - 4/3/2007

Question
I realize that the movie "300", about Spartians vs Persians was a movie, not a documentary, but I was wondering if - in reality - anyone actually did overthrow the Spartian government, or over years, it just faded away?
And if the part about the Persians was true; attacking everyone. Why were they doing that?

Answer
Hello,

Briefly I can tell you that Sparta was defeated and its government overthrown in 371 BC, while the Persians attacked everyone, as you say, because they wanted to extend their empire.
This in short.

Anyway, here's an outline that can give you an explanation of what I said above.

The military  city-state of  Sparta  was always a local power in Peloponnese, i.e. in  the southernmost part of mainland Greece, but not in the rest of Greece where Athens was the  master of the sea, the leading commercial power, the centre of culture and civilization,  in short the dominant power.

The only one period where Sparta had the hegemony, i.e. a predominant influence over Greece, extends from the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC, when the Spartans defeated the Athenians, to the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, when the Spartans were defeated by the Thebans led by Epaminondas and entered a long term decline they no longer  recovered from.

So, the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC was the first time that a Spartan army lost a land battle at full strength so that after this defeat Sparta's position as the dominant Greek city-state swiftly disappeared.

As for the Persians, they were the dominant power at that time, i.e. in the 5th.century BC, since the Persian empire, founded by Cyrus the Great after 546 B.C, extended from the Indus River valley ( in present-day Pakistan)  to the Aegean Sea.

The Persian rulers however  aimed at conquering Athens and mainland Greece and therefore first king Darius in 490 BC, later his son Xerxes in 480 BC tried to subject the Greeks.
But Darius' army was defeated at Marathon (490 BC) and Xerxes, though he won a costly victory at Thermopylae (August  480 BC)- where 300 Spartan warriors led by Leonidas faced the Persian army to the death- and  reached Athens which he  sacked, fared not better  as the Persian navy was routed by the Greek fleet at Salamis (September  480 BC).

Best,
Maria