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Ancient History

We Are Still Learning Weird Things About Ancient Sparta

Khalid Elhassan February 15, 2024 29 min
Spartan Krypteia, Or Secret Police, Were Used To Terrorize And Subjugate The Helots
Spartan Krypteia, Or Secret Police, Were Used To Terrorize And Subjugate The Helots. History Skills

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Ancient Origins – The Brutal Draconian Laws of Ancient Greece

Ancient Warfare – The Battle of Salamis

Bulfinch, Thomas – Bulfinch’s Mythology (2010)

Daily Beast – This Myth About the Spartans Just Got Blown Up

Dunn, P M, Archives of Disease in Childhood, Fetal and Neonatal Edition, Volume 91(1), January 2006 – Aristotle (384 – 322 BC): Philosopher and Scientist of Ancient Greece

Encyclopedia Britannica – Ephialtes, Greek Traitor

Encyclopedia Britannica – Helot

Forrest, William George Grieve – A History of Sparta, 950-192 BC (1963)

Gonick, Larry – The Cartoon History of the Universe I (1990)

Greek Legends and Myths – The Seer Calchas

Hanson, Victor Davis – The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny (2001)

Herodotus – The Histories, Book 7, Battle of Thermopylae

Herodotus – The Histories, VI & VIII

History Collection – Population Control Was No Joke in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire

Lazenby, John Francis – The Defence of Greece, 480-479 BC (1993)

Patterson, Cynthia. Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 115 (1985) – ‘Not Worth the Rearing’: The Causes of Infant Exposure in Ancient Greece

Plutarch – Parallel Lives: Lycurgus

Science, December 10th, 2021 – Ancient Greeks Didn’t Kill ‘Weak’ Babies, New Study Argues

Sneed, Debby. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 90, no. 4 (2021) – Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece

Stone, George Cameron – A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor (1999)

Strauss, Barry – The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece and Western Civilization (2004)

Talbert, Richard J. A., Historia Journal, Bd. 31, H. 1 (1st Quarter, 1989) – The Role of the Helots in the Class Struggle at Sparta

World History Encyclopedia – Draco’s Law Code

World History Encyclopedia – Miltiades

Written by
Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

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