Talk:Laconophilia

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This is a very unknown concept. But it is very important to understanding not only these Greeks put also to put Sparta in context. Everyone champions Athens but it is Sparta that had the praise of its contemporaries. This knowledge is VERY important and overlooked and not seen by many.WHEELER 18:02, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The extent of the cult of Sparta is sometimes understated. But you overstate it. It was limited first to a minority faction at Athens; then to certain philosophers who wrote of Lacedaemon as Utopia. In Greece, it was a cult of Sparta only; one of its credoes was the usually bad state of Spartan institutions before Lycurgus. No one extended it to the commercial cities of Corinth or Syracuse or Rhodes - all Dorian. The rustic cities of Crete are only praised as inspirations for Lycurgus, and the nature of that inspiration differs from author to author. Also:

• Mueller's Dorians is very severely dated. He wrote when archaeology did not exist, and before comparative linguistics or source criticism had been applied to the question - and he filled up the gaps with sheer fantasy.

• "philodorian" is an invented word. Try 'Laconophile',

• Delphi is not Doric, as the list of Amphictyons should make clear.

• Lycurgus of Athens is profoundly obscure - and presumably of a Laconizing family; hence the name.

• The whole Laconizing movement is an Athenian political faction - to which Cimon did not belong. He valued Lacedaemon as an ally.

• You have named no Roman of the Empire, and the visit of the Decemvirs is a myth.

Septentrionalis 20:49, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] helots

Why capitalize? It is a common noun, as perioikoi "by-dwellers" also is. Septentrionalis 17:39, 20 July 2005 (UTC)