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### Book:to the Mediterranean, the Spartans never became a seafaring people;

### Book:instead they turned on the cities around them, and, in a series of brutal,violent conflicts lasting more than a hundred years, managed to conquer

### Book:an immense area that would provide enough land for their citizens. This

### Book:solution to their problem, however, brought a new, more formidable one:

### Book:How could they maintain and police their conquered territories? The

### Book:subordinate peoples they ruled now outnumbered them ten to one. Surely

### Book:this horde would take a horrible revenge on them.

### Book:Sparta’s solution was to create a society dedicated to the art of war.

### Book:Spartans would be tougher, stronger, and fiercer than their neighbors.

### Book:This was the only way they could ensure their stability and survival.

### Book:When a Spartan boy reached the age of seven, he was taken from his

### Book:mother and placed in a military club where he was trained to fight and

### Book:underwent the strictest discipline. The boys slept on beds of reeds; they

### Book:were allotted only one outer garment to wear for an entire year. They

### Book:studied none of the arts; indeed, the Spartans banned music, and

### Book:permitted only slaves to practice the crafts that were necessary to sustain

### Book:them. The only skills the Spartans taught were those of warfare. Children

### Book:seen as weaklings were left to die in a cavern in the mountains. No

### Book:system of money or trading was allowed in Sparta; acquired wealth, they

### Book:believed, would sow selfishness and dissension, weakening their warrior

### Book:discipline. The only way a Spartan could earn a living was through

### Book:agriculture, mostly on state-owned lands, which slaves, called helots,

### Book:would work for him.

### Book:The Spartans’ single-mindedness allowed them to forge the most

### Book:powerful infantry in the world. They marched in perfect order and fought

### Book:with incomparable bravery. Their tight-knit phalanxes could vanquish an

### Book:army ten times their size, as they proved in defeating the Persians at

### Book:Thermopylae. A Spartan column on the march would strike terror in the

### Book:enemy; it seemed to have no weaknesses. Yet although the Spartans

### Book:proved themselves mighty warriors, they had no interest in creating an

### Book:empire. They only wanted to keep what they had already conquered and

### Book:to defend it against invaders. Decades would pass without a single

### Book:change in the system that had succeeded so well in preserving Sparta’s

### Book:status quo.

### Book:THE DOC WITH THE CROPPED EARS

### Book:“What crime have I committed that I should be thus mutilated by my own

### Book:master?” pensively exclaimed Jowler, a young mastiff. “Here’s a pretty

### Book:condition for a dog of my pretentions! How can I show my face among

### Book:my friends? Oh! king of beasts, or rather their tyrant, who would dare totreat you thus?” His complaints were not unfounded, for that very

### Book:morning his master, despite the piercing shrieks of our young friend, had

### Book:barbarously cut off his long pendent ears. Jowler expected nothing less

### Book:than to give up the ghost. As he advanced in years, he perceived that he

### Book:gained more than he had lost by his mutilation; for, being naturally

### Book:inclined to fight with others, he would often have returned home with this

### Book:part disfigured in a hundred places. A quarrelsome dog always has his

### Book:ears lacerated. The less we leave others to lay hold of the better. When

### Book:one has but one point to defend, it should be protected for fear of

### Book:accident. Take for example Master Jowler, who, being armed with a

### Book:spiked collar, and having about as much ear as a bird, a wolf would be

### Book:puzzled to know where to tackle him.

### Book:FABLES. JEAN DE LA FOMTAINE, 1621-1695

### Book:At the same time that the Spartans were evolving their warlike culture,

### Book:another city-state was rising to equal prominence: Athens. Unlike Sparta,

### Book:Athens had taken to the sea, not so much to create colonies as for

### Book:purposes of trade. The Athenians became great merchants; their

### Book:currency, the famous “owl coins,” spread throughout the Mediterranean.

### Book:Unlike the rigid Spartans, the Athenians responded to every problem

### Book:with consummate creativity, adapting to the occasion and creating new

### Book:social forms and new arts at an incredible pace. Their society was in

### Book:constant flux. And as their power grew, they came to pose a threat to the

### Book:defense-minded Spartans.

### Book:In 431 B.C., the war that had been brewing between Athens and

### Book:Sparta for so long finally erupted. It lasted twenty-seven years, but after

### Book:many twists of fortune, the Spartan war machine finally emerged

### Book:victorious. The Spartans now commanded an empire, and this time they

### Book:could not stay in their shell. If they gave up what they had gained, the

### Book:beaten Athenians would regroup and rise against them, and the long war

### Book:would have been fought for naught.

### Book:After the war, Athenian money poured into Sparta. The Spartans had

### Book:been trained in warfare, not politics or economics; because they were so

### Book:unaccustomed to it, wealth and its accompanying ways of life seduced

### Book:and overwhelmed them. Spartan governors were sent to rule what had

### Book:been Athenian lands; far from home, they succumbed to the worst forms

### Book:of corruption. Sparta had defeated Athens, but the fluid Athenian way of

### Book:life was slowly breaking down its discipline and loosening its rigid order.

### Book:And Athens, meanwhile, was adapting to losing its empire, managing to

### Book:thrive as a cultural and economic center.Confused by a change in its status quo, Sparta grew weaker and

### Book:weaker. Some thirty years after defeating Athens, it lost an important

### Book:battle with the city-state of Thebes. Almost overnight, this once mighty

### Book:nation collapsed, never to recover.

### Book:Interpretation

### Book:In the evolution of species, protective armor has almost always spelled

### Book:disaster. Although there are a few exceptions, the shell most often

### Book:becomes a dead end for the animal encased in it; it slows the creature

### Book:down, making it hard for it to forage for food and making it a target for

### Book:fast-moving predators. Animals that take to the sea or sky, and that move

### Book:swiftly and unpredictably, are infinitely more powerful and secure.

### Book:In facing a serious problem—controlling superior numbers—Sparta

### Book:reacted like an animal that develops a shell to protect itself from the

### Book:environment. But like a turtle, the Spartans sacrificed mobility for safety.

### Book:They managed to preserve stability for three hundred years, but at what

### Book:cost? They had no culture beyond warfare, no arts to relieve the tension,

### Book:a constant anxiety about the status quo. While their neighbors took to the

### Book:sea, learning to adapt to a world of constant motion, the Spartans

### Book:entombed themselves in their own system. Victory would mean new

### Book:lands to govern, which they did not want; defeat would mean the end of

### Book:their military machine, which they did not want, either. Only stasis

### Book:allowed them to survive. But nothing in the world can remain stable

### Book:forever, and the shell or system you evolve for your protection will

### Book:someday prove your undoing.