Shows
Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo HistoryThe Spartan Secret: How Helots Built a Warrior StateSparta's legendary warriors didn't train alone — their entire society rested on a vast enslaved population called helots. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the brutal system that made Spartan militarism possible. We trace the helots' origins to the Messenian Wars, examine how constant fear of rebellion shaped Sparta's notorious krypteia death squads, and ask why helots — who vastly outnumbered Spartans — rarely rose up. We meet the rebel leader Aristomenes, whose guerrilla war nearly destroyed Sparta, and unpack the strange institution of helot 'freedom' at feasts. Drawing on Plutarch, Thucydides, and Myron of Priene, we reveal a Sparta far more c...
2026-05-3108 minAncient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo HistoryHoplite Revolution: How the Phalanx Remade Greek WarfareLucas and Luna explore the hoplite revolution that transformed Greek warfare and society around 700 BCE. They discuss the origins of the phalanx formation, the hoplite panoply of bronze armor and the distinctive aspis shield, and how this new style of fighting may have emerged from or driven political changes like the rise of the polis and citizen armies. The episode examines the Battle of Hysiae (c. 669 BCE) as an early test, the role of the Corinthian helmet, and the social implications of arming ordinary farmers as heavy infantry. Lucas also addresses the contested 'hoplite revolution' hypothesis and the alternative...
2026-05-2008 minAncient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo HistoryThe Spartan Mirage: How Helot Labor Built a Warrior StateEpisode 9 of Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War peels back the myth of Sparta. While popular imagination conjures elite warriors and Spartan mothers, the reality rested on a brutal foundation: the helots, a vast enslaved population subjugated through terror and state-sanctioned violence. Lucas and Luna explore the helot system—how it shaped Spartan society, the infamous Krypteia death squads that kept helots in check, and the constant fear of rebellion that dictated Spartan foreign policy. They unpack the Messenian Wars, the Tainaron sanctuary where helots could seek asylum, and the strange institution of the Helot as a literal bo...
2026-04-2706 min
Story of the Greeks028 - The Music of TyrtaeusDive into a captivating collection of tales and histories that bring the Ancient Greeks to life! From their legendary myths to the rich tapestry of their culture, this book, narrated by Ann Boulais, invites you on an enchanting journey through time.
2026-02-2304 min
New HumanistsSparta Before the Reactionary Turn | Episode XCIISend us Fan MailWe think of Sparta as a grim place, more of a military barracks with some civilians attached than an actual city. Its inhumane marriage laws, nauseating eugenics program, brutal educational system, obsession with military training, and paranoid suspicion of non-Spartans all led French historian Henri-Irénée Marrou to label Classical Sparta as an ancient fascist state. But there was a time, as Marrou argues in his history of ancient education, when Sparta was the cultural center of ancient Greek life. Artists and musicians flocked to pre-Classical, archaic Sparta to find a population mo...
2025-07-1553 min
QuotomaniaQuotomania 205: Theognis of MegaraToday’s Quotation is care of Theognis of Megara. Listen in! Subscribe to Quotomania on quotomania.com or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast
Theognis, (flourished 6th century BC, Megara[Greece]), was an ancient Greek elegiac poet whose work preserved a glimpse into Greek society in a time of turmoil. More than half of all surviving elegiac poetry in ancient Greek was transmitted under his name, preserved in a collection of elegiac couplets in two books, or papyrus rolls, consisting of 1,389 verses, some of which are variants of each other. The collection includes poems by other aut...
2022-04-2401 min
2021-12-0604 min
Spartan History Podcast020. The Spartan YokeEPISODE 20 THE SPARTAN YOKEHappy new year folks, welcome back to the Spartan History Podcast, the only podcast called the Spartan History Podcast. We're turning 20 with the release of this episode and I couldn't be more pleased to be back behind the microphone. I hope you all had a safe holiday season.This time we're taking the Spartan story into the 7th century as the city consolidates her hold on the recently acquired Messenian territories. First though, we look at the post war settlement within city and see if the aggressive land grab, that was t...
2021-01-1040 min
The European History Podcast8 - Bonus Episode - Greek PoetryThis is a bonus episode with a reading of a poem by Tyrtaeus on the subject of the Citizen Soldier of Sparta.
2016-06-1300 min
1970-01-0104 min