The Bronze (Shoe) Lie

Spartans did not practice infanticide

Pursuant to my review this week of Myke Cole’s excellent book on Sparta’s military record (linked below), a new consensus among academics is that Spartans did not expose imperfect babies (leave them to die) as portrayed so prominently in fascist propaganda. Turns out this is a Roman-era invention. No archaeology supports it and there are no primary sources for it. On the contrary, we know of Spartan kings who had deformities, and recovered remains show that the Greeks cared for babies with congenital problems.

We do the Spartans no honors by making them out to be superhuman, or beyond normal human morality.

Meet the Actual Spartans