was Sparta proto-fascist?

>Was fascism inspired by Greco-Roman culture?
Nah surely it was the other way around.

I have a strong suspicion you have no idea what fascism is OP.

Nah, it was proto-communist.

Childhood is when you go with Sparta. Adult is when you dig with Athens.

that's a bit of a ridiculous question, but Spartan society was totalitarian in a way that was unique among the Greek city states

Facism is primarily an aesthetic phenomenon.

>>3160776
no, you must think all militant dictatorial authoritarianism is Fascism.

Fascism is specifically economic.

>>3160776
Explain what you mean by proto-fascism.

Do you have a specific question about Sparta? It was a great, albeit imperfect, state.

>>3160826
And divine is when you smile as Thebes burns to the ground

>>3160863

authoritarian hivemind where everyone must work to benefit the state, with a hierarchical system and a heavy obsession with militarism

File: SpartaGreatRhetra.png (75KB, 1420x905px) Image search: [Google]

75KB, 1420x905px

none of the replies have any idea what they're talking about, and it really depends on the era you're speaking of.

sparta was a sort of uniquely balanced mix of powers somewhat similar to current day US

there were two kings when absolute power was needed, a loose form of nobility/statesmen that helped day to day and administrative dealings along with the kings and their people, a loose form of constitution that divided the powers, and a form of tyranny and slave-labour through the helots which were not given any sort of rights. only born spartans who completed military training (women being less rigorous, but still quite fucking rigorous) were considered to be citizens of the state. These people were called spartiates and were the real members of society

>>3160877
note that women couldn't really vote or hold much of a place in life outside being a wife or a craft, so the term citizens shouldn't be taken too literally. despite being in the y'know, bronze age/classical/ancient era, spartan women had some of the most rights and powers in most of greece.

The Gerousia (something like 'old men') would essentially act as lawmakers, the Spartiates would have to vote to go to war or enable or repeal a law. in government these were called the Apella, see the graph. Ephoroi can be sort of understood as a type of representative that helped balance power with the two kings

This is all fine and well about what the legal citizenry was about but the real driving force of spartan life was entirely dependent on their slaves, the helots.

Spartans were in such fear of helot uprising and were so dependent on them since they outnumbered spartan citizens so greatly that they (among numerous other countermeasures) regularly declared war on them and tortured them publicly to keep them from rebelling and to cull the population. Helots were also given chance at 'freedom' through military use, which often were lies just to accomplish something and then given no reward, or simple suicide missions.

>>3160776

?

NO.

>>3160929
this need to keep helots in line gave birth to the krypteia which is a sort of not-so-secret police composed of younger spartan men. this served the purpose of both indoctrinating spartans and controlling the helots through further subjugation and fear

>>3160937
the krypteia also served as an elite portion of the spartan society and army. it was almost a necessity to serve in the krypteia to progress into leadership roles in the army and state, and helped to keep the fragile process of spartan government in check.

>>3160874

Okay, then no, Sparta was not as you describe.

It was not an authoritarian hivemind where everyone worked for the good of the state. Helots and perioikoi were not part of a hivemind. Obviously helots had to work in order to surrender some of their agricultural produce, but I don't think serfs had a political belief in working for the good of the state.

To the extent that Spartan-tier citizens constitute a "hivemind" and wanted their society to succeed, their system of government had democratic elements and full citizens could vote for or against various things like war.

Yes, spartan society was hierarchical, and yes spartans were subject to a lot of regulations and laws. Spartan-tier people were very interested in military preparedness, yes.

>>3160776
>equality enforced only for citizens

More like nazbol, but that is a meme. You should read Maurras and Sorel if you are interested in the matters of equality and totalitarianism.

>>3160869

Why the hate against Thebes?

Fascism has an element of nationalism to it, which didn't exist with Sparta. Nationalism is far more often than not focus on forming and creating States based on nationality / ethnicity and sharing a common goal and citizenship based on your heritage / ethnicity, and not financial status.

The hardcore, disciplined, expert warriors people think of when they think of Sparta were actually just a small minority of the total population. full citizenry was only inherited by people who lived around the town of Sparta in Laconia and had to meet property/wealth requirements to be apart of. It was essentially, in the Ancient Greek sense, an oligarchy. You could be born to a family of Spartiates but end up losing your citizenship later in life if you had to sell property because of financial strain or couldn't afford mess dues. So as a society, they didn't really care that you were Laconic as much as you were wealthy AND Lacedaemonian and had Spartiate parents. The disciplinary life-style and pro-ascetic measures put into law that Sparta is known for was really only for the Spartiate class and was crafted to avoid strife and conflict from parties within it, by essentially, making their plutocratic class egalitarian to those within it.