Source: Law & Liberty
by Scott Yenor
“Sparta pursued a Sparta-first policy throughout most of its history, preserving its unique domestic institutions while giving citizens in distinctive military training. It drew back from pursuing a wider empire, for fear that what it took to build an empire would undermine its unique constitution. Sparta’s politicos put Sparta’s domestic needs first when responding to regional powers in the Peloponnese (the peninsula in western Greece where Sparta was hegemon), the Persian challenge, and, ultimately, the Athenian challenge. Then one day, the Spartans, long landlubbers and homebodies, finally became sailors and grasped for a wider empire, having first exhausted most other possibilities. Paul Rahe, professor of history at Hillsdale College, serves as an excellent guide to the subtle, grudging transformation of Sparta in his six-volume set.” (02/21/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/spartas-splendid-isolationism/