The Spartans attempted to convince the Athenians not to rebuild their city wall after it had been torn down by the Persians when they occupied the city after Thermopylae. They saw them as a barrier to other Greek city-states. This isn’t to say Spartans didn’t recognise the value of a good wall.
The Peloponnesians even offered for other city-states to move their families behind the walls. This was the fall-back position argued for by many Peloponnesians before and after the eventual defeat of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans by the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. Unfortunately for these hopeful Lego Masters, the city of Sparta was not famous in the ancient world for its walls - but for its lack of them.Ĭould this Spartan minifigure actually be Lycurgus? Screenshot/Nine But the Spartans are now a touchstone of popular culture: portrayed in movies such as 300 and Troy, and video games such as Assassins’ Creed: Odyssey and Rome: Total War. Sparta was eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BCE. Helen, whose abduction started the Trojan War, was married to the king of Sparta in Homer’s Iliad (probably composed in the 8th century BCE). Sparta, located in Greece’s southern peninsula, the Peloponnese, was one of the oldest and most powerful Greek city-states.
The inclusion of Sparta in a gathering of Lego warrior figurines might seem incongruous to those familiar with ancient history. They went on to build a giant Spartan warrior, standing protectively against white city walls. In the lucky dip that followed, teammates Fleur and Sarah drew a Spartan figure to signal their theme for the task (others worked on Viking, Medieval or samurai strongholds). In the second episode of the current season of the TV show Lego Masters, contestants were asked to build a castle - then watch it be destroyed by a bowling ball.