One thing not widely taught is that the Greek Golden Age coincided / overlapped with the Golden Age of the Persian Empire. The Persians twice bridged the strait into Europe by building pontoon bridges to enable a massive movement of land forces, and maintained a substantial presence in the north of Greece; meanwhile it occupied Anatolia, which had a large Ionian Greek population. Sparta has been made much of in recent years, but it never worked for the good of Greece until it was humiliated by its failure to join the Greek effort at Marathon; the lame excuse (still given by advocates today) about some otherwise unknown ceremony masked the true intent, which was to act as the proxy for Persian rule in the Pelopponnese. During the next invasion it sent a whopping force of 300 (which fought alongside a force of 700 Thespians, soldiers from a city Persia had sacked) as a PR move, then again let the brunt of the invasion fall on Athens. Again, Athens prevailed, and again Spartan plans were thwarted. The final victory for Sparta came as a result of AGAIN taking Persian money during the Pelopponnesian War, using the money to build a fleet, hiring away the best Athenian rowers, and defeating the Athenian navy. Then, within a generation, most of what was left of the Spartan pedophiles were destroyed by the Thebans at Leuctra, thousands upon thousands of enslaved Greeks were freed in the valley of the Eurotas and freed the Messenians, ending Sparta’s ability to maintain its sick, depraved, revolting, elitist system.
Not a fan of Sparta?
I’ve never seen any real evidence the Spartans were trying to get Persia to smash Athens for them. I would assume even the Spartans were smart enough to realize the Persians would see them as at least as big a threat and would leave them no independence.
The Spartans were already quite predominant in the Pelopponnese and had been for a long time, it’s not like this was some long-thwarted ambition.
I’m no expert on Sparta, but from what I’ve read I think they weren’t much interested in the outside world until the Persian War dragged them into it. They just wanted to stay home, dominate the Pelopponnese, bully and murder helots and bugger little boys.
You are absolutely right about this myth that the Greeks united in resistance to the Persians. Probably a good many more Greeks supported the Persians, although perhaps sometimes unwillingly, than supported the “Greek resistance.” Come to think of it, much like the famous “French Resistance.”