I - 117 : How Rain made Sparta strong

The lush Mountains in the Peloponnese with their fertile Valleys receive a lot of Rain

Mosf of my High School class mates hated history. They wondered what was the point of learning about the Persian Wars 2’500 years ago. The bravery of the Greeks against the Persian Empire was impressive. But why did we not learn about the bravery of the Vietcong? They actually had a point. Am sure none of them remembers the Persian Wars anymore. History as presented today is mostly boring. We all know that history does not repeat itself. So why bother? Pass the exam, get a grade, move on.

Fighting Scene on a Vase from Athens, 5th Century BC

The lessons of history happen on a deeper level which sadly most teachers and text books never touch. As a High School student I had the chance to take history classes with Pierre Wenger, a passionate teacher, high ranking officer and diplomat. In his lectures and discussions, one wow moment followed the other. Professor Wenger, as we respectfully called him, was a renaissance man who seemed to know everything about everything. He linked facts and events in the most unexpected way. Passionate in his believes, solid in his facts, endessly curious, always asking why. Why did something happen? What was the underlyimg cause of a developments observed? I vividly remember his classes on the Russian Revolution and the rise of Adolf Hitler. His credo was “If we do not understand why something happened, we shall be condemned to repeat the mistakes”. His words left a lasting impression. In our “short attention span” world, they are a valuable guide.

Annual Precipitations in mm in Greece. Athens is semi-arid, the Peloponnese rather "wet"

My subject is not modern politics though but the history of the places we visit during our travelling. In week three this summer we sail from Crete to the Peloponnese which once gave rise to Sparta, the land power that dominated Greece for almost 400 years (700 – 300 BC). Never asked what made Sparta so powerful but started wondering after writing up Athens, the town in the middle of a semi-arid desert. Athens never had much water.

Athens took its water from three small Rivers - this Photo is from 1890 south of the Akropolis

It was actually its limiting factor despite the ample supply of silver from its mines in Attica. There were three small rivers and that was it. Athens never had more than 200’000 people which pales in comparison to Syracuse or Selinunte in Magna Greacia (Sicily). As a rule of thumb, a society can mobilise about 10% of its population for defence. Athens thus could field roughly 20’000 soldiers – half of them though it needed to guard the long walls to Pireaus, its vital port. Without importing food and materials, Athens could not survive long. The 10’000 men Athens could freely use were needed for its 70 triremes. Athens contributed 20% of the 350 Greek ships which defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis. A single trireme needed minimum 150 men.

Athens' Dependence on Food Import was its Achilles

Heel - the Defence of its long Walls to Piraeus were

vital for its Survival

Sparta was different. We do not know the precise number of people living under Spartan rule at the time of the Persian wars. Estimates fluctuate. I found numbers ranging from 75’000 to 120’000. In any case, Sparta was smaller than Athens. It was rural with many villages and a few mid-sized towns. It had no silver mines either. Sparta’s people were farmers. But contrary to Athens, the Peloponnese was a fertile  region. It gets about 2 – 3 times more rain than Athens.

Precipitations in Athens (left) and the Peloponnese (right) in mm/day

Tried to scale the Charts by stretching the right one - not so elegant

There are many mountains. Still a good quarter of the Peloponnese are fertile valleys, ideal for agriculture. Sparta thus had a healthy agricultural economy which produced a sizeable surplus that fed and supported the Spartans. The Spartan citizens were the only ones authorized to bear weapons and fight. The Spartan slave state was an efficient war machine. The helots (slaves) had a supporting role.

Arable Land and Agriculture on the Peloponnese

But it worked. Sparta could always field 10’000 professional soldiers which were the core of any Greek army. Its prowess allowed it - albeit smaller than Athens - do dominate Greece.

The Area around Navarino Bay on the Peloponnese West is particularly rich - today Olive Orchards dominate the landscape

It seems trivial but precipitations and location made the difference between Athens and Sparta. Who would have thought. Athens had to import its food. Its Achilles Heel was the link with Piraeus, the harbor where the grain ships coming from as far as the Black Sea arrived. Thanks to its silver mines, Athens could play a bigger role than its geography allowed. Timber for the ships, iron for the nails, flax for the sails and hemp for the ropes were bought in Macedonia. But once the silver run out, Athens faltered. Sparta with its sustainable annual agricultural surplus thrived though for centuries. It was “imperial overstretch” that led to its demise – when its forces were divided into sub-scale garrisons across Greece.

Typical Peloponnese Landscape with the Village in the Hills to preserve the fertile soil in the Valley for Agriculture

Never read such a context in any of my text book. The great French historian Ferdinand Braudel once said that “history is about location”. It could not be more true. His ground breaking book “Le Mediterranee” was all about this. I owe it to Professor Wenger to read Braudel. His book made me think differently. Countries still have their Achilles Heels. With it silver, Athens could buy food, timber and man a fleet. But it never had the base to field a sizeable army. With its agricultural surplus, Sparta could. In other words, only a nation with a sustainable economy can defend its interest in the long run. These lessons still apply today. Eventhough 2’500 years have passed since Sparta dominated the ancient world. If properly interpreted, history can be useful. QED.

Written in 1949, Braudel's Book is still worth reading