A city-state in ancient Greece, and the great rival of Athens. Where Athens is remembered for philosophy, theatre, and argument, Sparta is remembered for one thing: soldiers. Spartan society was built around war. Boys were taken from their families at about seven years old and raised in harsh military training; comfort, decoration, and long conversation were treated as weakness. Spartans were famous for saying very little — a few blunt words instead of a speech. The most famous story is the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, where a very small Spartan-led force held a narrow pass against a huge Persian army until they were killed. That story is why the name is still known today, and it is the source of the film '300'. Though actually, the picture most people carry is cleaner than the truth. Sparta's whole system rested on a large enslaved population, the helots, who farmed the land so that Spartan men could train full-time; the discipline everyone admires was paid for by that. And Sparta did lose wars, including badly. In English the name is used almost as a symbol: mention Sparta and people hear discipline, toughness, and no comfort.