As I have posted elsewhere, just want opinions. Why are Spartans so overrated?
The Spartans (Lacedaemonian), are revered in history mainly (in my opinion) because of the battle of Thermopylae
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If you look at the Spartan history, they won about as many as they lost, and that was against comparable Phalanx based civs.
Look at Argos, the battle of six hundred. Where 300 Spartans went against 300 Argives to decide the fate of Kynouria in an ORGANISED battle. The Spartans lost that one.
Look at the battles with Tegea that the Spartans were losing disastrously until they used spywork to steal the bones of Orestes which demoralised the enemy. No feat of warcraft there.
The list could go on, but I'm just wondering why they are revered the way they are now. They were a very hardship oriented society. Obviously Lykurgos had a major impact on the Spartans but they were not gods as they are portrayed in the game.

Heres a decent look at the Spartans' history.
http://www.sikyon.com/sparta/history_eg.html
Althoug if you trawl the web, there's plenty more.