What made them such good soldiers?

They had divergent styles of warfare that evolved to fight different enemies. Against other Greeks Spartans often lost like all the anons are saying, and against other near Eastern cultures Persians often won.
But when Persian tried to fight the Greeks like they had other Eastern types they got btfo, not just by Spartans but by Athenians, Plataeans and others.

Yet they were the only polis which remained as a somewhat active political actor till Romans came.

>what made them such good soldiers

Historical embellishment. They actually sucked and lost the majority of their battles, against the pansy ass Athenians of all people, let alone the Persian war machine.

Persia was the richest empire in the world at the time, Sparta was a dirt fucking poor village. They wore armor, pic related is a Persian cataphract. They did heavily utilize archery, a smart tactic which likely contributed to their many victories. They were not some rag-tag group of slaves (Persia was the first empire to outlaw slavery while Sparta enslaved 70% of its population - the Helots) they were highly trained mercenaries from all over the Persian empire which spanned a third of the known world, and they rolled over those literal faggots (which were actually 8,500+ not 300) in a single day.

How the fuck do people think the phalanx was a good tactic? Your dumb asses are standing there in a big group, all an opposing force has to do is shoot arrows at you and eventually enough will get through the cracks to kill you. Romans had it right, they didn't rely entirely on their phalanx formations, but had support. The Greeks were dumb about it and just stood there in a big ass target waiting to get rained on or flanked. They're lucky the Mongols weren't around at the time. Horse archers were the ultimate weapon in the ancient world, not the phalanx.

The fact that they trained for battle. Remeber that most of armies of that time were just militia

Warriorculture, seperated from women so long that their wives had to dress up like men to get laid.
That shits hardcore

That shits gay.

They were rich enough to actually have a class of people who only studied war. It's not rocket science.

The same applies to Athens when it comes to philosophy. Aristotle said that philosophy was something only the rich could do, not because the rich were smarter, but because the poor had to toil just to survive, and didn't have time to sit quietly and contemplate.

not talking about Thebes

because it was at the ass end of the greek world

who in their right mind would conquer Sparta when they could be conquering Athens?

Athens fought off Persia the first time they tried to invade wouldn't call them pansies

...

neither were the spartans

I think OP means Spartans in general, not just at the battle of Thermopylae.

The Persians routinely got their asses kicked by the Greeks, I don't even know what you're trying to prove you dickweasel. Ever hear of the War of the Delian League? Or the Anabasis? The Persians were so far behind the Greeks in military cience they essentially just went "Fuck it" and started hiring Greeks to fight each other instead of actually trying to be good at shit.

Persians kicked their ass

>Persians kicked their ass

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plataea

> youtube.com/watch?v=DbYWL0HgZdI

To be fair, if we believe Herodotus's account of the battle (whether that's a good idea or not, I'll leave to others), the Spartans spent most of the battle fighting the Boetians who had gone over to the Persian's side. Then again, he heavily implies that the Greeks were significantly more dangerous than the Persian troops themselves.

In persian army only 10-20% was persian warriors, other 80-90% was just cannon fodder.

>Persia control 90% of greeks
>REEEEE GREEKS WIN

>I'll just ignore things I don't like, say the wars of the Delian League.

ARISTOGENICS, AND A MARTIAL LIFESTYLE.

>pic related
>Sassanid dynasty
That's some 500 years into the future. Even many elites within the Persian Empire used wicker shields. Persians depended on light infantry and cavalry, it's one of the major reasons why they failed against the Greek heavy infantry.

>Sparta enslaved 70% of its population - the Helots
Helots weren't Spartans.

>they rolled over those literal faggots in a single day.
Took them more than a day and they suffered heavy losses.

0.2/10

>Macedonia and Thrace
>90% of Greeks

Here comes the retard.

It's only a story sweetie
And this

Veeky Forums will deny it, but genetics
the warrior aristocracy was pure Dorian
and Dorians were Nordic, even Herodotus says that their homelands were "snowy and mountainous"
I will now be called a nordcuck and /pol/, but please look into the sources yourself
don't trust the anti-Nordic/German bigots on Veeky Forums

Yeah, and Phillip didn't conquer them because he was afraid of them, right?

Um, no.
The Greeks were the ones with shitty levies. The Greeks knew they would get their asses kicked by the more organized forces of the Persians. Irregular fighting was the order for the Greeks. The only time the Greeks had a pitched battle with the Persians was when they had a big advantage such as defending a pass or fighiting in irregular terrain.

>Any army using a phalanx would have btfo them
Like, say, the Ionian Greeks?

>No discipline
The native Persian army were professional soldiers paid in land.
And then you had the soldiers from their subject peoples, composed of cunts like the Assyrians, and fierce tribals like Iranic Cavalry or Caucasus Hillmen.

THE DORIANS WERE AN ARYAN PEOPLE, BUT THEY WERE NOT NORDIC; THE DORIANS "CAME DOWN" FROM ARIANA (CURRENT IRAN) VIA THE LEVANT, AND ANATOLIA, THROUGH CRETE, AND CYPRUS, AND ONTO THE PELOPONNESOS, AND FROM THERE, STILL NORTHWARD AND WESTWARD, INTO ITALY, AND INTO NORTHERN EUROPA, THOSE TWO LATTER BRANCHES EVENTUALLY BECOMING THE LATINS, AND THE GOTHS, RESPECTIVELY.

THE ARYAN HERITAGE OF GERMANS COMES FROM THOSE MIGRATIONS FROM ARIANA; IN ARIANA, THERE WAS A PEOPLE CALLED THE GERMANII (KARMANIANS) BY HERODOTUS; THEY WERE THE ORIGINAL GERMANS WHO TRANSPORTED THAT DEMONYM TO EUROPA; THERE WAS ANOTHER ARIANIAN PEOPLE CALLED THE DERUSIAEI, WHICH WERE THE ORIGINAL DORIANS.

The Spartans didn't use a phalanx at this time, boychick.
Herodotus describes the combat like some sort of chasing match with the Spartans feigned flight and the Persians giving chase.

No, they didn't train for battle. They did a lot of physical training but they did not do any military training aside from some formation drills.

>Macedonia and Trace
>Greek
Ionia is the only Greek thing there, and it'sbarely comparable to Greek opponents of Persia, not mentioning latter and neutral Greek states combined.

>cloth armor
Don't underestimate cloth armor.

youtube.com/watch?v=CULmGfvYlso