Did Sparta’s power really hinge more on numbers than on military culture or tactics?

[u/Appropriate_Half4463]

I recently came across several older conversations suggesting that Spartan military prowess was overrated, that Spartan society was more of a leisured society than a militaristic one, that the agoge wasn’t primarily for military functionality, and that the Spartans rose to power in large part through sheer numerical advantage rather than superior tactics. The conversation also implied that the legendary Spartan “super-warrior” image is largely a product of their last stand at Thermopylae—and that, at the time of Thermopylae, they didn’t have the militaristic reputation we usually associate with them today.

This is really surprising to me! For one thing, I’d always understood the agoge to be an educational institution highly suited to a militaristic, fairly oppressive society—if not in name, then at least in practice. I’m also curious about how Sparta managed to build the Peloponnesian League if their military strength was supposedly exaggerated. Did they truly have a population large enough to dwarf cities like Corinth, Tegea, and Argos, making numbers their biggest asset? My understanding is that most Spartan institutions during their heyday seem uniquely constructed to suit a highly militaristic society.

Finally, if Herodotus wrote relatively soon after the Persian Wars, it seems implausible that only about fifty years later, a myth of Spartan militarism and military ability would be so fully formed and projected into the past. If a lot of that reputation was a later invention, why don’t the Thespians—who also took part in that final stand—get similar (if lesser) lionization?

I’d love to hear from anyone who has insight or scholarly sources on the realities of Spartan society and its military reputation—particularly any new research that challenges the older “super-warrior” image. Thanks in advance!

I'm reading one of Paul Cartledge's books on Sparta right now (probably the more traditional perspective on Sparta). I have ordered one of Stephen Hodkinson's books to get some information on the new perspective. How lively a debate is this in the academic space right now?