Villifying the Persian Empire

[kadife]

I think I made my mistake clear in the post above--for us, Sparta means only Sparta/İsparta, as opposed to the Sparta/Sparti in Greece, and I apologise for any confusion. I also read another fantasy/historical novel set in Turkey about 'Sparta' about 2 years ago which further confused me.

 

[HareBrain]

for us, Sparta means only Sparta/İsparta, as opposed to the Sparta/Sparti in Greece

Quite an interesting case of different cultural perspectives. Kadife, I assume the Spartans' battle with the Persians at Thermopylae is not well-known in Turkey? If so, is that because Ancient Greece in general is not looked back upon as a kind of cultural golden age (as we in western Europe tend to do), perhaps because of past antagonism, and not much taught about?

 

[kadife]

Quite an interesting case of different cultural perspectives. Kadife, I assume the Spartans' battle with the Persians at Thermopylae is not well-known in Turkey? If so, is that because Ancient Greece in general is not looked back upon as a kind of cultural golden age (as we in western Europe tend to do), perhaps because of past antagonism, and not much taught about?

Well, we learn about the Hellenic and Attic civilizations, as well as the Lydian, Doric, Selçuk, Bizans (too much really, a bit of everything) etc etc. The words 'Greek' and 'Turkish' are modern, really and can be misleading, which is what I was trying to say, I suppose. It doesn't reflect any antagonism on the part of people here, in spite of what people think in the Aegean where I live the Greek people are regarded as brothers. The battle at Thermopylae was not the only battle the Persians had with the Spartans from either place. It's just one of them. We obviously focus more on the battles over the Anatolian plain and in Asia Minor. I had also thought this was primarily a fantasy universe...

 

[Cheehwawa]

I see what you mean now, kadife. Does the subject of Troy interest you?

And the "Spartaverse" (just my name for everything related to it) is an alternate history Earth tied in with a greater fantasy universe. History diverges at Thermopylae in 480 BCE where Sparta replaces Persia, Macedonia and Rome as early world powers, and manages to reach space a couple hundred years prior to in our reality, because they discovered ruins of an alien space craft in Australia. Then the planets in the solar system are colonized and named after parts of the Mediterranean world which were involved with the Greco-Persian Wars (Gaia = Peloponnese, Selene = Messennia, Ares = Central Greece including Attica, Asteroid Belt = Cyclades, etc. with the outermost representing Ionia and the Dodecanes, which are first to come under alien rule)

 

[Blackrook]

I would not worry about offending people when you write a science fiction story. Someone will always be offended if they want to be. In fact, the more you tell the truth, the more people will be offended.

If I might make a suggestion, I think your allegory would work better if you did not so obviously use the Spartans as your Earth government.

I think it would be better to invent a modern nation that is like Sparta in that everyone is a member of the military. That is not so far-fetched: consider Switzerland and Israel.

The aliens would not so obviously be modeled after the Persian Empire if they were fighting a human nation that was not so obviously Sparta.

 

[KESpires]

I'd suggest reading Starship Troopers before you get in too deep. You may find that you unintentionally "borrowed" a lot from that classic without meaning to. Heinlein's vision of a future where you have to enlist to gain full citizenship is similar to the old Sparta method of gaining citizenship. It is also a damn good book. Damn good.

 

[Trebuchet]

Except that in Sparta you didn't have a choice. If you were born in Sparta (within the actual city limits) and you were healthy, you were going to have military training.

In Starship Troopers, if you chose to serve, you could gain citizenship. You didn't have to serve.

By the way, OP, are you planning on having the Helots in your story? They could be handy.

 

[KESpires]

Note the "similar" in my post.

 

[dekket]

The Sparta of greek history was in Pelaponesia. However, there is an Isparta in turkey. Does anyone know if this was a spartan colony in Asia Minor? Possibly for around the time of the Pelaponesian Wars?