[quote]new2training wrote:
I’m not trying to pose as some kind of military historian but I’m legitimately curious to know if any of these actual warriors/soldies from ancient times actually looked jacked?
Sure, some gladiators probably were, but they were living in dorms and training on a daily basis. They were all about the show and entertaining.
I’m guessing their nutrition was extremely poor on extended campaigns.
This coupled with little rest and endless marching probably made them look disease ravaged and emaciated as opposed to looking like body builders.
This obviously has nothing to do with the fact that they were tough as shit no matter what they “looked like”.
From what I’ve read the Army of Northern VA was one of the toughest and well trained Armies in the history of warfare and we actually have pictures to show how horrible their conditions were.
I forget what the average weight was but it was sadly very, very low during the American Civil War.
I’ll bet it was as bad during ancient warfare. Not to mention I think the average size of people in general was much smaller anyway.
Not complaining, body builder/actors make the movie more interesting in some respects, probably not very accurate though.
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The Spartan society trained pretty much all the time, and like in the video, most of the assumptions that you make about the culture is very accurate.
Military training started at a young age. They didn’t constantly battle though, as you would think. But they were always prepared for it, and in a constant state of readiness.
The kids would have a game called “stealing the cheese” Where on the top of a hill was a big lump of cheese. Older boys would stand on the top armed with whips and sticks, and the younger boys would run and try to steal the cheese while fighting of the other boys and getting whipped and beaten.
They lived on a very healthy diet of mostly cheese, nuts, and large quantities of milk. They also ate some meat, but not nearly as much as milk and cheese. And by study, it seems that, yes, they would look as jacked as the movie, or similarly so. They did travel alot but were rarely emaciated and malnourished (at least most of the time, though sometimes whilst in training as children).
Sparta also mostly kept to its own area, and didn’t really seem to go around trying to conquer as much land as possible. They just tried to mantain their own designated land of badasses. So I guess they would be malnourished on long campaigns, if they ever went on them.
As children, food was rationed for their military camps and if one kid kicked your ass and took your food, he wouldn’t be punished, because by their logic, it was your fault for not being able to defend yourself and your food. You could even say that bullying was encouraged to a point.
The women were specifically bred to be beautiful and powerful. Sparta was very well known for its beautiful women. Helen was a Spartan, and she caused a pretty big fucking war that reached mythical proportions. Oh, they received training too. So if by any chance some assholes snuck past the Spartan men, they women would just stomp their shit.
Those are just some facts.
