re: #315 Nerdy Fish

For 95% of that period of Greek history, the Spartans were bullies, and the Athenians held them in check, for the most part. Spartan military dominance mostly existed against external enemies who were already at a disadvantage against the coordinated and (relatively) heavily armed and armored Greek phalanxes.

Actually, the Athenians were worse bullies to all their league’s “voluntary” members. The Spartans maintained a nasty police state, but they didn’t try to spread their ways around the rest of Greece — that’s why they found so many allies among the other city-states.