>>44834379Sparta wasn't so much as secretive as much as they didn't leave any written works behind. But thanks to men like Xenophon we have a much better understanding of Classical Sparta. This is why modern scholars put more emphasize on classical era sources than later Roman and Hellenistic era sources.
That's not to say classical era sources are perfect, some could be taken as propaganda to make Sparta the "other" like Thukydides speech he puts in the mouth of Perikles during the funeral oration.
Even so modern scholarship has moved away from the theme park version of Sparta that still lingers in modern culture, the pokemon falinks is a prime example. Instead Sparta comes out as a plutocracy rather than a warrior society in which the Spartans weren't professional warriors but rather professional rich people. Other aspects such as women's role in Sparta has been studied and despite people thinking of Sparta as some bastion of female freedom women in Sparta had no political power and were subjected to state sanctioned pimping and very humiliating rituals such as shaving their heads and waiting for their husbands to have their way in the dark.
