the first international organization you might say

如果不是那么严格来说
if you were speaking loosely,

你可以把它看做是第一个国际性的组织
so that there is a practical aspect to it.

因此其具有实际性的意义
The Spartans became the most

斯巴达成为了古希腊
powerful and most important state in Greece,

最具势力和最重要的城邦
right down to and including, the Persian Wars.

这状况一直持续到波斯战争结束
Well, first I guess, we

首先我认为我们应该
ought to take a look at how Sparta got to be what it ultimately became

看一看斯巴达是如何成熟演变的
and once again I have to say that

而且需要强调的是
all we can do is to reason from very limited evidence,

我们所能做的仅是从有限的证据推断
better than what we've had up to now,

虽然好过现代的材料
but still mostly from written evidence that

但大多数仍是后世