That's a really good question! I was just wondering that about the Punic wars. Thanks for asking 😊

Thanks for the link!! It was a good read!

This happened to the Spartans during the Peloponnesian Wars. Only the most elite Laconians were Spartan warriors, the rest were helots not trained in combat. You can bet that after the Peloponnesian wars, there was a massive gender imbalance due to the high rate of mortality among Spartan forces. By 425 BCE, at the Battle of Sphacteria, the Spartans were so diminished that they actually surrendered rather than lose more men; they simply could not afford any more casualties. Not much has been written that I know of on the effect this had on women, but we can be sure there were dramatic demographic consequences. This loss of men and consequent population decline led to the overall decline of Laconia in the wake of the Peloponnesian war, leaving room for Thebes to become the most dominant polis.