The Spartans: An Epic History [Hardcover]

Send the SAS to pick flowers and the Marines to knit mittens, because the Spartans could have 'em for breakfast. In The Spartans: An Epic History, the book of the Channel 4 series, Paul Cartledge paints a vivid picture of one of the most extreme civilisations ever known--one whose ethos married the highest levels of societal and philosophical advancement with the most repressive and warlike of regimes. These ancient Greeks lived, breathed and slept "hard". They also happened to influence much of subsequent Western civilisation.

The perfect warriors, they lived to fight, and when they weren't fighting, they were training to fight. Their male children were brutally raised, and weak or deformed infants were mercilessly cast from cliff tops. Yet they were unusually egalitarian in their treatment of women, and embraced an intensely partisan social ethic. They enslaved much of the rest of Greece, yet provided the spark for Athenian Democracy. It is this apparently contradictory duality that continues to fascinate and that has since engendered concepts as diverse as Hitler's system of negative eugenics and Thomas More's notion of Utopia.

The Spartans, though accessible, is an accomplished academic work--you'd hardly expect anything else, Cartledge having already written 20 books on the subject. But without the window dressing of the TV show's stunning Grecian locations and its thinking-man's eye-candy presenter Bettany Hughes, this can seem a little dry--anyone expecting the latest glossy picture-filled Time Team-style coffee-table book is likely to be disappointed. If you're partial to a bit of accessible erudition, however, then it would be foolish to look this gift horse in the mouth. --Paul Eisinger

This title attempts to deconstruct the image of the Spartans as mythical and unknown, to present them as they say themselves - as warrior heroes, living exemplars of the values of self-sacrifice, communal endeavour and achievement against all odds. Paul Cartledge examines the evolution of their ancient society and culture, one that was significantly masculine but that allowed women an unusually dominant and powerful role. The history of this people, whose ideas have attracted many societies over the centuries, is defined in this book.

The Spartan legend has inspired and captivated subsequent generations with evidence of its legacy found in both the Roman and British Empires. The Spartans are our ancestors, every bit as much as the Athenians. But while Athens promoted democracy, individualism, culture and society, their great rivals Sparta embodied militarism, totalitarianism, segregation and brutal repression. As ruthless as they were self-sacrificing, their devastatingly successful war rituals made the Spartans the ultimate fighting force, epitomized by Thermopylae. While slave masters to the Helots for over three centuries, Spartan women, such as Helen of Troy, were free to indulge in education, dance and sport. Interspersed with the personal biographies of leading figures, and based on 30 years' research, The Spartans tracks the people from 480 to 360 BC charting Sparta's progression from the Great Power of the Aegean Greek world to its ultimate demise. "Cartledge's crystalline prose, his vivacious storytelling and his lucid historical insights combine here to provide a first-rate history of the Spartans, their significance to ancient Greece and their influence on our culture" Publishing News --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The Spartans are our ancestors, every bit as much as the Athenians are. As demonstrated most famously and enduringly at Thermopylae, they were a people of warrior-heroes, living exemplars of the core values of self-sacrifice, communal endeavour and achievement against all odds. The myth of Sparta extends from the world of antiquity to our own world in an unbroken chain of tradition.
Though theirs was a significantly masculine society, it was one that allowed women an unusually powerful and prominent role, too. The positive image of the Spartans' uplifting warrior ideal of collective self-sacrifice has to be measured against their brutally efficient enslavement of a whole Greek people for several centuries.
The main chronological period of THE SPARTANS is from 480 to 360 BC: from the time when Sparta led a coalition of loyalist Greeks in defence of their homeland against a massive Persian invasion, to the time of Sparta's crisis as a society and collapse as a great Greek power. Paul Cartledge follows the story of Sparta's developing difficulties with its allies, the major disaster of a huge earthquake followed by a prolonged and potentially deadly revolt of its slave class of Helots, its increasing differences and then major dispute with Athens, its takeover from Athens as the Great Power of the Aegean Greek world, and its conseuqent severe and ultimately terminal overstretch.
THE SPARTANS is based firmly on ancient sources, both written texts (many of which are quoted in new translations) and archaegological artefacts, and is interspersed with snapshot biographies of Spartan men and women. The history of this extraordinary people, whose ideals have attracted so many societies over the centuries, is vividly and personally brought to life in this epic account of Sparta and the Spartans.

Paul Cartledge is a respected author and historian, as well as the world's leading expert on Sparta and the Spartans. He is Chairman of Classics at Cambridge University.