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On Sparta (Penguin Classics) Mass Market Paperback – 30 Jun. 1988

by Plutarch (Author), Richard Talbert (Editor, Introduction, Translator)

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Plutarch's vivid and engaging portraits of the Spartans and their customs are a major source of our knowledge about the rise and fall of this remarkable Greek city-state between the sixth and third centuries BC. Through his Lives of Sparta's leaders and his recording of memorable Spartan Sayings he depicts a people who lived frugally and mastered their emotions in all aspects of life, who also disposed of unhealthy babies in a deep chasm, introduced a gruelling regime of military training for boys, and treated their serfs brutally. Rich in anecdote and detail, Plutarch's writing brings to life the personalities and achievements of Sparta with unparalleled flair and humanity.

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About the Author

Plutarch (c. AD 45-120), the Greek philosopher, lived at the height of the Roman Empire and is author of one of the largest and collections of writings to have survived from Classical antiquity. His work is traditionally divided into two: the Moralia, which include a vast range of philosophical, scientific, moral and rhetorical works, and the Lives or biographies. Almost fifty such biographies survive, most from his collection of Parallel Lives, in which biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen are arranged in pairs.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 30 Jun. 1988
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140444637
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140444636
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 159 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 1.35 x 19.66 cm
Best Sellers Rank: 1,356,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,100 in Historical Essays, Journals, Letters & True Accounts
- 8,866 in Essays, Journals & Letters
- 22,180 in Words, Language & Grammar (Books)
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Plutarch

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Plutarch (/ˈpluːtɑːrk/; Greek: Πλούταρχος, Ploútarkhos, Koine Greek: [plǔːtarkʰos]; later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος);[a] c. AD 46 – AD 120) was a Greek historian, biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works are believed to have been originally written in Koine Greek.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo from Parallel Lives, Amyot's French translation [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Scott Baker
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 July 2016
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great read; I could see all the best bits had been culled for the film 300

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T. Alexander
The life and times of ancient Sparta
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 October 2006
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I have been interested in the Spartans ever since I first read about the battle of Thermopylae and this book includes lots of information on their culture as a whole. The book is a collection of some of the writings of Plutarch including three volumes of his Lives series detailing the life of three important people from Sparta's history. First is Lycurgus the man who virtually created the Spartan way of life and this is followed by the lives of the kings Adis and Cleomenes who tried to reintroduce Lycurgus' reforms with varying degrees of success. All three of these volumes are very interesting and not only gives information into the lives and society of ancient Sparta but also has lots of information on the general history of the city state.

Also included in the book are a collection of sayings from various Spartans as well as a discourse on Spartan life by the ancient historian Xenophon. Both of these parts are interesting with the Sayings section giving you a view of the mentality of the ancient Spartans. I am unsure, however, why the Xenophon section was included as although it was interesting to get a different perspective of the subject I feel that it doesn't really add anything else to the book.

Overall this book is a very good read and should be interesting to anyone who is interested in ancient Greece and Sparta in particular.

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24 people found this helpful

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buddingpasha
Inspiring but then very very in retrospect disturbing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2004
I worry about how I get inspired by this book. It is a collection of Spartan biographies from Plutarch's Lives with added quotes. Thus purely in the terms of a book it is an inexpensive and very accessible classical text collection.
Sparta was an unpleasant, militaristic, anti-intellectual state whose raison d'etre was warfare and which conducted regular pogroms of its serfs/helots. I can't fault the translations or the fact that this is a themed collection of some of Plutarch's work. What worries me is that,( and I am interested in military history) it is very easy to get seduced reading this by all the talk of honour, self sacrifice for the state and military glory. It does not take any great intellect to figure out that quite a few totalitarian regimes throughout history have used selective Sparta case studies as a sourcebook. Be afraid...be very afraid

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