The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece [Paperback]

Paul Cartledge (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1400078857 | ISBN-13: 978-1400078851 | Publication Date: August 10, 2004

The Spartans were a society of warrior-heroes who were the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, and extreme toughness. This book, written by one of the world’s leading experts on Sparta, traces the rise and fall of Spartan society and explores the tremendous influence the Spartans had on their world and even on ours. Paul Cartledge brings to life figures like legendary founding father Lycurgus and King Leonidas, who embodied the heroism so closely identified with this unique culture, and he shows how Spartan women enjoyed an unusually dominant and powerful role in this hyper-masculine society. Based firmly on original sources, The Spartans is the definitive book about one of the most fascinating cultures of ancient Greece.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Legendary for their ferocious combat skills, the Spartans built a warrior culture in ancient Greece unsurpassed for its courage and military prowess. Eminent historian Cartledge (Spartan Reflections) provides a remarkable chronicle of Sparta's rise and fall, from its likely origins around 1100 B.C. to the height of its fame and glory in the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. and its fall in the fourth century B.C. The Spartans built their society through conquest and subjugation, ruling over their subject peoples with an iron hand and putting down revolts with devastating might. Between 490 and 479, Sparta joined Athens in fighting the Persians in three key wars-Thermopylae, Plataea and Mycale-that contributed to the demise of Persian power and the rise of Hellenistic power on the Mediterranean. Cartledge punctuates his absorbing tale with brief, engaging biographies of the city-state's kings from Lycurgus, the earliest Spartan leader, who brought constitutional law to the city, to Leonidas, who led the Spartans at Thermopylae. According to Cartledge, the Spartans' legacy to Western culture includes devotion to duty, discipline, the willingness to sacrifice individual life for the greater good of the community and the nobility of arms in a cause worth dying for. 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. It ties in to a PBS series to air this summer. 27 b&w illus., 3 maps.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

To project civic-mindedness or combativeness, American towns and school teams have appropriated the name of Sparta--so who were the Spartans and why do we care? So asks Cartledge, a Cambridge University scholar whose engaging narrative tries to discern the authenticity of events and personalities known only through fragmentary written or archaeological evidence, which can be mythical, partisan, or propagandistic. Cartledge spans Sparta's entire existence but concentrates on the century from the Persian invasions to its collapse following its triumph over Athens in 404 B.C.E. Presenting Sparta's military and diplomatic policies, the author studs his account with lively sketches of Spartan leaders, above all Leonidas. As embodiments of Sparta's warrior caste at the Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.E.), Leonidas and his 300 hoplites have redounded down the millennia, most recently in the historical novel Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (1998), which will soon be made into a movie. In his panorama of the real Sparta, Cartledge cloaks his erudition with an ease and enthusiasm that will excite readers from page one. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (August 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400078857
• ISBN-13: 978-1400078851
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #346,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Cartledge is the inaugural A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Clare College. He is also Hellenic Parliament Global Distinguished Professor in the History and Theory of Democracy at New York University. He written and edited over 20 books, many of which have been translated into foreign languages. He is an honorary citizen of modern Sparta and holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor awarded by the President of Greece.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghosts of heroes, June 20, 2004

By 

D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spartans (Hardcover)

Paul Cartledge of Cambridge university is the Secretariat of Laconian scholars, and he's more than a couple of links ahead of the rest of the field. By far & away he is the premiere authority in the world on all things Spartan. He is the primary Hellenist that other scholars use to quote in their works.

With that in mind, it is natural that Cartledge would be the preferred choice to write a mainstream book about the history of the Spartans. That, in fact, is precisely what he has done with the present study. This is by far the most accessible works in the Cartledge canon; prior knowledge of Greek history is not necessary to engage the text.

By the same token, what must be remembered is that this is an overview of Lacedamon history. While most everyone will learn a great deal from this work (whether they possess an understanding of classical history or not), I would nevertheless recommend other works by Cartledge for those who wish to dig deeper into the Spartan archives. SPARTAN REFLECTIONS would be a good place to start.

One of the few beefs I have w/the present work is that the author tends to skip around chronologically quite a bit. While not a serious impediment for one to decide against purchasing this book, it nevertheless can get a wee bit annoying.

Possibly the very best attribute of this work is that it gives a balanced portrayal of the ancient Lacedamons. It is easy for we moderns to have an enormous admiraton for their military prowess and at the same time be mortified by the reprehensible way in which they treated their slaves (Helots).

Both of these reactions are all too human. Some authors have concentrated soley on the one while neglecting the other. Cartledge, on the other hand, strikes a nice Aristotelian Golden Mean. He does not deify the Spartans, nor does he demonize them. Rather, he simply tells us of their history the way it really happened.

If you're looking for an introductory book on Spartan history, this just might be an ideal place to start. In addition to the standard text are myriad paintings as well as some photographs of Spartan artifacts. All-in-all, a must-have book for the philhellene.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars But I digress..., March 25, 2004

By 

Taylor Rand "samuraijack" (Florida, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spartans (Hardcover)

At the narrow mountain pass of Thermopylae, the Greek army led by the Spartan king Leonidas faced the invading Persians in a fight to the death - did you know that Leonidas's wife was named Gorgo and was quite an extraordinary woman in her own right and "had a mind, and a voice, of her own"? It's true, "Gorgo was sharper and smarter than all the other Spartans, especially the men in authority." Anyway, where were we? Oh, yes ... - and won undying fame in defense of Western civilization.

That's my problem with this otherwise well-informed book: it digresses much too often. There's little compelling narrative drive to the writing and it appears more to be a collection of "snapshot biographies," etymological musings and Hellenic place names rather than a book one would read straight through. "The Spartans" reminds me of lecture notes in its discursive style - rambling, albeit authoritative - or notes designed to accompany the PBS TV series.

"Tell 'em what you're going to tell `em; tell `em; and then tell `em what you've told `em." We read on page 121 that Leonidas - who died with his entire command at Thermopylae - had a son with Gorgo, and we are reminded on page 258 that Leonidas - who died with his entire command at Thermopylae - had a son with Gorgo. Pausanius dies, returns, dies again. As does Lysander and Brasidas and Artilochus and... Events described in one chapter reappear two or three chapters later - with no added value.

I understand how some reviews say the book's "like a graduate student's thesis" and others claim it's "too general." Detailed information regarding a sculptor's birthplace or various alternate spellings for a Greek city lead one to believe an extended discussion of minutiae will follow but no, hold on, the author stops and moves on. Then is it a book for the general reader? In my opinion, not really: if you don't already have a basic knowledge of Greek geography, governments, politics, and a rough chronology of important events, you're likely to be swamped trying to make sense of all the book's information.

How did the Spartans avoid other city-states frequent civil wars? Was the Spartan's egalitarianism fundamental to their stability? What did other Greek's really feel of Spartan enslavement their fellow Greeks? How could a nation of citizen-soldiers survive with so few citizens to soldier? Why were there no other "Spartas" in Greece? Was Spartan society fundamentally flawed since it had to arm to the teeth even without external enemies? The author could have explored in depth speculative "opinion" questions like these thereby increasing the interest of probably both general and knowledgeable readers.

Long story short: Repetitive, poor ("cut-and-paste") narrative, and pedantic. Donald Kagan's Peloponnesian War is a far better model for historic writing than this volume. I read Cartledges' Spartan Reflections in the hope that the book would have what The Spartans lacked but no joy: it was even more academic. You might take a look at Wm. Forrest's A History of Sparta but it's a very dry, academic book - however it reads a bit more smoothly.

100 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for General Readers, July 30, 2003

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spartans (Hardcover)

Author Paul Cartledge quite obviously knows his stuff, and shows it in his book "The Spartans." Unfortunately, it appears that he knows his stuff a little too well for his book to be of much interest to non-academic readers. This is surprising, given that the book is being marketed as a companion piece to an upcoming PBS special about Greece's legendary warriors. Though the book is relatively brief at around 300 pages, it is so packed full of dates, names, places and events as to become bewildering to anyone who is not already intimately familiar with the subject matter. I'm a history buff myself, but I had a hard time following the narrative. The author writes as if he's addressing graduate level history students with a speciality in the subject.

Overall, "The Spartans" is very well researched, but will be of little interest to general readers.