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Victor Davis Hanson
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The End of Sparta: A Novel Hardcover – October 18, 2011

by Victor Davis Hanson (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 204 ratings
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In this sweeping and deeply imagined historical novel, acclaimed classicist Victor Davis Hanson re-creates the battles of one of the greatest generals of ancient Greece, Epaminondas. At the Battle of Leuktra, his Thebans crushed the fearsome army of Sparta that had enslaved its neighbors for two centuries.

We follow these epic historical events through the eyes of Mêlon, a farmer who has left his fields to serve with Epaminondas-swept up, against his better judgment, in the fever to spread democracy even as he yearns to return to his pastoral hillside.

With a scholar's depth of knowledge and a novelist's vivid imagination, Hanson re-creates the ancient world down to its intimate details-from the weight of a spear in a soldier's hand to the peculiar camaraderie of a slave and master who go into battle side by side. The End of Sparta is a stirring drama and a rich, absorbing reading experience.

Praise for Victor Davis Hanson:

"I have never read another book that explains so well the truth that 'war lies in the dark hearts of us all' but that history offers hope."-William Shawcross on The Father of Us All

"Few writers cover both current events and history-and none with the brilliance and erudition of Victor Davis Hanson."-Max Boot on The Father of Us All"Enthralling."-Christopher Hitchens on The Western Way of War

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  1. Print length
    464 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bloomsbury Press
  4. Publication date
    October 18, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    6.49 x 1.76 x 9.51 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1608191648
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1608191642
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Hanson's considerable intellectual skills are on display throughout this work. … The complexities of politics and society are explored brilliantly here, without weighing down the narrative. The characters are by turns sympathetic and cruel, and entirely believable.” ―Deseret News

“Given [Hanson's] notable body of work, it's no wonder that his first fiction effort is rich in authentic detail and narrated with a confident authorial voice. His vigorous narrative not only offers insight into arms and armor, but also into the hearts of the men who bore them.” ―Publishers Weekly

“A worthy historical re-creation: Hanson has high-minded purposes in depicting the triumph of democracy over dictatorship, but there's plenty of exciting swordplay, too.” ―Kirkus

“Like Victor Davis Hanson, I have a fondness for the much-abused ancient Greek Thebans, and I entirely share his glowing admiration for Epaminondas of Thebes, Sparta's nemesis and the supreme philosopher-general of all antiquity. In The End of Sparta, his debut novel, the remarkable classical historian Victor Hanson does full and equal justice to both the arms and the man.” ―P.A. Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge

About the Author

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. His many books include the acclaimed The Father of Us All, A War Like No Other, The Western Way of War, Carnage and Culture, and Ripples of Battle.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Press; 1st edition (October 18, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1608191648
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1608191642
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.49 x 1.76 x 9.51 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 204 ratings

About the author

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Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson

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Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history and classics at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of over two dozen books, including The Second World Wars, The Dying Citizen, and The End of Everything. He lives in Selma, California.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
204 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the story fascinating and with historical facts they never learned before. They also say the characters are not well developed and the story is very slow. Opinions are mixed on readability, with some finding it compelling and groundbreaking, while others find it completely unreadable.

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StoryReadabilityCharacters
22 customers mention "Story"19 positive3 negative

Customers find the story fascinating, well-connected, and groundbreaking. They also appreciate the wealth of information and explanation on the downfall of one of the characters.

"...It was a thoughtful, and warm tale of epic events. The people felt real and the diologue takes you to that long ago place and time. Loved it!" Read more

"...However, there is a wealth of information and explanation on the downfall of one of the greatest city-states in antiquity if the reader sticks with..." Read more

"...and his study have made the writing of a truly compelling, even groundbreaking, historical novel possible." Read more

"...Superb writing. Page-turner with historical insight. Wish I'd read it sooner." Read more

27 customers mention "Readability"17 positive10 negative

Customers are mixed about the readability. Some find the writing compelling, excellent, and understandable to a modern reader. They also appreciate the vivid, convincing period detail. However, some readers find the book completely unreadable, with inadequate glossary, maps, dictionary, and other resources.

"...It was a thoughtful, and warm tale of epic events. The people felt real and the diologue takes you to that long ago place and time. Loved it!" Read more

"...His discipline and his study have made the writing of a truly compelling, even groundbreaking, historical novel possible." Read more

"...This book is difficult to read at times and slows down after the Battle of Leuktra...." Read more

"...Superb writing. Page-turner with historical insight. Wish I'd read it sooner." Read more

3 customers mention "Characters"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the characters in the book not well developed.

"...The character's don't really come alive and the side stories of supporting character's are flat. I love VD Hanson and his non historical books...." Read more

"...What we get in this book instead are wooden characters, unrealistic settings where people are propelled by a pythagorean creed to seek liberty, of a..." Read more

"...The prose is dull, the story very slow, the characters not well developed." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

EKE
5.0 out of 5 stars Great fiction, from a master of history
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2024
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I really enjoyed this story. It wasn't a fast or easy read though. I bought the Kindle version, which made looking up unfamiliar words, locations, myths, gods, and much more, easy. It was a thoughtful, and warm tale of epic events. The people felt real and the diologue takes you to that long ago place and time. Loved it!
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John E. Nevola
4.0 out of 5 stars It’s as if he was there.
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2019
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Victor Davis Hanson is one of the most gifted classicists of our time. He is also one of the greatest thinkers of this generation. His descriptions of ancients times as well as his analysis of modern times demonstrates an understanding and brilliance shown by few.
In The End of Sparta, he describes the political events that led to the Sparta’s loss of hegemony in Greece. For centuries, the Spartan war-machine ruled over most of Greece. They were professional soldiers, trained from the age of seven whose needs (planting, harvesting, maintaining a city) were supplied by slaves and Spartan women, Their adversaries were mostly farmers, shopkeepers, blacksmiths and other simple folk who laid down their tools and picked up the implements of war, whatever they owned, to fight this professional army.
Sparta easily won virtually all battles. The Battle of Leuktra, the highlight of this book, was the first time the Spartan phalanx was defeated. Using unusual tactics and motivated by a cause to free the slaves, Epaminondas of Thebes routed the Spartans and pursued them to their home in Laconia.
This book is difficult to read at times and slows down after the Battle of Leuktra. However, there is a wealth of information and explanation on the downfall of one of the greatest city-states in antiquity if the reader sticks with it.
John E Nevola - Author of The Last Jump and The Final Flag
U.S. Army Veteran – SP/5
Military Writer's Society of America
13 people found this helpful
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bookscdsdvdsandcoolstuff
5.0 out of 5 stars A very pleasurable and satisfying, but difficult, book
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2011
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Recently I was blessed with the opportunity to go "back to school" as an adult. One of the courses I was fortunate to take was "Thucydides." This was a survey course that focused almost solely on Thucydides text, but also included supplementary readings, including Donald Kagan and Victor Davis Hanson.

Prior to this, I only knew V.D.H. as someone I disagreed with on foreign policy. For a time, I was an avid reader of National Review. I am also a traditional leaning Catholic who views the atomic bombing of Japan as immoral. Needless to say, I found myself on more than one occasion emailing Dr. Hanson to express my umbrage and outrage at one view of his or another. He was always firm, but gracious, and almost always responded, if laconically. This impressed me very much. I could tell this was a man of action and conviction, and both traits are extremely admirable, perhaps especially in a man with whom one disagrees.

I honestly did not know what a gifted classicist and philologist V.D.H. was until I went "back to school."  A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War  impressed me greatly, and really helped me to understand and read Thucydides with more profit.

I have become obsessed with the ancients, especially the Romans, and am currently working through a self study course in Latin at the University of Texas at Austin. This process has given me even greater respect for what the classicist does.

Therefore, when I saw that this book had been issued, I bought it immediately, and began reading. Up until now the word "artist" would never have exited my mouth when asked about what I thought about V.D.H.. "Scholar," "foreign policy wonk," "historian," "classicist," these would surely have passed my lips. But artist? Absolutely not.

Until now.

This book is the result of someone who is totally academically immersed in his subject matter. Hanson can speak Greek, yes. But he is a citizen farmer, he is a man of action, and he reads vociferously and in the original. Furthermore he is a historian. Each one of these would be an accomplishment in and of itself. He has achieved all of them. The only thing missing from his resume when it comes to personally and academically understanding what it may have been like to be a Greek Hoplite is "combat veteran." I think that is sad, because that role may have deepened his understanding of what he advocates for, and tempered his hawkish tendencies. (N.B., I am NOT a combat veteran either) But still, this is a man uniquely qualified to write this book.

And what we get therefore is a book written in a style reminiscent of ancient Greece, and reflective even of Greek syntax. This novel compellingly tells the story of the fall of Sparta as a world power. We even get allusions to the coming of the future Alexander the Great. This whole book, as difficult as it may be to read as a result, totally immerses the reader in the world ancient Greece in a way no other author could achieve.

And this novel is artistic, in the best sense of that word, as a result. If "art is nature molded in the crucible of discipline" then the artist's discipline allows him to create something entirely new from nature. Victor Davis Hanson therefore can add the words "artist" and "novelist" to his already impressive list of accomplishments. His discipline and his study have made the writing of a truly compelling, even groundbreaking, historical novel possible.
33 people found this helpful
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Rick
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023
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A Must Read if you want a clear view of how a civilization predicated on a war system overcame the war-system. Superb writing. Page-turner with historical insight. Wish I'd read it sooner.
5 people found this helpful
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Brian D. Pendell
3.0 out of 5 stars A great short story wrapped in a lengthy novel
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2011
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Victor Davis Hanson takes us back to the decisive battle when the myth of Spartan invincibility was shattered and the helots were freed from their slavery.

As one would expect from such a noted historian, the historical details and research are top-notch. The story of the actual battle of Leuctra is gripping and well told. Some superlative action writing in that section.

And if the book had just ended there, it would have been a superb five-star short story.

Unfortunately, the good doctor simply can't sustain the tempo set in the first chapters of the book. The characters through whom we see the battle are not well developed, with little more depth than the figures on a Thracian vase. Likewise, there is very little story after the point of the battle. I kept waiting for the book to build to a climax, except that it never did. There is a short , personal reckoning between the novelists' characters, but the story of the post-Leuctra campaign, which started out written as if it would be an epic march, peters out at an uncrossable river.

Thus, the readers who will benefit most from this book are not those who are looking for a good novel for the novel's sake. Rather , those readers who will enjoy this book will be those who have a love of history and are interested in the fine detail and excellent research Victor Davis Hansen has given us.
11 people found this helpful
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Archangel
5.0 out of 5 stars VDH is brilliant … as usual
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2023
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VDH is the greatest living historian. Period.

It’s utterly amazing to me that when a list of the best American Presidents was put together last year, they asked about 40 American historians to rank them. They didn’t ask VDH!! Fools. I guess since he’s a conservative they feel his brilliance is worthless. History IS history. It was what it was. And VDH KNOWS history.
10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

stever
4.0 out of 5 stars Great history; so-so novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2014
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While the genius of V.D. Hanson has no bigger fan than myself where the author's historical nonfiction and incisive political commentary is concerned. I was slightly disappointed by his venture into historical fiction. While the historical aspect is absolutely accurate and well-researched, the novel falls somewhat short with regard to the dialogue and fails to entertain as an engaging work of fiction should. As the author himself admits in the introduction, much of the difficulty here lies in putting lines into the mouths of his characters that can at once accurately reflect the idiom of ancient Greece and still manage to "click" with a modern audience. Hanson has, I fear, given a bit too much weight to the former - as one might expect of a trained classicist - and as a result, the dialogue, and overall story-telling has a rather ponderous feel about it. That limitation aside, the action is reasonably well-paced and the characters manage to be believable and multidimensional. Given the difficulty of keeping the many Greek names and terminologies straight, the glossary provided at the end of the volume has proved itself a useful addition.
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Robert Lynch
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book by a first rate historian
Reviewed in Canada on June 7, 2017
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An excellent book by a first rate historian. Hanson is one of the premier historians of our time. The thorough research combined with lucid prose make his books exciting and informative.
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