The Spartans: An Epic History

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

Reader Reviews:

Want to know more about the Spartans than just the '300'? (5/5 people found this helpful)

This is an entirely readable, not to say enjoyable account of Spartan history, it explains their origins, development and culture in a simple way without any `dumbing down', and thus is very accessible to the reader unfamiliar with the people of the period.
I would counter the previous reviewers comment on the book as a `thesis draft': Cartledge has taught a Cambridge since the 70's and has honorary Spartan Citizenship for his contribution for telling it's history. So although not going to great lengths to give a highly detailed day to day chronological account of the minutiae of Spartan life for 400 years, it has indeed avoided dates upon dates, and used other sources in it's narrative - it is a scholarly work clearly intended primarily for the general reader with an interest in this era.
Read also Cartledge's `Thermopylae' for THE story of Spartan battle, or the fantastic `Persian Fire' by the brilliant Tom Holland.

seems like a thesis draft (19/24 people found this helpful)

Although this book does contain much nice detail on the history of Sparta and the Spartans, it seems like a first (and crude) draft of a thesis ... which has never passed through the hands of an editor. It may be good as an introduction to this topic, but most of this information can be found elsewhere.

There are several typo's throughout the book, including the names of some of the main "protagonists" Cartledge has chosen, as well as in figures accompanying the text. Further, he is inconsistent in providing dates - sometimes far too many, sometimes none at all.

It is filled with personal opinions on certain topics reflecting no more than the author's own bias - without considering these topics in their historical setting.

Much of the book is divided into "mini-chapters" based on famous (or popular) figures from history. This means that, rather focusing on a consistent historical time-line, the reader is forced to jump back and forth in Spartan history. This results in a lot of repetition ... often with no link to a previous mention of the event/persona, or even drawing different and/or opposing conclusions (again without reference to previous mentions of the topic). This makes it seem like Cartledge has simply copy & pasted from different undergraduate and postgraduate essays (presumably his own).

Added to this, huge chunks of chapters are dedicated to Cartledge delineating what he is setting out to do in a given chapter/section, rather than just getting to the point (and sometimes simply failing to accomplish what he is setting out to do).

This is a poor read.

Ideal (7/12 people found this helpful)

This book is ideal if you are thinking of, or are studyng AS Level Ancient History. It covers all the facts that you need to know about The Spartans, and also provides an interesting story for further reading. The book itself is easy to pick up and read, but difficult to put down again.

A unique society creating a doomed utopia (19/23 people found this helpful)

This book goes into great depth about the origins, main characters, virtues and shortcomings of the Spartan society throughout it's 300 year history.

Their valiant nature in contrast with their hideous rejection and termination of babies when considered inadequate for their society creates a kind of ambivalent feel to any study of the Spartans.

This book covers the Spartan idea of utopia by breaking it down to the most intricate of details. The author does exceedingly well in covering some of the main characters in the Spartan history; from King Leonidas of Thermopalye fame to Lysander (Lysnadros) who's generalship concluded the Peloponnesian war with Athens in the Spartans' favour.

However, as with any fragile empire with shakey foundation, the Spartan hegemony was not destined to last. This book covers the years following the Peloponnesian War with Athens and the resulting hegemony of Sparta and explains why this culminated in the defeat of Sparta by Thebes.

This book would make the ideal companion with the DVD of 'The Spartans' introduced by the very attractive, Oxford educated Bettany Hughes (That DVD is only available on Region 1 at present).

Furthermore, the movie from 1962 'The 300 Spartans' is a very accurate hollywood production of the events at Thermopalye, but is also only available in Region 1.

History of Sparta (29/30 people found this helpful)

An interesting book on the history of Sparta and its role in ancient Greek history. It's not too scholarly, and not too populist, but rather maintains a balance that allows the author to discuss the subject in some depth without baffling the casual reader.

Much of the book is made up of biographies of leading Spartans inserted into gaps in the main body of the text. Although it's good to have a couple of pages to summarise the lives and careers of the main figures in Spartan history, these asides tend to repeat the information in the main text, and in some cases can damage the sense of chronological flow. I think these would have been far better placed in an appendix.

Also, the author wanders off into a study of the parallels between ancient greek hunting and modern fox hunting at the end of the book, debunking the myths that link present day hunting with that of the ancient past. For those of us that aren't passionate about this issue (as the author clearly is), this is a rather anticlimactic ending to a good book. It doesn't teach us anything more about the Spartans than has already been covered, and is really a debate for another place.

However, these two points aside, this is a thoroughly engaging book for anyone with an interest in ancient history. It's well written, accessible and gives a real insight into the way that Spartan society functioned. Perhaps the social relationaships between the Spartans and the Helots could have been explored more than it was, but the main interest for most readers is undoubtedly the military contribution to history made by Sparta, which is very well covered.

The Spartans: An Epic History

Paul Cartledge

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