Just Finished Reading: The Spartans – an Epic History by Paul Cartledge



I’ve been somewhere between interested and fascinated by the Spartans since childhood. How I initially found out about them or why they evoked such a response is unsure. They were certainly a strange culture – even at the time, as the author points out repeatedly. The Spartans were also, for several hundred years, a regional superpower able not only to threaten near-by city-states such as Athens but to challenge the Persian Empire, the mightiest power of the age.


I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with this book. I had enjoyed the TV series based upon it (not in small part to the passion that Bettany Hughes brought to the subject) but this book seemed more that a little bland. It certainly covered the highlights – including the war with Athens and, of course, the now legendary battle of Thermopylae. What the author seemed to spend most of his time on where the successive kingships (an oddly dual arrangement) and how each incumbent affected their society. What I had actually hoped for was more analysis of the society itself. I knew that Sparta was basically a military camp dedicated to producing the finest soldiers anywhere – which it did for generation after generation. I knew that Spartan society existed in the way it did because of the number of slaves at its disposal (unusually made up of native Greeks rather than foreigners). I knew that the reputation of Spartan women was formidable – both for their beauty and for their shocking independence. Indeed Sparta was probably the only place on the Greek mainland where women had any say in their society and any kind of power or indeed education. I knew about the gruelling Agoge where boys of 7-18 trained to be warriors or died trying. I knew about the terrible war with Athens which almost destroyed both of them and did, in time, result in Sparta’s rapid subsequent decline. The extra details that the author provided didn’t really add much to this. Maybe I already ‘knew too much’ about the subject to get a great deal from a general book about Sparta? Maybe I need to read Plutach’s book on them to put more meat on the bones?


Sparta was at least an interesting experiment in living though probably not one that should be, or could be, recreated. It was in many ways a particularly harsh society, both on its vast slave population and but also on its own citizens. Failure was not an option. If you failed in the Agoge you either died or became a Spartan in name only which to many was a fate worse than death. If you failed as a newborn infant you were cast onto the rocks to die. If you failed in battle you came home on your shield and no-one mourned your passing. Forgiveness was not a Spartan trait it would seem. Despite their many, oh so many, shortcomings I still can’t help but admire them. When they were at the top of their game – before power and money corrupted them – they were something to behold. A society based on warrior virtues and honour above all things. It must have been quite something to be a Spartan and totally terrifying to face them in battle.