Spartans: the World of Warrior Heroes of Ancient Greece - Essay Example

Wendy Ford Cross HSY 235-51L 14 November 2006 Spartans: the world of the warrior heroes of ancient Greece Introduction of the Author: One of the world's foremost scholars of ancient Greece, Paul Anthony Cartledge joins the Faculty of Arts and Science as a Global Distinguished Professor in Hellenic Studies. Professor Cartledge received his D.Phil. at the University of Oxford (1975), and has taught at a number of universities throughout the U.K. and Ireland including Trinity College, Dublin; Warwick University; and the University of Cambridge, where he is Professor of Greek History and lately Chairman of the Classics Faculty. Described as a 'Laconophile' and having earned the nickname 'Mr. Sparta', Professor Cartledge has authored some 20 published works that include his most recent books, Spartan Reflections (Duckworth & University of California Press, 2001), Alexander the Great: the Hunt for a New Past (Overlook, 2004) and Thermopylae: the Battle that Changed the World (Macmillan, UK, 2006). In his career he has published over 65 articles, with 12 forthcoming articles and chapters such as 'Sparta' in The Classical Tradition (Harvard University Press). In 2004, Professor Cartledge was appointed an Honorary Citizen of Sparta. Book Review of the Book The Spartans is a convincing narrative that explores the culture and civilization of the most famous "warrior people": the Spartans of ancient Greece, by the world's leading specialist in the field. Sparta has often been described as the original Utopia--a remarkably evolved society whose warrior heroes were forbidden any other trade, profession, or business. As a people, the Spartans were the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline, the nobility of arms in a cause worth dying for, sacrificing the individual for the greater good of the community (illustrated by their role in the battle of Thermopylae), and the triumph of will over seemingly insuperable obstacles--qualities that today are frequently believed to signify the ultimate heroism. Paul Cartledge is the distinguished scholar and historian who have long been seen as the leading international authority on ancient Sparta. He traces the evolution of Spartan society--the culture and the people, as well as the tremendous influence they had on their world and even ours. He details throughout the narrative the lives of such illustrious and myth-making figures as Lycurgus, King Leonidas, Helen of Troy (and Sparta), and Lysander, and explains how the Spartans, although they placed a high value on masculine ideals, nevertheless allowed women an unusually dominant and powerful role--unlike Athenian culture with which the Spartans are so often compared. In resurrecting the ancient culture and society of the Spartans, Cartledge delves deep into ancient texts and archeological sources and complements his text with illustrations that depict original Spartan artifacts and drawings, as well as examples of representational paintings from the Renaissance onwards. 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. Review by the Spartan Journal: The Spartans' is a persuasive academic description that explores the culture and civilization of the most famous "warrior people" by the foremost specialist in the field, Professor Paul Cartledge. Sparta has been described as a unique Utopia by principally all the philosophical minds throughout history. Spartans were living a life dreamed by most to be a rightful example. Spartans' core values of obligation, obedience, the graciousness of arms in the foundation of "worth dying" and the sacrifice for the community's benefit, believed to indicate heroism. In addition, 'The Spartans' appears that illustrates an excellent academic point for the basis of Spartan hoplites-heroes. Cartledge knows his work well for a book that must be importantly noticed to academic readers. The book is fairly concise with around 300 pages. It has a great number of information: dates, names, places and events that can introduce anyone who is not previously well informed with the subject. Although for readers who are not familiar with academic novelties and abbreviations, they will eventually find the text solid and with difficulty follow the historical account. The book, additionally, has a sense of a course book with purpose to introduce graduate level history students with the subject. We can follow the Spartans steps after a great period of historical changes by just following Paul Cartledge. The book is a fascinating academic journey onto Spartans' culture and honourable life. If you are interest with ancient Sparta's existence, you will be overwhelmingly amazed with this scholarly developed text. I will state what The International History Review called Cartledge's 'The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece', which can be stated also for 'The Spartans': "an original and insightful work."; Comparing book to Agesilaos and the crisis of Sparta By Paul Cartledge. Four decades can be briefly stated that the ring of King Agesilaos II existed. Those four decades were crucial for the Greek city-states as well as for the hegemony of Sparta. Four decades can be imagined of a strait line through time marked by two major events in ancient Greek history. As starting point the total defeat of Athens and ending point the battle of Mantineia . Agesilaos marked his era. He was a powerful and influential personality. His personal friend Xenophon wrote for him as well as a celebrated biography by Plutarch can be two major sources for his life. Professor Paul Cartledge in his work 'Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta' explores Agisilaos' deeds as well as enumerates the reason of the Sparta's decline. Cartledge states that "Agesilaos [was] not merely participated but actively shaped Sparta society, culture and politics over several decades makes it possible to use his career as a kind of prism to refract the light reflected by the economic, social, political, diplomatic, military and other facets of the Sparta crisis." (p. 6) Therefore he uses the king's figure as fact of his causes and reason of Sparta's deficit. The book therefore does not fully introduce the nature of Agisilaos' personality, works, and life. It is not a biographical work. On the contrary Cartledge in sufficient way presents the socio-political and economical facts behind Agisilaos and Sparta polis. The book truly presents a historian's exercise: to seek the facts of events behind the faces of kings and of great empires. The only problem that exists is that the title of the book, especially the cover front page illustrates greatly Agisilaos name giving no space to the 'Crisis of Sparta,' which eventually is the book main theme. In the eleven chapters the main thematic is the subject of power and politics in Sparta's political system. As D. Hamilton (1988) stated, in his review of the book: "Although Agisilaos' name figures prominently in each of the chapters' thematic section, this is really only a devise which allows Cartledge to discuss the particular theme in question before linking Agisilaos to it, or vice versa. The book has plentiful references to other writers' works. The book is mainly for undergraduate students as well as for academics who wish to have a socio-political view of Sparta's crisis. Cartledge approaches important facts of the king by diverse approaches that bring him to the right conclusion. In general the book can be considered as one of the most informed for Agesilaos' lifetime deeds and for a truthful account of Sparta's decline causes. Bibliography Wikipedia, Paul Cartledge 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cartledge. Novermber 29, 2006 Alibris, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece 2006. http://www.alibris.com/search/books/qwork/8127630/used/The%20Spartans:%20The%20World%20of%20the%20Warrior-Heroes%20of%20Ancient%20Greece. November 29,2006 Amazon, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta, 2006. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agesilaos-Crisis-Sparta-Paul-Cartledge/dp/0715630326. November 29,2006. Read More