The Spartans: A Very Short Introduction

The Spartans: A Very Short Introduction – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780191091599,0191091596

Product details:

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎0191091596
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9780191091599
• Author: Andrew J. Bayliss

The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a unique society, and considered an enigma. The Spartans who fought for freedom against the Persians called themselves ‘equals’ or peers, but their equality was reliant on the ruthless exploitation of the indigenous population known as helots. The Spartans’ often bizarre rules and practices have the capacity to horrify as much they do to fascinate us today. Athenian writers were intrigued and appalled in equal measure by a society where weak or disabled babies were said to have been examined carefully by state officials before being dumped off the edge of a cliff. Even today their lurid stories have shaped our image of Sparta; a society in which cowards were forced to shave off half their beards, to dress differently from their peers, and who were ultimately shunned to the extent that suicide seemed preferable. The legend of Sparta was even perpetuated by later Spartans, who ran a thriving tourist industry that exaggerated the famed brutality of their ancestors.

Table contents:

1. Introduction: the legend of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae
2. Sparta’s civic structure
3. Raising a Spartan
4. The Spartan lifestyle
5. Helots and perioikoi
6. Spartan women
7. The Spartan mirage and normalising Sparta
8. The modern reception of Sparta

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