In this new edition, Paul Cartledge and Antony Spawforth have taken account of recent finds and scholarship to revise and update their authoritative overview of later Spartan history, and of the social, political, economic and cultural changes in the Spartan community. This original and compelling account is especially significant in challenging the conventional misperception of Spartan 'decline' after the loss of her status as a great power on the battlefield in 371 BC. The book's focus on a frequently overlooked period makes it important not only for those interested specifically in Sparta, but also for all those concerned with Hellenistic Greece, and with the life of Greece and other Greek-speaking provinces under non-Roman rule.

In this fully revised and updated edition of his groundbreaking study, Paul Cartledge uncovers the realities behind the potent myth of Sparta. The book explores both the city-state of Sparta and the territory of Lakonia which it unified and exploited. Combining the more traditional written sources with archaeological and environmental perspectives, its coverage extends from the apogee of Mycenaean culture, to Sparta's crucial defeat at the battle of Mantinea in 362 BC.

This set includes the revised edition of Sparta and Lakonia by Paul Cartledge and the second edition of Hellenistic and Roman Sparta by Paul Cartledge and Antony Spawforth at the special price of £32.00.

In this groundbreaking work, Claude Calame argues that the songs sung by choruses of young girls in ancient Greek poetry are more than literary texts; rather, they functioned as initiatory rituals in Greek cult practices. Using semiotic and anthropologic theory, Calame reconstructs the religious and social institutions surrounding the songs, demonstrating their function in an aesthetic education that permitted the young girls to achieve the stature of womanhood and to be integrated into the adult civic community. This first English edition includes an updated bibliography.

"This is a book that scholars will read with pleasure, and a book from which advanced undergraduates and graduates will gain a sense of what Sparta was like as a culture, and (just as important) the nature and state of play of contemporary Spartan studies. And it will be accessible for the well informed lay reader as well."—Josiah Ober, author of Political Dissent in Democratic Athens "Paul Cartledge's aim, in this powerful collection of essays, is to shed light in dark places, to demythicize... Cartledge is shrewd, realistic, and far from starry-eyed. Over a quarter-century's exhaustive research, now updated, has gone into these densely documented and tightly argued essays. These Spartans, in the last resort, are exploitative slave-drivers, obsessed with keeping their serfs down (by annually killing off any resisters, among other things)... Modern idealizers of cold baths, black broth, mindless discipline and long route marches should read this book and, hopefully, have second thoughts."—Peter Green, author of Alexander to Actium

An account of a critical period of Greek history, focusing on a single career.

The history of Sparta is increasingly seen as important, not only for its own sake but also for understanding Athenian literature and the political history of numerous Greek states. Traditional approaches to Sparta are now being supplemented by contributions from archaeology and the social sciences. The renewed interest in Sparta is international. The volume includes, for the first time, original contributions from most of the world's leading authorities on Spartan history.

This is the first book-length examination of Spartan women, covering over a thousand years in the history of women from both the elite and lower classes. Classicist Sarah B. Pomeroy comprehensively analyzes ancient texts and archaeological evidence to construct the world of these elusive though much noticed females. Sparta has always posed a challenge to ancient historians because information about the society is relatively scarce. Most existing scholarship on Sparta concerns the military history of the city and its heavily male-dominated social structure--almost as if there were no women in Sparta. Yet perhaps the most famous of mythic Greek women, Menelaus' wife Helen, the cause of the Trojan War, was herself a Spartan. Written by one of the leading authorities on women in antiquity, Spartan Women reconstructs the lives and the world of Sparta's women, including how their status changed over time and how they held on to their surprising autonomy. Proceeding through the archaic, classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, Spartan Women includes discussions of education, family life, reproduction, religion, and athletics.

In the middle of the 3rd century B.C. Sparta was a shadow of its glorious past. Politically and militarily weakened and with huge inner social problems, she seemed to have followed the fate of most contemporary city- states and fallen on the fringe of the political developments of her time. The 3rd century was a time when the great states and the Hellenistic empires were prominent. But contrary to the other city states, which compromised with the new political forces of their time, Sparta resisted stubbornly and tried to reclaim the hegemony of southern Greece. In this fight, Sparta showed unexpected vigor, even defying one of the most formidable powers of the time: Macedonia. The uneven collision that followed culminated tragically and painfully for Sparta at the Battle of Sellasia in 222BC. And still Sparta refused to compromise. After a while, she managed to recover and became once more a player on the international stage, not hesitating this time to challenge the most powerful state of the ancient world: Rome. This last Spartan twilight, the revolutionary movement that sparked it and the two ultimate turning points of her history [the battle of Sellasia and the siege of Sparta by the Romans] are analysed in this book with exhaustive bibliography and special emphasis on the military aspects of this epic fight. The original Greek edition of In the Name of Lykourgos received great critical acclaim and was named winner of the 2009 Lakedaimonian Prize of the Academy of Athens. It is here translated into English for the first time.