The Spartans : the world of the warrior-heroes of ancient Greece, from utopia to crisis and collapse / Paul Cartledge.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 288-294) and index.

Given the preeminence of Athens, Sparta is frequently overlooked. But it did win the Peloponnesian War, and those studying slavery and colonization ignore it at their risk. Sparta itself limits what historians can say, for it is difficult to write about a culture that contained neither writers nor builders, thus acutely affecting the record left behind. Nonetheless, this effort by Cartledge is both commendable and fascinating. In roughly chronological order, he reviews the major players, from the city-state's beginnings through Rome's domination. This includes the important pairs of hereditary kings descended from Heracles, making reliance on the Great Man theory of history unavoidable. Yet despite the scarcity of sources, Cartledge does pay strict attention to the social aspects of Spartan life; his book is a good overview of the people and the issues. Modern readers will also enjoy Cartledge's treatment of the Leonidas phenomenon and the development of a Spartan myth in the centuries since Thermopylae.