This book contains probably every known fact about the legendary Spartan king. Numerous references are being made to other writers and many different approaches are used to create an impression of the importance of the king in his own lifetime as well as his relevance to the later military and social developments. The maps provided though, are few and slightly below standards.

Paul Cartledge of the university of Cambridge is arguably the foremost authority on ancient Sparta in the entire world. His erudition of this culture is unmatched and the bibliography of this book is quite a read in-itself.

In this work Cartledge undertakes the massive task of tracing the history of Lacedamon from 1300-362BCE. In other words, right around the time of the mythical / quasi-historical Trojan war (1283BCE) down to the time of the decisive Spartan defeat @ the battle of Leuctra (371BCE).

The reader should be advised that the opening stanzas of this book are difficult to follow. Cartledge casually alludes to endless archeological digs all over Laconia at such a rapid pace that it's apt to make the reader feel like it's information overload. While grad students in archeology and anthropology might feel right at home, the rest of us may feel a bit lost.

When Cartledge arrives in the more familiar historical territory of Herodotus and Thucydides the book seems to improve a great deal. At least for me, anyway. The exegesis of historical records has always been easier for me to comprehend than the interpretation of pre-literate societal structures.

One of the highlights of the book is Cartledge's discussion of the 3 classes of Spartans (Homoioi, Perioikoi & Helot). I had some degree of knowledge of the Homoioi & Helots before reading this work, but virtually no understanding of the Perioikoi. Thanks to his chapter on these people I now have a much better comprehension.

I would recommend this book only to those who have an ambitious yearning to understand the history of the Spartans. For those who would rather have a more concise and slightly more reader-friendly work I would recommend A HISTORY OF SPARTA 950-192 by W.G. Forrest (ASIN: 0393004813). Forrest's book also goes a few hundred years past Leuctra while the present book does not.

Also, it is imperative that prior to reading the present text that the reader first peruse Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon & a little Plutarch mixed in wouldn't hurt. I do not think it prudent for someone to undertake the present work without at least a working knowledge of the primary sources.

This is a marvellous series of short essays on the leading figures of Greek life, from Homer to Sappho to Pericles (and his girlfriend) to Aristotle. In the tradition of classical Greek (as opposed to Hellenic) history, it ends with Alexander. A sort of extended "Who's Who" for the period.

Focusing in the lifes of remarkable Greeks, this series (book and video) makes the Greek civilization accessible to us. Indispensable to anybody interested in the Greek culture.

The Greeks examines life in the ancient Hellenic world: an era when the foundations of modern science and politics were laid. Based on a three-hour PBS series airing February, this provides a lively story of Greek experience through the eyes and experiences of her heroes and heroines in an excellent, involving account which comes alive. Highly recommended as a strong alternative to the usual dry Greek history.

Sparta tends to be a jumble of images (a heroic stand at Thermopylae) or words (Molon labe!) for most people so it's nice to see a survey of the Spartan world. Cartledge surveys not only Sparta's impressive martial record but also peers at its unique society. While he's an expert on the subject, Cartledge doesn't communicate his knowledge ponderously, rather The Spartans is written with an impressive clarity and inciveness. Outside of his bizarre little attack on English fox hunting in the appendix (in which he explores Spartan hunting -- animal and human), Cartledge's The Spartans is an absolute winner.

Books for the general reader tend to be written in a very chatty and friendly way; the authors are often non-experts in the field and, although interesting, these books may contain errors ultimately due to the authors' understandable lack of knowledge in the field. At the other end of the spectrum are books written by experts for experts such that the text is essentially unintelligible to the general reader. Finally, there are many books that fall, to varying dregrees, in-between these two extremes, that is, the friendly writing style and the expert author, and this book is clearly one of them. The author is a well-respected expert in ancient history with specialization in ancient Spartan history. Readers get the benefit of expert knowledge presented in a most accessible manner. The prose is clear and written in a very engaging professional style. The author clearly states his references and often adds his own views on various matters - definitely a plus. I cannot imagine a more thorough history of ancient Sparta in such a short book, i.e., on average, there is so much information per page that I, for one, would benefit by reading it again. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in ancient Greek history - it does not disappoint.

I couldn't resist commenting on the "review" by "A reader." Well done! You've brought the publisher's press release and jacket blurbs vividly to life.

Mr Cartledge's edition is a well formed book abo ut 'ancient' Greece. The book has certain attractive features:

1) it is treating all historical aspects, rather than a narrow collection of them; so it starts talking about the greek landscap e and its importance, something not aknowledged by other a ccounts.

2) the chapters are written by well informed sch olars which in most cases draw information from the sources, or they reach well thought conclusions.

3) although the book could be useful basically f or the layman its standards are high and in most cases the truth (as given by an cient texts and archaeological evidence) is given.

However, I have found it inadequate in some poin ts; for example:

1) in the last chapter Mr Cartledge says that se arching for the 'missing' quark could hardly be considered the continuation of t he greek scientific program. This view is simplisti c: exactly this is what is going on; it is actually readily aknowledged by prese nt day particle physicists, and books on these subjects often start with theories of Anaximander, Empedoles et cetera

2) it is obvious that you can say 'a 'is differe nt from 'b' if you know well both 'a' and 'b'; yet Mr Cartledge informs us that ALTHOUGH LINEAR A is not understood SATISFACTORI LY it does not transcribe GREEK ( logical phallacy).

3) In science we can not prove the truth of a th eory; we use it as long as we can not find counterarguments, AND YET although al l evidence (including the huge discovery of the Ve rghina royal tobes) indicates that the MACEDONIANS were another greek group like the IONIANS the DORIANS the THESSALIANS, that AL EXANDER NEED NO INTERPRETER when speaking with atheneans or other greeks, that ALEXANDER TRANFERRED IN ASIA THE GREEK CULTURE and not the `macedonian'(! ), Mr Cartledge thinks that PERHAPS the macedonians were hellenes, OFFE RING NO SCIENTIFIC COUNTERARGUMENT (in fact for those who know, and Mr Cartledge knows, not, only the fact that the king of Macedonia WAS ADMITTED TO THE OLYMPIC games resolves every matter).

4) Finally the title of the book is misleading s ince Cycladitic civillization is also 'ancient' greece, Hellenistic times are al so 'ancient' greece, but the book does not refer to them!

OVERALL, the book is good, but to me created mix ed feelings since at many points I thought that Mr Catledge was trying to impose upon me, his narrow interpretation of the words, ancient greece, and greeks. Being a greek myself I WELCOME every scientifically based argument found in this book BUT I refuse t o follow personal 'beliefs'.

WITH THESE WARNINGS I would recommend this other wise nice, complete and attractive book to those who want to have a nonromantic but scientific view of ARCHAIC AND C LASSICAL GREECE.

**added: I see that 13 out of 17 people disliked the above review. Maybe because it was too critical. However, the purpose
of the review was to show that history must be science. Ignoring
evidence or making conclusions or theories on the light of poor
evidence is dangerous. Although the book is certainly informative, it is 'dangerous' for the new readers cause in
the places mentioned missinforms (although I would not go
far enough to say that this is done deliberately). A bit more
caution in the future, history is too important to be written
loosely.

I really like this book. The writing is very informative, but I also appreciated the illustrations. There are lots of them, and they are fully explained. It you take the time to examine each picture and its explanation, you will learn a lot. Sometimes the pictures don't exactly match the accompanying text, and this breaks your train of reading, but that's a minor flaw. This book is good for both beginners and Greek history buffs alike. If you are interested in classical Greek history, read this book.

This book has a lot of good and useful informatin. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Greek Religion

This book is not for the general reader interested in Sparta or Greek history. It is much too academic, with numerous references to other Greek scholars and to their writings. I know Paul Cartledge is an expert in the subject, but because of the schoarly manner in which this book was written, I just could not finish it.