In the past twenty years the study of Sparta has come of age. Images prevalent earlier in the 20th century, of Spartans as hearty good fellows or scarlet-cloaked automata, have been superseded by more complex scholarly reactions. As interest has grown in the self-images projected by this most secretive of Greek cities, increasing attention has focused on how individual Greek writers from other states reacted to information, or disinformation about Sparta. The studies in this volume provide new insights into the traditional historians' question, "What actually happened at Sparta?". But the implications of the work go far beyond Laconia. They concern preoccupations of some of the most studied of Greek writers, and help towards an understanding of how Athenians defined the achievment, or the failure, of their own city.

Contents:
1. Euripides and Sparta 2. Laconica: Aristophanes and the Spartans 3. The Duplicitous Spartan 4. Two Shadows: Images of Spartans and Helots 5. Xenophon, Sparta and the Cyropaedia 6. `Blind Ploutos'?: Contemporary Images of the Role of Wealth in Classical Sparta 7. Images of Sparta: Writer and Audience in Isocrates' Panathenaicus 8. Plato and Sparta: Modes of Rule and of Non-rational Persuasion in the Laws 9. Aristotle on Sparta 10. Sparta Re(de)valued: some Athenian Public Attitudes to Sparta between Leuctra and the Lamian War

The study of the Spartans is now pursued more widely and intensively than ever. Indeed, no longer is Sparta the 'second city' of ancient Greece. This volume, the fourth in the established series on which Powell and Hodkinson have collaborated, breaks fresh ground, not least in the range of its contributors. The authors of the fourteen new papers represent nine different countries and demonstrate many of the fertile modern approaches to the history, the archaeology - and the still-influential image - of the city on the Eurotas.

A Spartan lifestyle proverbially describes austerity; ancient Greek luxury was associated with Ionia and the oriental world. The contributions to this book, first presented at a conference held by the University of Nottingham's Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies, reverse the stereotype and explore the role of luxury and wealth at Sparta and among its Peloponnesian neighbours from the Iron Age to the Hellenistic period. Using literary, archaeological, epigraphic and numismatic evidence, an international team of specialists investigates the definition and changing meanings of the term luxury and its nearest ancient Greek equivalents, providing new insights into Sparta's supposed abstention from luxury, and the way that this was portrayed by ancient writers. They analyse wealth production and private and public spending, emphasising features that were distinctive to Sparta and the Peloponnese compared with other parts of ancient Greece. Other chapters investigate issues still familiar in the contemporary world: economic crisis and debt, austerity measures, and relief provisions for the poor.

This is the 7th volume from the International Sparta Seminar, in the series begun in 1989 by Anton Powell with Stephen Hodkinson. The volume is both thematic and eclectic. Ephraim David and Yoann Le Tallec treat respectively the politics of nudity at Sparta and the role of athletes in forming the Spartan state. Nicolas Richer examines the significance of animals depicted in Lakonian art; Andrew Scott asks what Lakonian figured pottery reveals of local consumerism. Nino Luraghi and Paul Christesen deal respectively with the way in which Sparta was viewed by Messenians and by Ephorus. Jean Ducat treats 'the ghost of the Lakedaimonian state', a major study of formal relations between Spartiate and perioikic communities. Thomas Figueira considers how Spartan women policed masculine behaviour. Anton Powell traces the development of Spartan reactions to political divination in the classical period.

Democratic Athens is often viewed - mistakenly - as the model ancient Greek state. This volume of papers by a wide range of contributors sets the record straight by examining the huge variations of political systems and forms of regional community around the Hellenic world. It highlights the immense political flexibility and diversity of ancient Greek civilization.

Democratic Athens is often viewed - mistakenly - as the model ancient Greek state. This volume of papers by a wide range of contributors sets the record straight by examining the huge variations of political systems and forms of regional community around the Hellenic world. It highlights the immense political flexibility and diversity of ancient Greek civilization.

Images of ancient Sparta have had a major impact on Western thought. From the Renaissance to the French Revolution she was invoked by radical thinkers as a model for the creation of a republican political and social order. Since the 19th century she has typically been viewed as the opposite of advanced liberal and industrial democracies: a forerunner of 20th-century totalitarian and militaristic regimes such as the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Yet positive images of Sparta remain embedded in contemporary popular media and culture. This is the first book in over 40 years to examine this important subject. Eleven ancient historians and experts in the history of ideas discuss Sparta's changing role in Western thought from medieval Europe to the 21st century, with a special focus on Enlightenment France, Nazi Germany and the USA. The volume also covers new aspects of Sparta's reception not covered in previous work.

This title includes ten new essays from a distinguished international cast that treat Spartas most famous area of activity. The results are challenging. Among the contributors, Thomas Figueira explores the paradox that Spartas cavalry was an undistinguished institution. Jean Ducat conducts the most thorough study to date of Spartas official cowards, the tremblers. Anton Powell asks why Sparta chose not to destroy Athens after the Peloponnesian War. And Stephen Hodkinson argues that the image of Spartan society as militaristic may after all be aamirage. This is the sixth volume from the International Sparta Seminar, founded by Powell and Hodkinson in 1988. The series has established itself as the main forum for the study of Spartan history.

The name "Helots" evokes one of the most famous peculiarities of ancient Sparta, the system of dependent labor that guaranteed the livelihood of the free citizens. The Helots fulfilled all the functions that slaves carried out elsewhere in the Greek world, allowing their masters the leisure to be full-time warriors. Yet, despite their crucial role, Helots remain essentially invisible in our ancient sources and peripheral and enigmatic in modern scholarship.

This book is devoted to a much-needed reassessment of Helotry and of its place in the history and sociology of unfree labor. The essays deal with the origins and historical development of Helotry, with its sociological, economic, and demographic aspects, with its ideological construction and negotiation.

From c.550 BC until her defeat at the battle of Leuktra in 371 BC, Sparta was a dominant force in the Greek world. This has traditionally ben explained by Sparta's egalitarian and militaristic society. Hodkinson's accessible and detailed study of Sparta's ruling classes shows how a new citizen organisation was established in the 6th and 5th centuries BC in response to the great discrepancy between rich and poor in Sparta which had caused a succession of civil wars. The book first discusses what Sparta ideally represented to the classical and modern worlds before considering the realities of Spartan landownership and private property and wealth. Hodkinson demonstrates that severe inequality never left Sparta but instead contributed to the rapid decline in the state's fortunes following the defeat of 371 BC.

Crucial to the understanding of Athenian literature and the political history of numerous Greek states, the history of Sparta is, at last, receiving due attention. Here are fourteen original pieces of archaeological research from eminent scholars Han van Wees, Jean Ducat, H.W. Singor, Nicolas Richer, Ephraim David, Stephen Hodkinson, Nigel Kennell, Thomas Figueira, Massimo Nafissi, P-J Shaw, Paul Cartledge, Noreen Humble, Ellen Greenstein Millender and Anton Powell, first presented at a conference in Hay-on-Wye in September 1997.