The Greek Superpower: Sparta in the Self-Definitions of Athenians

by Paul Cartledge (Editor), Anton Powell (Editor)

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Sparta, notoriously, was for Greeks the greatest Hellenic military, or moral, power for most of the fifth, as well as the early fourth, century. For Greek intellectuals Sparta's value as inspiration, or indeed model, far surpassed that of the Athenian demokratia. Leading politicians of Athens, Kimon and Perikles, evaluated their city against Spartan norms. The purpose of this volume is to explore Sparta's moral penetration of Athens itself. The book examines the systematic attempts by show more Athenian writers - Xenophon, Plato and several others - to apply Spartan principles to reformed or ideal states. This Athenian intellectual practice of designing 'super-Spartas' went beyond mere abstraction. The volume will consider the case of Kritias, one of Athens' rulers at the hinge moment of 404/3, who not only wrote eulogistically of Spartan practices but also attempted - under the protection of Spartan troops - to reform Athens on Spartan lines, a process which involved disfranchising (and deporting to the Peiraieus) the majority of Athenian citizens, in order to achieve a Sparta-like social structure of full citizens, perioikoi and the unfree. To understand why and how that attempt was made, and why it did not succeed, is not only fundamental for Athenian history; it also requires an understanding of Sparta and of its reception within Athens. show less

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Le volume édité par Paul Cartledge et Anton Powell lui-même renvoie par son titre et sa thématique à l’un des premiers volumes publiés par les Classical Press of Wales (avec Routledge) en 1994, intitulé The Shadow of Sparta, comme le souligne Paul Cartledge en préambule : son objectif est de comprendre comment Athènes se définit par rapport à Sparte. Neuf contributions globalement show more chronologiques charpentent le volume. show less

Pierre Pontier, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Author Information

Paul Cartledge

Editor

44+ Works 4,160 Members

Paul Cartledge is A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus at the University of Cambridge. He is an honorary citizen of modern Sparta and holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor awarded by the President of Greece. His previous books include The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece, The Spartans, Alexander the Great, show more Thermopylae, Ancient Greece, and After Thermopylae: The Oath of Plataea and the End of the Graeco-Persian Wars. show less

Anton Powell

Editor

32+ Works 1,401 Members

Anton Powell is the author of Athens and Sparta (1988, 2001) and the editor (with Stephen Hodkinson) of volumes generated by the International Sparta Seminar, which he founded. Editor of The Greek World (1995), he has also edited Roman Poetry and Propaganda in the Age of Augustus (1992), and co-edited (with Kathryn Welch) Julius Caesar as Artful show more Reporter (1998) and Sextus Pompeius (2002) and (with Christopher Smith) The Lost Memoirs of Augustus (2009). For long Director of the University of Wales Institute of Classics and Ancient History, he has also twice been professor invite at the Ecole Normale Suprieure in Paris, in 2006 for Greek history and in 2008 for Latin literature. show less