Any good Spartan History Books?

Hello all, not sure whether this should be in Alternate History Books and Media, but I am just going to post this here, if I am wrong please tell me and I will have the mods move it.:eek:

Anyhow I am just wondering whether there are any definitive books on Spartan history/culture in general that's accurate? Or essays, or ebooks, pretty much anything that is accurate on the Spartans that I can read and research?

Thanks all!:)
 

TFSmith121

Banned
For an overview of the ancient world,

Hello all, not sure whether this should be in Alternate History Books and Media, but I am just going to post this here, if I am wrong please tell me and I will have the mods move it.:eek:

Anyhow I am just wondering whether there are any definitive books on Spartan history/culture in general that's accurate? Or essays, or ebooks, pretty much anything that is accurate on the Spartans that I can read and research?

Thanks all!:)

For a readable overview of the ancient world, I'd suggest The Classical World by Robin Lane Fox; for ancient Greece, generally, Ancient Greece from Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times by Thomas R. Martin; Athens and Sparta, by Anton Powell; and Spartan Reflections, by Paul Cartledge. Cartledge's specialty is Sparta, and his Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History 1300 to 362 BCE is excellent as well.

Best,
 
Endorsement for the Lane Fox book, which is one of my favourites. He was on the Magdalen team in the last Christmas University Challenge, here.
(Licensed version of College Bowl)

Fiction: Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield, a brilliant imagining of the Spartan mentality and life. The best novel about mass disembowelling I've ever read.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Um, how many novels about mass disembowelling

Endorsement for the Lane Fox book, which is one of my favourites. He was on the Magdalen team in the last Christmas University Challenge, here.
(Licensed version of College Bowl)

Fiction: Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield, a brilliant imagining of the Spartan mentality and life. The best novel about mass disembowelling I've ever read.

Um, how many novels about mass disembowelling have you read?;)

Best,
 
Sparta and Ancient Greece.

A classic:

-The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome by N. D. Fustel de Coulanges (last English edition: Courier Corporation, 2012).

-Origines de la pensée grecque by Vernant, Jean-Pierre. English edition: The origins of Greek thought (Cornell University Press, 1982).

-Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece: An Introduction by M. Austin, Pierre Vidal-Naquet (University of California Press, 1980).

-M. I. Finley, 'Sparta and Spartan Society', in Finley, Economy and Society in Ancient Greece (1981).

-Helots and Their Masters in Laconia and Messenia: Histories, Ideologies, Structures By Nino Luraghi, Susan E. Alcock (Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University, 2003).

-Sparta the Military State in War and civilization by Arnold Toynbee and Albert Vann Fowler.

-Sparta by Ernst Baltrusch.
 
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