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FREETHE SPARTANS: AN EPIC HISTORY EBOOK Paul Cartledge | 288 pages | 29 Aug 2013 | Pan MacMillan | 9781447237204 | English | London, United Kingdom The Spartans: An Epic History - Paul Cartledge - Google Books No eBook available Amazon. My approach to learning about something new is to get as many books as I can — in no particular order — read them all, and try to average things out. Read full The Spartans: An Epic History. This was ok, The Spartans: An Epic History some points of interest, but I probably would have gotten more out of the actual book than I did the audio. As others have noted, there is not much "flow" but rather a bit of Account Options Sign in. My library Help Advanced Book Search. Get print book. Shop for Books on Google Play Browse the world's largest eBookstore and start reading today on the web, tablet, phone, or ereader. The Spartans : An Epic History. Paul Cartledge. Pan Books- Sparta Extinct city - pages. Paul Cartledge argues that the Spartans are our ancestors, every bit as much as the Athenians. But while Athens promoted democracy, individualism, culture and society, their great rivals Sparta embodied militarism, totalitarianism, segregation and brutal repression. Bibliographic information. The Spartans Paul Cartledge No preview available - The Spartans: An Epic History - Paul Cartledge - Google книги Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want The Spartans: An Epic History Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Spartans were a society of warrior-heroes who were the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, and extreme toughness. Paul Cartledge brin The Spartans were a society of warrior-heroes who were the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline, self- sacrifice, and extreme toughness. Paul Cartledge brings to life figures like legendary founding father Lycurgus and King Leonidas, who embodied the heroism so closely identified with this unique culture, and he shows how Spartan women enjoyed an unusually dominant and powerful role The Spartans: An Epic History this hyper-masculine society. Based firmly on original sources, The Spartans is the definitive book about one of the most fascinating cultures of ancient Greece. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published August 10th by Vintage first published November 8th More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Spartansplease sign up. My 15 yo son is look ing for a good book about the Spartans. What would you recommend? See 1 question about The Spartans…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Once upon a time, long ago view spoiler [ actual last Saturday hide spoiler ] and far away I had a fancy The Spartans: An Epic History read about the French revolution, popped into an Oxfam bookshop, looked about at what they had and came out with this The Spartans: An Epic History two pounds and forty-nine pence, having read it, I feel it will return there shortly. Wandering idly back view spoiler [ since I have never lived in a bookshop or The Spartans: An Epic History library hide spoiler ] I wondered about left-handed Spartans, the ancient Greeks were known for their Once upon a time, long ago view spoiler [ actual last Saturday hide spoiler ] and far away The Spartans: An Epic History had a fancy to read about the French revolution, popped into an Oxfam bookshop, looked about at what they had and came out with this for two pounds and forty-nine pence, having read it, I feel it will return there shortly. Wandering idly back view spoiler [ since I have never lived in a bookshop or a library hide spoiler ] I wondered about left-handed Spartans, the ancient Greeks The Spartans: An Epic History known for their hoplite mode of fighting in close ranks were each man wore a large round shield strapped to his left The Spartans: An Epic History and carried a spear in his right hand, the idea The Spartans: An Epic History that you could protect the right side of your body by nudging to the right of your neighbour and sheltering behind the side of his shield. Typically their armies were divided into a left, centre and right and the tendency for every-man to move rightwards meant that The Spartans: An Epic History battle the right flank of one army would defeat the left flank of the opposing army while the centres would clash irritably. This continued for hundreds of years apparently until the Thebians developed a cunning new deployment of a super strong left flank and so defeated their The Spartans: An Epic History on both the left and the right leaving the enemy centre feeling very lonely and homesick. This was highly efficient and sped up battles considerably, however shortly afterwards the Macedonians swept down from the north with a different innovation - a super long spear which enabled them to triumph over all opponents, which just goes to show that ideas are like buses, you wait around for centuries and then three come one after the other, three because the Romans were just across the sea biding their time to march in with a new kind of flexible tactical deployment which enabled them to crush all before them. But I am digressing from my digression which was that if you The Spartans: An Epic History left-handed you were pretty much buggered view spoiler [ and not just on account of the homoerotic socialisation into adult society hide spoiler ]apparently tools from the stone age are fairly evenly divided between being suitable for left or right handed use but hop forward in time and the familiar dominance of right-handedness is apparent creating the mystery of the revolution of the right hand, so if you were a left handed Spartan were you just a bit sub-Spartan, or was it a case of 'I'm sorry lad, but you're just not cut out for the modern military, I hear that in The Spartans: An Epic History they want rowers'. Cartledge doesn't address himself to the left-handed conundrum, but it was only an idle thought. Cartledge, I was familiar with from In our Time an ongoing radio series on which he spoke and sometimes still speaks on various classical themes, and his warm friendly, mildly witty approach does translate into the book as does a conversational manner which unfortunately makes for a book that is a bit rambling The Spartans: An Epic History noticeably repetitive. Naturally my second thought was along the lines of 'oi, you, why'd jer write this book then? I am divided as to whether he is successful or not, my initial thought was no, this is more of a second book, not the kind of thing a total new-comer to the subject could run away with and become entranced by, however after a night's sleep and morning coffee I feel it is more in the ok but not inspiring category, sub-Spartan for sure. I very much enjoyed the chapter on Sparta in Early Greecebut that took the approach of historical sociology or archaeological anthropology - who were the Spartans, what were the qualities of their culture, Cartledge instead wants to take a more historical approach running from Helen of Troy who came from Sparta and curiously became a cult figure there view spoiler [ curiously I think because the only two things we know about her was that she was very beautiful and that her adultery led to a ten year war, not automatically the grounds for becoming a cult figure I would have The Spartans: An Epic History hide spoiler ] through to the Roman period. He does this through a series of The Spartans: An Epic History, principally of the Spartan kings, on the plus side I suppose there is a focus on famous names and mighty battles, on the downside a tendency to repeat the same information once within about about words as though the book was constructed like a jigsaw puzzle out of dozens of free-standing pieces with no view to the overall picture. For me it felt as though he succeeded in neither addressing the interesting questions about the lasting appeal of Sparta in the European imagination Wanderer kommst The Spartans: An Epic History nach Spa The aforementioned chapter in Early Greece seemed to me to cover more ground in less than twenty pages that Cartledge does in almost three hundred, but then Cartledge does get the opportunity to repeat himself a few times and the font size in Early Greece is smaller. Cartledge only touches on the beginning of Sparta as The Spartans: An Epic History major tourist destination in the ancient world p. This was re- enacted for Roman era tourists, fortunately or unfortunately depending on what you thought you had paid to view, the participants would sometimes get over involved in their role-play and a The Spartans: An Epic History boy would get beaten to death, most of the architectural remains of Sparta come from this era - to cater for the demands of the tourist era, back in the day when the Spartans were the archetypal master race as Thucycides imagined the physical remains of their culture would be too unimpressive for any one to believe how militarily The Spartans: An Epic History politically dominant they had been.