Sparta and the Commemoration of War

Explores how the Spartan commemoration of war prompts reconsideration of the contemporary relationship between conflict and memory.

Matthew A. Sears (Author)

9781316519455, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 December 2023

272 pages, 10 b/w illus. 1 map
23.7 x 16.2 x 2 cm, 0.61 kg

'A welcome addition to the growing library of works on Sparta and studies of commemoration in ancient societies.' Roy van Wijk, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

The tough Spartan soldier is one of the most enduring images from antiquity. Yet Spartans too fell in battle – so how did ancient Sparta memorialise its wars and war dead? From the poet Tyrtaeus inspiring soldiers with rousing verse in the seventh century BCE to inscriptions celebrating the 300's last stand at Thermopylae, and from Spartan imperialists posing as liberators during the Peloponnesian War to the modern reception of the Spartan as a brave warrior defending the “West”, Sparta has had an outsized role in how warfare is framed and remembered. This image has also been distorted by the Spartans themselves and their later interpreters. While debates continue to rage about the appropriateness of monuments to supposed war heroes in our civic squares, this authoritative and engaging book suggests that how the Spartans commemorated their military past, and how this shaped their military future, has perhaps never been more pertinent.

Prologue: Brasidas at Amphipolis
1. Memory and Mirage
2. Warrior Poets
3. Few against Many
4. The Freedom of the Greeks
5. Remembering Sparta's Other Liberators
6. Agesilaus, First King of Greece
7. From Thermopylae to 300
Epilogue: 'Dulce et Decorum Est'.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]