Their contemporaries were fascinated by the Spartans and we still are.
They are portrayed as the stereotypical macho heroes: noble, laconic,
totally fearless, and impervious to discomfort and pain. What makes the
study of Sparta so interesting is that to a large extent the Spartans
lived up to this image.
Ancient Sparta, however, was a city of contrasts. We might admire their
physical toughness and heroism in adversity but Spartans also
systematically abused their children. They gave rights to citizen women
that were unmatched in Europe until the modern era, meanwhile subjecting
their conquered subject peoples to a murderous reign of terror. Though
idealized by the Athenian contemporaries of Socrates, Sparta was almost
devoid of intellectual achievement.
Philip Matyszak explores two themes: how Sparta came to be the unique
society it was, and the rise of the city from a Peloponnesian village to
the military superpower of Greece. But above all, his focus is on the
Spartan hoplite, the archetypal Greek warrior who was respected and
feared throughout Greece in his own day, and who has since become a
legend. The reader is shown the man behind the myth; who he was, who he
thought he was, and the environment which produced him.
