Who were the Classical Greeks? This book provides an original and challenging answer by exploring how Greeks (adult, male, citizen) defined themselves in opposition to a whole series of others (non-Greeks, women, slaves, non-citizens, and gods) as presented by supposedly objective historians of the time such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Cartledge looks at the achievements and legacy of the Greeks - history, democracy, philosophy and theatre - and the mental and material contexts of these inventions which are often deeply alien to our own way of thinking and acting. This new edition...

This text deploys a range of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives to examine the ancient economy in a truly interdisciplinary light. The central focus is on archaic and classical Greece, however many chapters include comparative perspectives from other areas and periods of the ancient and modern world. Topics covered include slavery and exploitation, land and access to resources, labour and new insights and approaches to understanding the ancient economy since Finley's The Ancient Economy. The book offers an international spectrum of views from diverse and dynamic...

George Grote's History of Greece is one of the classic works of historical interpretation and scholarship. George Grote - banker, MP and a founder of London University - was the first historian to give a high value to the Greek creation of democracy, and this aspect of his work is closely relevant to late-1990s debates about democracy in our times. This abridgement of the original 12-volume work, which was made in the early years of the 20th century and published by George Routledge and sons, is now available again and makes accessible the essential Grote. In a new introduction, based on the...

In this revised edition, Paul Cartledge and Antony Spawforth have taken account of contemporary finds and scholarship to revise and update their authoritative overview of later Spartan history, and of the social, political, economic and cultural changes in the Spartan community. This attempts to challenge the conventional misperception of Spartan decline after the loss of her status as a great power on the battlefield in 371 BC. The book's focus on a frequently overlooked period should make it important not only for those interested specifically in Sparta, but also for all those concerned...

Sparta is one of the best-documented states of ancient Greece. Its political and social systems have fascinated and perplexed generations of classical scholars, as well as having a powerful influence on European civilization to this day. In this fully revised and updated edition of his study, Paul Cartledge uncovers the realities behind the potent myth of Sparta. The book explores both the city-state of Sparta and the territory of Lakonia which it unified and exploited. Combining the more traditional written sources with archaeological and environmental perspectives, its coverage extends from...

The Hellenistic period (approximately the last three centuries B.C.), with its cultural complexities and enduring legacies, retains a lasting fascination today. Reflecting the vigor and productivity of scholarship directed at this period in the past decade, this collection of original essays is a wide-ranging exploration of current discoveries and questions. The twelve essays emphasize the cultural interaction of Greek and non-Greek societies in the Hellenistic period, in contrast to more conventional focuses on politics, society, or economy. The result of original research by some of the...

The complex and distinctive Spartan tradition has been a prominent theme in western thinking from antiquity to today. Sparta is also one of a handful of ancient Greek cities with enough existing evidence for historians to create a realistic social portrait. Over the past quarter-century Paul Cartledge has established himself as the leading international authority on ancient Sparta. Spartan Reflections is a superb collection of his essaystwo are published here for the first time, and the rest, often difficult to locate, have been revised and updated for publication in book form. Giving...

The relationship between law, politics and society in democratic Athens is a central but neglected aspect of ancient Greek history that is beginning to attract increasing interest. Nomos brings together ten essays by a group of British and American scholars who aim to explore ways in which Athenian legal texts can be read in their social and cultural context. The focus is on classical Athens, since that is where the evidence is fullest, but the range of sources examined is broad, including the whole spectrum of literary and epigraphical texts, with special reference to the corpus of Athenian...

This book examines how the various groups of people of which the polis of Classical Athens was composed got on together--or failed to do so. The authors collectively bring out what was distinctive about life in an ancient Greek city that was unusual both in its size and social complexity and in the extent of the democracy it practiced. The emphasis is broadly on the great success of the Athenians' communal experiment but tensions and fissures arising from religious, sexual, economic and political differences are not elided or glossed over.

In 480 B.C., the mighty Persian king Xerxes led a massive force to the narrow mountain pass called Thermopylae, anticipating no significant resistance in his bid to conquer Greece. But the Greeks, led by Leonidas and a small army of Spartan warriors, took the battle to the Persians and nearly halted their advance.

Paul Cartledge's riveting, authoritative account of King Leonidas and the legendary 300 illuminates this valiant endeavor that changed the way future generations would think about combat, courage, and death.