Spartan and Other Ruminations

Paul Cartledge is the best-known living authority on ancient Sparta. His books include Sparta and Lakonia (2nd edn 2002), Hellenistic and Roman Sparta (with A. Spawforth; 2nd edn 2002), Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta (1987), Spartan Reflections (an anthology of the author's papers, 2001), The Spartans: An epic history (2003) and Thermopylae: the Battle that Changed the World (2007). He has also contributed significantly to the history of Athens, law, and democracy: NOMOS: Essays in Athenian Law, Politics and Society (co-editor and contributor, 1990); KOSMOS: Essays in Athenian Order, Conflict and Community (co-editor and contributor, 1998); Democracy: A Life (2018);Pericles (forthcoming 2026). Going beyond Athens and Sparta, P. Cartledge has also authored Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities (2009); Thebes: Forgotten City of Ancient Greece (2020); Alexander the Great: the Hunt for a New Past (2004). He is co-editor of the Cambridge World History of Slavery, vol. 1 (with K.R. Bradley, 2011); he is also contributor and co-editor (with P. Christesen) of The Oxford History of the Archaic Greek World, vol. I, Argos to Corcyra (2024); vol. 3, Cumae to Cyprus (2025); vol. 4, Cyrene to Metapontion; vol. 6, Rhodes to Western Sicily (2025); and vol. 7, Sparta (forthcoming). Paul Cartledge is A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture emeritus at the University of Cambridge, and Senior Research Fellow of Clare College.