Sparta and the commemoration of war / Matthew A. Sears.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sears, Matthew A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

War and society--Greece--Sparta (Extinct city).

War and society.

War memorials--Greece--Sparta (Extinct city).

War memorials.

Memorialization--Greece--Sparta (Extinct city).

Memorialization.

Collective memory--Greece--Sparta (Extinct city).

Collective memory.

Sparta (Extinct city)--Historiography.

Sparta (Extinct city).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 274 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Prologue: Brasidas at Amphipolis

Memory and mirage

Warrior poets

Few against many

The freedom of the Greeks

Remembering Sparta's other liberators

Agesilaus, first king of Greece

From Thermopylae to 300

Epilogue : "Dulce et Decorum Est".

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Dec 2023).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781009021104

1009021109

9781009021302

1009021303

9781009023726

1009023721