Ten new essays from a distinguished international cast treat Sparta's most famous area of activity. The results are challenging. Among the contributors, Thomas Figueira explores the paradox that Sparta's cavalry was an undistinguished institution. Jean Ducat conducts the most thorough study to date of Sparta's official cowards, the 'tremblers'. Anton Powell asks why Sparta chose not to destroy Athens after the Peloponnesian War. And Stephen Hodkinson argues that the image of Spartan society as militaristic may after all be a?mirage. This is the sixth volume from the International Sparta Seminar, founded by Powell and Hodkinson in 1988. The series has established itself as the main forum for the study of Spartan history.



edited by Stephen Hodkinson and Anton Powell



Introduction - Stephen Hodkinson 1. The Spartan 'tremblers' - Jean Ducat Translated by P.-J. Shaw 2. The Spartan hippeis - Thomas J. Figueira 3. Commemorating the Spartan war-dead - Polly Low 4. Was classical Sparta a military society? - Stephen Hodkinson 5. The Lacedaemonian state: fortifications, frontiers and historical problems - Jacqueline Christien Translated by Anton Powell 6. Amompharetos, the lochos of Pitane and the Spartan system of villages - Marcello Lupi 7. Why the Spartans fight so welleven in disorder? -- Xenophon's view - Noreen Humble 8. The politics of Spartan mercenary service - Ellen Millender 9. Spartans and the use of treachery among their enemies -Francoise Ruze 10. Why did Sparta not destroy Athens in 404, or 403 BC? -Anton Powell Index