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Description
The SpartansThe image of Sparta, and the Spartans, is one dyed indelibly into the public consciousness: musclebound soldiers with long hair and red cloaks, bearing shiny bronze shields emblazoned with the Greek letter lambda. 'This is Sparta ', bellows Leonidas on the silver screen, as he decides to lead his 300 warriors to their deaths at Thermopylae. But what was Sparta? The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a
The image of Sparta, and the Spartans, is one dyed indelibly into the public consciousness: musclebound soldiers with long hair and red cloaks, bearing shiny bronze shields emblazoned with the Greek letter lambda. 'This is Sparta ', bellows Leonidas on the silver screen, as he decides to lead his 300 warriors to their deaths at Thermopylae. But what was Sparta? The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a unique society, considered an enigma. The Spartans who fought for freedom against the Persians called themselves 'equals' or peers, but their equality was reliant on the ruthless exploitation of the indigenous population known as helots. The Spartans' often bizarre rules and practices have the capacity to horrify as much they do to fascinate us today. Athenian writers were intrigued and appalled in equal measure by a society where weak or disabled babies were said to have been examined carefully by state officials before being dumped off the edge of a cliff. Even today their lurid stories have shaped our image of Sparta; a society in which cowards were forced to shave off half their beards, to dress differently from their peers, and who were ultimately shunned to the extent that suicide seemed preferable. Equally appalling to us today is the brutal krypteia, a Spartan rite of passage where teenagers were sent into the countryside armed with a knife and ordered to eliminate the biggest and most dangerous helots. But the truth behind these stories of the exotic other can be hard to discover, lost amongst the legend of Sparta which was even perpetuated by later Spartans, who ran a thriving tourist industry that exaggerated the famed brutality of their ancestors. As Andrew Bayliss explores in this book, there was also much to admire in ancient Sparta, such as the Spartans' state-run education system which catered even to girls, or the fact that Sparta was almost unparalleled in the pre-modern world in allowing women a clear voice, with no fewer than forty sayings by Spartan women preserved in our sources. This book reveals the best and the worst of the Spartans, separating myth from reality.Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 08/03/2020
ISBN: 9780198853084
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 6.80h x 4.90w x 0.80d
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4.8 ★★★★★
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★★★★★ 5
Good point of entry into Star Wars comics
Format: Paperback
I love Star Wars and have been enjoying seeing the expanded universe. Honestly, sometimes the focus on Jedis and Siths is a bit of a distraction from understanding what life would be like in that galaxy.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2024
★★★★★ 3
Slightly damaged
Format: Paperback
Arrived quickly but was slightly damaged, not too big of a deal since I got it on sale
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Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Great set of stories that ties in many of your favorite charecters
Format: Paperback
A simple yet great set of stories that tie in many of your favorite characters into the Galaxy's Edge/Baatu environment. I am not a huge comic reader, but I did very much enjoy. It is a quick read overall.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2020
★★★★★ 5
Worth a read in preparation for visiting Disney
Format: Paperback
Probably not the greatest Star Wars story but entertaining and ties in nicely if you are visiting Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge
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Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2020
★★★★★ 4
Nice backstory to Galaxy's Edge
Format: Paperback
This is a cool book. Just visited Galaxy's Edge recently, so it's fun to see the park and characters represented in comic form.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2023