Accurate and accessible synthesis of the history of Sparta

In his book, Edmond Levy explains the "recipe" that presides over the birth of the city as of a democratic ideal of Homer. It is no longer at Sparta to be the best (as Achilles), but that "every man strives to attain the height of merit (arete) for his courage in not easing to war", according to elegy Tyrtaeus, the poet laureate of Sparta.

"It is an ideal that is not reached by all and, in this, still aristocratic, but is also a civic ideal, or even democratic. This is a feature of the Greek city that wants, as Pericles suggest in his famous funeral oration, widespread aristocracy "also says Edmond Levy.

The book presents an overall synthesis, accurate, accessible, both thematic and chronological, history of Sparta origins to its dilution in the Roman Empire. One can remember a few key ideas, such as the fact that the Spartans gave a greater role and autonomy to women than other Greeks (especially the Athenians), it gave a greater importance to religion and especially its rites Greeks and others that gender Spartans proved to be largely a myth: "Sparta thus presents the paradox of a conservative and collectivist society that cultivates individual value: as Xenophon points out, all are forced to practice publicly ( dèmosia) all virtues. "

So this is a very good book to come to understand the complexity of an atypical Greek city which has always aroused a fascination.