Bibliographical appendix to the second edition

The original edition of Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History 1300-362 BC appeared over twenty years ago, that is, for me, more than half a scholarly lifetime in the past. It was widely reviewed and generally well received—full if not quite complete details are available in the relevant volumes of the classicists’ bible, L’Annee Philologique. One particularly acute reviewer (Michael Jameson) observed, perhaps a touch ambiguously, that ‘Cartledge gives a good deal more than his title promises or the reader may have bargained for’ (The Bookshelf, May/June 1981, 75). On the other hand, one exception to the generally favourable reception may be noted: Franz Kiechle in Classical Review. But he unfortunately laboured under the misapprehension that I was a pupil of Moses Finley and used my book to try to settle a few scores with his (properly, in my view) severe critic. Actually, as I was careful to state in the very first sentence of my Preface, the book was largely based on a doctoral dissertation completed under John (now ‘Professor Sir John’, but then just plain ‘Mr’) Boardman: ‘Early Sparta c. 950-650 BC: an Archaeological and Historical Study’ (University of Oxford, 1975); cf. Cartledge 2000.

The following bibliographical addenda are necessarily selective. A fuller bibliography, on pretty well all matters Spartan, may be found in Cartledge 2001 (collected essays, written over the same period, concentrating on the Archaic and Classical periods).

1. Sparta, General

A book on Sparta or some aspect of Sparta, Russell Meiggs once observed, is to be expected (if not necessarily welcomed) every two years. In the past three years (19982000) there have been no fewer than six: Baltrusch 1998, Birgalias 1999 (cf. Cartledge 1992a, Kennell 1995), Hodkinson 2000, Hodkinson & Powell eds 1999, Meier 1998, and Richer 1998. Other books wholly or importantly on Sparta published since 1979 include Cartledge & Spawforth 1989 (to be reprinted in 2001), Christ ed. 1986 (a collection of reprinted papers, with an important introductory survey of Spartan scholarship by the distinguished editor), Clauss 1983 (bibliographical), Hooker 1980, Kennell 1995, Lazenby 1985, Link 1994, MacDowell 1986, Malkin 1994, Nafissi 1991, Poralla & Bradford 1985 (prosopographical), Pomeroy 1997, Powell ed. 1989, Powell & Hodkinson eds 1994, Shipley, D. R. 1997, Stibbe 1996 (archaeological) and Thommen 1996. Further bibliography in Cartledge 2001 (see above).

Three scholars have made disproportionately important contributions to Spartan studies, in various aspects, since 1979; it is a pleasure to mention in dispatches

Ephraim David (1979, 1981, 1982/3, 1985, 1989a, 1989b, 1992, 1993, 1999), Jean Ducat (1983 [bibliographical], 1990, 1998, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c), and Stephen Hodkinson (1986, 1989, 1996, 1997a, 1997b, 1998, 1999a, 1999b, 2000).

2. Landscape and Geography

General: Alcock & Osborne eds 1994 (with my review Cartledge 1996b), Cavanagh 1991 (intensive field-survey), Daviero-Rocchi 1988, Hordern & Purcell 2000, Jameson et al. 1994/1995, Kirsten 1984, Osborne 1987, 1996, de Polignac 1994, 1995, Pritchett 1989-91, Rackham & Moody 1996, Rich & Wallace-Hadrill eds 1991, Sallares 1991, Shipley 1996, Shipley & Salmon eds 1996 (with my review, AJA 101, 1997, 789-90), and Snodgrass 1986, 1987.

Sparta and Lakonia (including Messenia): Cartledge 1998, Cavanagh & Crouwel 1988, Cavanagh et al. 1996, forthcoming (the BSA/University of Amsterdam Lakonia survey), Davis et al. 1997 (the Pylos Regional Archeological Project); Barmijo et al. 1991 (464 BC earthquake at Sparta).

Comparative: Hirsch & O’Hanlon eds 1995, Hordern & Purcell 2000.

3. Archaeology and History

General: Finley 1986: ch. 5, Morris 1998, Salmon 1984 (successfully doing for Corinth to 338 BC something like what I have here attempted for Sparta to 362).

Spartan archaeology: Cartledge 2000, Cartledge 2001: ch. 12, Fitzhardinge 1980, Fortsch 1994, Hodkinson 1998, 1999a, 2000, Sanders ed. 1992, and Stibbe 1996.

4. Sparta, Early Historic

Dark Age: Cartledge 1992b, Coulson 1985, Eder ed. 1990, 1998, Margreiter 1988; cf. for Greece generally, Morris & Powell eds 1997, and Holkeskamp 2000.

Archaic: Hodkinson 1997b.

5. Sparta, Classical

Politics: Berent 1994 (Greek polis seen as ‘a stateless political community’, Spartan polis as the most ‘state-like’), Bringmann 1980, and Cartledge 1980, 1998.

Public finance: Loomis 1992.

Religion: Catling 1990a, 1990b, and Pettersson 1992.

Society and culture: Bryant 1996, Calame 1977/1997, Cartledge 1981a, 1981b, 1996a, Ducat 1998, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, Figueira 1984, Hodkinson 1999a, and Millender 1999.

Analysis and narrative, c.445-360 BC: Cartledge 1987, passim.

6. Helots

Ducat 1990 is now the basic work, if controversial in important parts; cf. Hodkinson 1997a. In Sparta and Lakonia (esp. ch. 10) and Cartledge 1987 (esp. ch. 10) I have urged that the Helots should be regarded as the absolutely fundamental causal factor in Spartan history and social structure. This is not a universally shared view: see Talbert 1989 (with my rejoinder 1991) and Whitby 1994. In Cartledge 2001: ch. 11 (an updated reprint, with new introduction, of Cartledge 1985) I have tried to restate my case.

7. Perioikoi

One review of Sparta and Lakonia (by Simon Hornblower in the TLS) was published under the title ‘Promoting the Perioikoi’. If the book (esp. ch. 10) did its bit towards making their indispensable contribution to Spartan and Lakonian history a little less obscure, I would be content. Since 1979 we have learned much more about some of them through the work of the Lakonia survey (see § 2, above), and also from Hall 2000, Lotze 1994, Mertens 1999, Pritchett 1989, 1991, and (especially) Shipley, G. 1992, 1997. For Messenia, as opposed to Lakonia, see Bauslaugh 1990, Davis et al. 1997, and Figueira 1999.

8. The Spartan Crisis

I have myself devoted a whole book to this important subject, by the indirect means of a quasi-biography of King Agesilaos II (r. c.400-360): Cartledge 1987 (repr. 2000). For fullscale, head-on approaches, the assiduous and sophisticated work of Hodkinson (esp. 1983, 1989, 1996, and 2000) stands out. See also Christien 1998, and Cartledge & Spawforth 1989: ch. 1 (repr. with addenda 2001).