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• On Sparta (Penguin Classics)
Plutarch

Penguin Classics, 2005 - 304 pages

average customer review:based on 8 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended





A beehive of killing machines

Plutarch's book tells the immensely sad story of the relentless warring between the Greek City States: `Alas for Greece, how many men have you killed with your own hands.'
His masterly brushed picture of Sparta is not less than astonishing. Sparta has been one of the purest communist States on earth.
In order to stamp out arrogance, envy, crime, luxury, wealth and poverty among its citizens, the kings imposed redistribution of land, common messes for all Spartans, no free travel (foreign morals should be hidden) and no immigration (could be teachers of evil practices). Gold and silver coins were declared invalid and replaced by iron ones. Those who wanted to sin by amassing great wealth, needed vast granaries. Nepotism was impossible because children didn't privately belong to the fathers, but jointly by the city. Moreover, the city needed children from the best men (eugenics). Barbarous methods were used in the military education of the youth: thousands of human targets (helots) were killed in nightly survival exercises.
The ultimate goal of the State was to create an army of bees swarming around their leaders and capable of defending Sparta's 4 villages against any outside enemy.
For Plutarch, Sparta went under when it replaced its defence policies by offensive one: `empire and sovereignty war by force - unnecessary elements for maintaining the happy life of any State.' It was beaten by Epaminondas' Theban army.
Sparta was the ideal State for Plato, of whom Plutarch adopted his anti-democratic reflexes: `those politicians, whose sights are set on glory, are servants of the crowd, even though they are called rulers.'

This book is a must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.



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Read the fine print

It is with a slight reservation that I recommend this book to classical history buffs & fans of the ancient Spartans. Those (like myself) who lick their chops @ the chance to read a book about the Spartans in their prime might be a bit disappointed.

The Lacedaemons were never the same after their defeat at the hands of the Thebans @ Leuctria in 371BC. A good chunk of this book (about 1/3, in fact) is spent on Agis & Cleomenes. These personages were post-Leuctria fellows who tried to resurrect the Lycurgan principles and traditions which the Spartans were so well known for. Both failed, but gave noble efforts to these ends. Basically, they represented the death-knell to the hardcore Laconian way of life.

Now, both figures are certainly important to classical history; that much is not in debate. However, confronting them in a book entitled "On Sparta" by a historian the calibre of Plutarch is a bit anti-climactic. Again, I was so looking forward to reading about this magnificent culture while it was in its prime - cover to cover.

On the upside, the best part of the book deals with Lycurgus. It was he who founded the famous "Spartan way of life" around the 8th century BC. It was he who contrived such innovations as the long hair on Spartan males, the Lacedamonian distaste for $$ and all things artistic (with the exception of music) as well as virtually all luxuries and comforts of life. It is because of Lycurgus that the Laconians who came after shunned all things effeminate and became such a brutal fighting force. It was also he who promoted egalitarian distribution of land - noted as his most significant reform. Here Plutarch furnishes one of the most detailed biographies of this great man that you will find. The chapter on Lycurgus alone is well worth the price of the book.

In the remainder of the treatise, Plutarch displays sundry quotations of Spartan kings, warriors and women [it is ironic that in such a militaristic state that Lacedaemon women had more rights and privileges than any other city state in Greece]. There are many salient quotes that exemplify Spartan ideals quite nicely.

If you're looking for a book on Sparta, you can do much worse than this one. I will continue my search for more books on Sparta during her heyday. In the meantime, I will have to settle for daydreams about Lycurgus.

I will leave you with one of my favorite Spartan sayings (this one by King Agesilaus):

"Courage has no value if justice is not in evidence too; but if everyone were to be just, then no one would need courage." (P. 119)


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Spartan lives through the eyes of a nearer historian

Amidst all the contemporary historical deconstructionist prattling over the Spartans, the views and words of the more proximate historians among the ancients shine out like stars in a dark firmament.

Plato and Aristotle had much to say of the Spartan constitution. Likewise did Plutarch, who was a later Greek historian living from 46-120 AD during the period of Roman Imperial ascendacy.

In this book there is much instructive and readable biographical information on prominent Spartan lives, as well as explantions of culture and customs surrounding the "Laws of Lycurgus."

There are Spartan tales and aphorisms as well and the inclusion of the tragic stories of the later reformers are invaluable inclusions taken from the perspective of time. They are archetypal stories of heroic-tragic figures who strive greatly to resurrect a noble but dying people and their way of life. I enjoy to ponder parallels between late Spartan reformer-Kings and the Roman Emperor Julian Apostate.

Plutarch's book is required reading for students of Sparta. This edition is a good editing and compilation and the first version of Plutarch's writings on Sparta that I would recommend readers select.






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Easy to Use for People Just Wanting to Learn About Sparta

For people who do not have the time to read all of Plutarch just to find out about Holy Sparta. A great book for finding out about the Ideal State. Plutarch, like most Greek thinkers hated the mob rule of Demon-ocracy, had a love-hate relationship with the warrior caste system of Sparta. He admired the Greatness of Sparta, but disliked its so called "oppressive nature", albeit, this is what made Sparta great. Plutarch preferred Spartan "oppression" over the mob rule of that other Greek city-state.
This is a great book for anyone wishing to stop the decline of the West. Sparta is the answer to the night of the living dead government of the United States of Zombies. Wyatt Kaldenberg


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A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History

Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome. Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years. Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline. He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer. Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus". By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid. In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome. When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work. His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.



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Plutarch?s vivid and engaging portraits of the Spartans and their customs are a major source of our knowledge about the rise and fall of their remarkable Greek city-state between the sixth and third centuries BC. Through his Lives of Sparta?s leaders and his recording of memorable Spartan Sayings, he depicts a people who lived frugally and mastered their emotions in all aspects of life, who disposed of unhealthy babies in a deep chasm, introduced a gruelling regimen of military training for boys, and treated their serfs brutally. Rich in anecdote and detail, Plutarch?s writing brings to life the personalities and achievements of Sparta with unparalleled flair and humanity.


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