Sparta: Fall of a Warrior Nation

Philip Matyszak

Οκτ 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Αφήγηση από Mike Cooper

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This cultural history of Ancient Sparta chronicles the rise of its legendary military power and offers revealing insight into the people behind the myths. The Spartans of ancient Greece are typically portrayed as macho heroes: noble, laconic, totally fearless. But life was not as simple as this image suggests. In truth, ancient Sparta was a city of contrasts. We might admire their physical toughness, but Spartans also systematically abused their children. They gave rights to female citizens that were unmatched in Europe until the modern era, meanwhile subjecting their conquered subject peoples to a murderous reign of terror. Though idealized by the Athenian contemporaries of Socrates, Sparta was almost devoid of intellectual achievement. In this revealing history of Spartan society, Philip Matyszak chronicles the rise of the city from a Peloponnesian village to the military superpower of Greece. Above all, Matyszak investigates the role of the Spartan hoplite, the archetypal Greek warrior who was feared throughout Greece in his own day and has since become a legend. The listener is shown the man behind the myth; who he was, who he thought he was, and the environment which produced him.

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Philip Matyszak holds a doctorate in ancient history from St John's College, Oxford University. He specializes in the history of Classical Greece and of the Late Republic and Early Imperial periods of Rome. Matyszak has personal military experience both as a conscript in Rhodesia and with the Territorial Army in Britain.

Mike Cooper is a British voice talent who left big-city life in London for a log cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Mike is recognizable from his years with the BBC World Service, and as the narrator of countless television documentaries.