A History of Ancient Sparta: Valor, Virtue, and Devotion in the Greek Golden Age

by Timothy B. Shutt

14 lectures on 7 compact discs

The Spartans form one of the enduring coordinates of Western culture—an enduring and inspiring “farthest north.” No one was more devoted to courage and to duty; no one trained with greater commitment and enthusiasm to achieve his ends. And no one was committed more thoroughly and relentlessly to the annihilation of self and of self-regard in service of the greater communal good. The Spartans were oppressive to the local “helots” in particular. The Spartans were narrow-minded, and narrow-minded by design. But what they did no one ever did better, and they did it with signal success for centuries on end; at once inspiring and appalling the hundred generations or so that have followed. On the basis of such achievements, the ancient Spartans surely deserve our attention, and, I say, deserve our duly qualified respect as well.

Listening Length: 7 hours and 42 minutes

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Historical

8 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

For eighteen years Professor Timothy Baker Shutt has taught at Kenyon College in rural Gambier, Ohio, famed for its splendid teaching, for its literary tradition, and for its unwavering commitment to the liberal arts. No teacher at Kenyon has ever been more often honored, both by the college and by his students, for his exceptional skills in the classroom and as a lecturer. Professor Shutt’s courses in Kenyon’s interdisciplinary Integrated Program in Humane Studies and in the Department of English alike are always heavily oversubcribed, and he lectures on Homer, Plato, and Aristotle, the Bible and the Greek historians, Virgil and Dante every year to a packed house.

Shutt is a native of Ohio, raised in Michigan and schooled in Connecticut, where he was honored as an All-American swimmer during his high school years at the Hotchkiss School, and devoted much of his time to drama. He majored in English as undergraduate at Yale (’72). After three years at St. Mark’s School of Texas, where he taught English and History---and coached swimming---Shutt went on to graduate school in English, specializing in medieval literature and the history of ideas at the University of Virginia as a du Pont Fellow. After earning his Ph.D. in 1984, Shutt spent two further years at Virginia as Mellon Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, and took a position at Kenyon in 1986, where he has taught happily ever since, deeply enjoying his contacts with his students and the peaceful life of the Ohio countryside.

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting overview of Sparta, and I'm not sure that we can really get much more than an overview of Sparta, all things considered. They weren't so much a "that's important... maybe we should write that down...." kind of people.

With that in mind, one of the things that makes this particular set of lectures interesting is that Shutt goes out of his way to take the Spartan POV in her conflicts, particularly within Greece itself. The Persians are often the bogeymen of Ancient Greek Studies, and that's largely the case here as well, but Shutt is more scathing in his analysis of Athens and Athenians in particular. The Athenians were much more of a "write that down..." kind of people, and as such they are treated better by historians for the most part. Shutt's version of the Athenians is much more skeptical, and at the very least that makes for a worthwhile piece of work. He's critical of Sparta as well, though he may be a bit muted all things considered, but there's no shortage of that material, so his take isn't as glaring. I would take issue with a few of his interpretations, but not enough to take off a star. They are a matter of degree not determination.

Overall, I give this one a big, Spartan "Woo! Woo! Ah-Woo!" or whatever it was they were doing in those movies, mostly because listening to a set of lectures on the Spartans is kind of the opposite of that. If for no other reason it's worth a listen.

[Avis Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid history of the Spartans, although if you already know something about them, you can skip parts of this lecture.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving these TMS lecture series. So much information, interesting, well narrated/spoken.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good info on Sparta, but the reader’s delivery was not that great. There were a lot of long pauses, which made listening difficult at times.

[João · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half was very interesting, the second was not. When the wars started the narrative and organisation was simply not very good.

[John Poulain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched and with a good combination of fun anecdotes and historical narrative this book is a good sign posting exercise for ancient Sparta from the legendary descendants of Heracles; their role at troy; the ever famous Thermopylae to the Pellipolesian wars and eventual subject to Rome.

The performance could have done with much more direction and editing as there is a lot of dead air and the lecturer stops in mid sentence or quote making you wonder if the book had stopped.

There isn't a discussion of the controversy about if the Spartans killed any young that were considered unfit but I'm not sure if this was a recent discussion.

As pop history goes there are a number of references to historical fiction Gates of Fire (Pressfield) which whilst enjoyable I understand uses a lot of fictional creations where history is not forthcoming.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shutt's no Drout, but still interesting stuff.

[Rodney Harvill · Rating 4 out of 5]

History is messy. While we often think in terms of heroes and villains, how do we deal with people or even cities filling both roles at the same time? Ancient Sparta was one such city. It is known for the discipline, courage and military prowess of its people. What motivated this? Sparta had conquered some of the city-states near it and had reduced their population to helot status, slaves of the state. Sparta had to have a strong military ethos to keep the helots down, to keep them from rising up and to suppress uprisings when they did happen. The use of these helots for all commerce and child rearing freed up the Spartan men to focus on military matters and the women to focus on child bearing, producing the next generation of Spartans to keep Sparta strong.

In contrast to the oppression of the helots, Spartan women were extraordinarily free, compared with other Greek women, and were respected. The Spartans recognized that there would be no Sparta of tomorrow if children were not born today, and women were considered just as valuable as men for what they did best. Spartans normally did not put names on grave markers. This was an honor reserved for kings and those who died heroically, men who died on the battlefield and women who died in childbirth.

Because of its power and influence, Sparta had an out-sized influence on Greek history, and over half of the lectures deal with this history. The entanglements with other cities, such as Athens, inevitably ensure that the listener learns just about as much Athenian history as Spartan history. Professor Shutt pulls no punches as he describes the good, the bad and the ugly of Spartan history and ancient Greek history, in general, from the rise of Spartan power to its ultimate decline into a shadow of its former glory.