The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins, and Grand Strategy

by Paul Anthony Rahe

An authoritative and refreshingly original consideration of the government and culture of ancient Sparta and her place in Greek history

For centuries, ancient Sparta has been glorified in song, fiction, and popular art. Yet the true nature of a civilization described as a combination of democracy and oligarchy by Aristotle, considered an ideal of liberty in the ages of Machiavelli and Rousseau, and viewed as a forerunner of the modern totalitarian state by many twentieth-century scholars has long remained a mystery. In a bold new approach to historical study, noted historian Paul Rahe attempts to unravel the Spartan riddle by deploying the regime-oriented political science of the ancient Greeks, pioneered by Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Polybius, in order to provide a more coherent picture of government, art, culture, and daily life in Lacedaemon than has previously appeared in print, and to explore the grand strategy the Spartans devised before the arrival of the Persians in the Aegean.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Ancient, Greece, Ancient History, Classics

231 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2016

About the author

Paul A. Rahe is the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in Western Heritage and professor of history at Hillsdale College. His previous books include the seminal three-volume work Republics Ancient and Modern. Rahe lives in Hillsdale, MI.

Reviews

[Richard]

Dr Rahe is obviously a brilliant man and knows Sparta and that part of the world and time up and down, inside and out. This academic work is not for the casual reader. If you aren't pretty familiar with Greece -- particularly place names and geography -- and its ancient history, be prepared for a long slog through a rather short book. Short in terms of pages. Anything but short on content.

If you as a reader want to work at it, you will learn A LOT about Sparta. I did finish the book, even through the author's note. If I had to take a test on what I read, I'd do well to earn a gentleman's "C".

I am intentionally not assigning a "star" rating. My personal rating would be 2 stars, simply because this book is not for me. As a work of academic literature, it deserves at least 4 stars, probably 5. My compromise is to leave the rating field blank.

[Zare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting and rather difficult read. Difficulty emerges from the fact that this is serious academic level work that assumes reader is familiar with the period and can grasp at least basics of Greek language (both written and spoken). I have some knowledge of former and almost nothing of the latter. But even with that handicap I managed to enjoy the book very much by using other books on the subject and translation tools whenever question marks started popping up.

That aside it is very informative and detailed book that gives us the picture of the Spartan society - their morals, way of life, education, virtues and political organization. For the outsiders Sparta was what North Korea (or any totalitarian/authoritarian society) is today - closed society, with very strict control of border and who may or may not enter or leave it, relatively small elite controlling vast area and enslaved population, every person raised to defend it and glorify his polis as a Heaven on Earth.

While I understand need for isolation from external influences for security reasons (Sparta was after all the only polis that could not be bribed by the outside forces) very idea of limiting ones movements and forcing the microcosm of the polis to become macrocosm of ones life is quite stifling. Also we have ominously sounding state control of the individual and breaking of the family, all in order to ensure state (polis) has primacy always and forever. What author does brilliantly is show how all these methods of oppression and control implode on personal level - while wealth was something that was looked down on in Sparta, Spartiates never allowed their family or house/clan in general to lose their wealth; while living in the communal/military spaces Spartiates still kept their families close and took care of them.

While their structure remained very rigid introduction of Ephors to control Kings and then Elders to control Ephors shows that Spartiates were very much aware of what happens when too much power is in hands of few, but they also knew that dilution of power can bring same level of risks and dangers. They tried (as rigid as they were) to modernize their political structures to ensure longevity of their polis.

We can see polis that tried to instill loyalty-to-the-death on its citizens, that tried to achieve the ideals of perfect citizen/commune and one that was more than aware that its survival solely depended on the readiness of its constituency to give their life for its survival (since they were literary surrounded by slaves and enemies that outnumbered them considerably). But for all means and purposes it was too specialized, too isolated society that could prevail when left to its own devices but the moment they started dominating the rest of Greece they were doomed to fail. I especially liked transformation from rather grim, militaristic society to anti-tyrannical force. I guess everyone needs a reason to live that will paint one in positive light.

Society needs to evolve and this was the main chink in Sparta's armor - they were stubborn to change and formed a very rigid social structure that just could not endure tests of time.

It remains as an eternal warning that ideals are something to strive for but living in ideal world as time goes by seems to be more of a hell than promised land because no-one's idea of the ideal world is the same and usually worst implementation comes to life (Michael Crichton's Sphere was an excellent book on the topic). It seems to me that Rome was a rare successful and workable amalgamation of the ancient Greece virtues and morals [reason why it survived so long] - just right measure of greed, imperialism, patriotism and loyalty to ones family and country.

Excellent book, lots of details from the contemporary Greek historians and writers. Highly recommended to all history and military buffs. First part might be little bit dry but then it becomes better with every new page. I am now looking for the other books by this author.

Highly recommended.

[Simon Mee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lacedaemon is now and always has been a great puzzle. She troubled even the ancients.
So Sparta is a complicated place, far far more difficult to understand than as portrayed in media and the popular “Spartan ideal” of manhood. Rahe provides with an overview that, while appearing dense, is quite reasonable and cleverly organised.

Rahe starts at the personal level, though not much was meant to be “personal” in the Spartan society. From the deliberate infanticide, the music and poetry a Spartan was taught…

In their world, political life was anything but prosaic; and for them, poetry was public speech par excellence. As the Greeks recognized, the propagation of the works of a particular poet had public consequences of untold importance. The soul of Spartan verse was to become the soul of the Spartan people.

…the pederasty, the starvings and floggings, the pederasty from the other side, married life and keeping your helots in place (to name but a few), the intrusion of the state into your personhood was far far greater than than individualistic portrayals of Spartan “mindset” today (which thankfully tends to drop the pederasty). Rahe does note the gap between how Spartans were meant to live with a number of those that failed to meet those expectations, particularly away from other Spartans, but they still deservedly retained a reputation for sacrifice.

The next section deals with Sparta’s political makeup. This was probably the weakest portion overall, due to how difficult it is to describe the mixed constitution Sparta operated under. There were still interesting insights into how the decision makers tended towards the (much) older, and accordingly conservative, males.

As wealthy aristocrats, they had no pressing need to tamper with the system of land allotments; as recipients of the city’s highest honor, they should generally have been satisfied with existing political arrangements; and as old men on the threshold of death, they had little for which to hope from revolution or reform.

Finally, the book deals with what the drivers were for Sparta. It had been expansive in nature, raiding into Messenia, then fighting a war of conquest for it. In order to win, Sparta imposed the system of personal life and politics. Beyond that, expansion by conquest became difficult, so Sparta became the enemy of tyrants, forging diplomatic ties with the “freed” cities instead. It’s the connectivity here that makes the rest of the book work – you need to know why the Spartans conducted their personal and public lives to understand its grand strategy.

I understand it is printed in a dense format, and there is a lot of information. However, the style of writing was clear, and it is worth persevering with.

[Zac Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but dense overview of the evolution of Sparta. Rahe does great with what we have regarding the ancient sources and pieces together how the Spartans came to be and where certain elements of their government came from. Finding out that the spartan government evolved over time to have checks and balances, adopting aristocratic and democratic principles with the new era of hoplite combat taking shape was a fascinating revelation. Rahe fights back at what some authors wrote about the state, and although I never get the full grasp of what he's debating at points it's clear the sentiment that's hes battling against (i.e. Sparta was a unique society and not just a normal polis, the notes section discusses those he disagrees with in detail). Some concepts covered within like Pederasty show why it's difficult to ever compare our society with theirs but its all the more fascinating because of it. This first book in the four book series potentially could have been included in with the next due to the brevity, however it does serve as a great primer for the topic.

If one is at all curious about Sparta this is a wonderful resource to explain their origins, traditions, and overall goals as a society. I certainly learned a great deal and look forward to finishing the other books in the series.

[Martin Hrabal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good treatise on Spartan lifestyle. The author with several aspects of Spartan´s culture including education and institutions (like agogé, ephorate, sussitia etc.) resulting in creating the most totalitarian regime probably ever created. Every aspect of Spartan´s life was public but of course, not everything, as human nature cannot be suppressed completely.
All these aspects are put to the historical context and together with author´s engaging writing it makes a great book for any fan or student of history.

[Arizona Spartan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mid-length comprehensive book about Sparta, it's citizens and government. I enjoyed the first half of the book though a bit dry. The second half which delves into the government system in detail and the various conflicts throughout Sparta's history was more dry and sometimes meanders with extraneous tangents. Overall a worthwhile book to read for serious fans of Sparta, historical militaries or military societies.

[Ryan Schaller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to the institutions of Sparta and it's early history. This is a fairly short book (120 pages of text with another 120 of endnotes) and is limited to an introduction of Sparta. Professor Rahe has written three subsequent books on Sparta which either cover specific eras in more detail. This work is very much designed as an introduction to those later works.

[Nicholas French · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history book for historian. A dense writing with basic assumptions that the reader has a firm grasp of the geopolitical aspects of classic Greek culture. It provides a deep dive into the Spartan way of life, government, and foreign policy.

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Returned by Kindle. A great read especially for fans of Military History. Enjoy!

[Moncho Veras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moi atractivo e recomendable

[John Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

very informative but very short

[Benjamin Espen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul A. Rahe’s The Spartan Regime [Amazon link] is a slim volume on Sparta is absolutely packed with details. Rahe blends history, paleolinguistics, archeology, and even ancient DNA into his argument for why Sparta ended up with one of the most astonishing social and legal structures of the classical age.

Sparta was a politeia unlike any of the others, a source of both fascination and hatred for at least 2,500 years. The hold of Sparta on both educated and popular opinion is all the more remarkable since they left almost no written records. Athens and Rome left copious literatures behind them to help cement their place in history. There are some contemporary accounts of Sparta from Classical Greece, and a few more from later eras, but the historical evidence is thin.

Rahe augments his argument with the archaeological record, which he uses in part to help corroborate or downplay the written accounts we do have. Something that is new to me is that Rahe argues the 465 BC earthquake that destroyed Sparta not only contributed to the Peloponnesian War, but also destroyed the demographic base of Sparta. In theory, homoioi had a Spartan mother and father, but in the aftermath of the earthquake men of more varied parentage were elevated as peers. This is a plausible explanation for the sudden drop about this time in the strength of the Spartan phalanxes, since they were crippled by the loss of so many citizens. In general, I had suspected that their purity obsessions and harsh agoge kept their numbers lower than they otherwise might have been, but such an event could have pushed their population into a demographic downward spiral.

Rahe is frank about the inherent difficulty of interpreting the sparse information we have on Sparta. Everyone brings their own biases to the table, so the best we can do is acknowledge our own points of view and then make the best argument we can. This is made harder because we have to contend not only our own biases, but also those of the authors who did write something down about Sparta, at the distance of more than two millennia. While I am not a specialist here, I felt that Rahe explained his reasons for weighing the evidence reasonably well to a popular audience.

I am a fan of Rahe’s argument that Spartan society evolved out of the precarious strategic situation of Laconia after the Dorian invaders/bandits who were their ancestors managed to over-extend their domain, and were forced to subordinate absolutely everything to political unity and military preparedness. My favorite section of the book was where he delved into the evidence for what Sparta was like before the Classical Era, before the hoplite phalanx had even been invented. In part, Rahe does his work here by taking oral history seriously, which is quite different than uncritically.

But he is also aware that no one lives up to their own legends. Not even the Spartans. Rahe has more volumes on Sparta coming out, so perhaps I’ll check those out too. Highly recommended.

[Rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is in regard to professor Rahe's book, The Spartan Regime: Its Character, Origins and Grand Strategy (Yale Library of Military History)

Having inadvertently read the second book in the series first, The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta (which is outstanding), I was uncertain if I had made my own strategic mistake reading them out of sequence. It turns out to have made little difference

This book has a few general but well thought out maps, with the locations of towns, rivers, mountains and waterways that professor Rahe discusses in the book, which are greatly appreciated

It has an interesting introduction and closes with two appendixes, notes, and index's which wrap it up nicely

Professor Rahe's books can be challenging at times, but highly informative.
This book provides the foundational information that is helpful in moving forward though the series

I now own all five books and hope there might be more to come, possibly from an earlier time period leading up to the Spartan regime

Rahe's first two books were so good that I would consider reading them again. I have already nibbled at various chapters, and feel very fortunate to have three more book to go

This one is worthy of five stars, I highly recommend it

Thank you professor, well done