HERODOTUS, SPARTA and AUSTERITY

Herodotus' 'History', is our earliest historical source forSparta. His work focuses on the later sixthand early fifth centuries BC, the period beforeand during the Persian Wars. His account isoften thought to be relatively unsullied bythe distorting effects of the 'Spartan mirage',which reached its apogee after his death. Yethis mythologised narrative of the Spartans'defeat at the battle of Thermopylai in 480 BCcontinues to influence idealised accounts inmodern popular media and politics. Since hewrote about a period when Sparta's classicalinstitutions were still being formed, his workis often interrogated by historians investigatingthe origins and nature of its famous 'austerity'. In this volume eleven international scholarsexamine Herodotus' presentation of Sparta,the implications for our understanding ofits internal and external politics, and thedevelopment and character of its engagementwith material culture. This book is the fourth in a Classical Pressof Wales series focused on major sources forSparta, following earlier volumes onXenophon and Sparta(2020),Thucydides and Sparta(2021) andSparta in Plutarch's Lives(2023).