Sparta and the Commemoration of War

In this densely footnoted work, Sears (classics, Univ. of New Brunswick; Understanding Greek Warfare) argues that the shift in Spartan war memorialization led Sparta to fight increasingly frequent and futile wars, which ultimately drove its collapse. He points to a variety of aspects, ranging from an emphasis on glorifying death in battle during the Archaic Period (700s BCE) to commemorations of their dead as liberators of Greece after the Persian wars (470s BCE). His most successful argument indicates that many have been misled by Spartan commemoration, which has allowed the idea of Sparta to be exploited with monuments that honor certain war “heroes,” even up to the present day, particularly by hard-right movements in Europe and the United States. But his assessment that the trajectory of expanding foreign policy and internal collapse recurs consistently in both the classical and modern world is neither unique to Sparta nor likely driven by commemoration. Many of his sources are often contradictory as well, which may prevent readers from getting a clear understanding of the author’s perspective.