In this new edition, Paul Cartledge and Antony Spawforth have taken account of recent finds and scholarship to revise and update their authoritative overview of later Spartan history, and of the social, political, economic and cultural changes in the Spartan community.
This original and compelling account is especially significant in challenging the conventional misperception of Spartan 'decline' after the loss of her status as a great power on the battlefield in 371 BC.
The book's focus on a frequently overlooked period makes it important not only for those interested specifically in Sparta, but also for all those concerned with Hellenistic Greece, and with the life of Greece and other Greek-speaking provinces under non-Roman rule.

Contents

Preface

Maps

PART I HELLENISTIC SPARTA (BY PAUL CARTLEDGE)

1 In the shadow of empire: Mantinea to Chaeronea

2 Resistance to Macedon: the revolt of Agis III

3 The new Hellenism of Areus I

4 Reform - or revolution? Agis IV and Cleomenes III

5 Sparta between Achaea and Rome: the rule of Nabis

6 Sparta from Achaea to Rome (188-146 BC)

PART II ROMAN SPARTA (BY ANTONY SPAWFORTH)

7 Sparta between sympolity and municipality

8 Sparta in the Greek renaissance

9 Pagans and Christians: Sparta in late antiquity

10 The Roman city and its territory

11 Local government I: machinery and functions

12 Local government II: the social and economic base

13 High culture and agonistic festivals

14 The image of tradition

15 Epilogue: Sparta from late antiquity to the Middle Ages

APPENDICES

I The monuments of Roman Sparta

II Catalogues of magistrates

III Hereditary tendencies in the Curial Class

IV Foreign agonistai at Sparta

Notes

Bibliographical appendix 

Bibliographicals addenda to the second edition

Bibliography

Abbreviations

General index