The Spartans “at Sea”

Authors

  • Ellen Millender

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/2039-4985/1921

Abstract

Sparta has long enjoyed the reputation of a polis that was hostile toward and incompetent in τὰ ναυτικά. Impediments, including its location and agrarian economic base, made it difficult for Sparta to challenge Athenian sea power before the last decade of the fifth century. Herodotus and Thucydides, moreover, repeatedly offer support for the Athenian-based stereotype of the Lacedaemonian “landlubber”. Both authors, however, provide accounts of Spartan naval activity that question the assumption that the Spartans were “at sea” when it came to naval matters.

Downloads

Published

2016-11-30

Issue

Vol. 5 (2015): Great is the power of the sea

Section

Sezione tematica

License

The authors who publish in this magazine accept the following conditions:

a) The authors retain the rights to their work and assign the right of first publication of the work to the magazine, simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License - Attribution that allows others to share the work indicating intellectual authorship and the first publication in this magazine.

b) Authors may adhere to other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the version of the published work (e.g. deposit it in an institutional archive or publish it in a monograph), provided that the first publication has taken place in this magazine.