The End of Sparta

by Victor Davis Hanson

In this sweeping and deeply imagined historical novel, acclaimed classicist Victor Davis Hanson re-creates the battles of one of the greatest generals of ancient Greece, Epaminondas. At the Battle of Leuktra, his Thebans crushed the fearsome army of Sparta that had enslaved its neighbors for two centuries.

We follow these epic historical events through the eyes of Mêlon, a farmer who has left his fields to serve with Epaminondas-swept up, against his better judgment, in the fever to spread democracy even as he yearns to return to his pastoral hillside.

With a scholar's depth of knowledge and a novelist's vivid imagination, Hanson re-creates the ancient world down to its intimate details-from the weight of a spear in a soldier's hand to the peculiar camaraderie of a slave and master who go into battle side by side. The End of Sparta is a stirring drama and a rich, absorbing reading experience.

Praise for Victor Davis Hanson:

"I have never read another book that explains so well the truth that 'war lies in the dark hearts of us all' but that history offers hope."-William Shawcross on The Father of Us All

"Few writers cover both current events and history-and none with the brilliance and erudition of Victor Davis Hanson."-Max Boot on The Father of Us All

"Enthralling."-Christopher Hitchens on The Western Way of War

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Ancient History, Historical, War, Greece, Military History

445 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Victor Davis Hanson was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA, Classics, 1975), the American School of Classical Studies (1978-79) and received his Ph.D. in Classics from Stanford University in 1980. He lives and works with his family on their forty-acre tree and vine farm near Selma, California, where he was born in 1953.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect with this novel written by a historian, but I was not disappointed. It was utterly compelling and it was hard to pry myself away from it. The 400+ pages flew by and certainly didn't feel that long. I was sorry when it ended. The conclusion was bittersweet.

A fictional yeoman farmer, Mêlon of Thespiae, is our eyes and ears and represents the soldier-farmers who lived at that time [4th century B.C.]. His slave, Nêto, is a seer and prophetess. In fact, her master's presence at Leuctra will guarantee victory according to one of her prophecies about an apple [the meaning of Mêlon]; because of its success he becomes famous throughout Hellas.

The novel tells the story of the beginning of the end of Spartan power and dominance through the 371 B.C. Battle of Leuctra ["White Creek"] when Sparta was badly defeated by the Thebans. Leuctra was followed by the subsequent first invasion of Laconia by Epaminondas, commander of forces from several city-states of Hellas, aided by Pelopidas and the Sacred Band of Thebes. Three new Messenian towns are then established, with the helots setting up their own government. The men return to their homes. The generals and Mêlon all have the feeling they will have to go back several times to complete what they have started. In fact, Mêlon promises Epaminondas that he will be ready "when the red is on the grapes" in summer to march south with him again. Ainias [of Stymphalos] the Tactician [famous military writer of the 4th century B.C.] is a major figure. The architect, Proxenos, is probably a fictional composite of the men who designed the towns.

The writing style was epic and larger-than-life: Homeric or Virgilian, but for modern readers. Hanson says he tried to strike the right balance between a bygone stuffy style and that of today's casual English usage. I had my doubts about his slipping in Greek phrases. It took me awhile to get used to his practice. He did make it easy for the most part to figure out the meaning from context or he did translate into English right near the Greek. I felt it was an affectation, but he probably meant it to add "atmosphere." I think he could have inserted only those for which there is no exact English equivalent--e.g., lochoi, syssitia, bibases, then added a glossary.

In the first half, I felt characterization could have been improved. We see only hatred or anger until we witness Ainias's devotion to his friend, Proxenos and deep sorrow at his death at the icy Eurotas. Friendship develops between some of the main characters. There is complete loyalty between Mêlon, Mêto and Chiôn, who are members of the same household, and a certain fondness [love? although the word is never used in the text] between Mêlon and Nêto, so much so that besides joining with the army, he is marching into the Peloponnese to find her. He discovers he must rescue her from his traitorous and duplicitous helot slave, Gorgos, or as the Spartans term him, Kuniskos. They admit their feelings for each other only to themselves; they never express them to the other.

The section on Leuctra was amazing! Ainias plans unorthodox tactics, then a heated discussion follows. We see the battle from the perspectives of participants AND of Mêlon's slaves waiting on a hillside observing. Fighting all through the novel was bloody and graphic but not gratuitous. The description of the frightening hoplite warfare at Leuctra was the best I've ever read. I felt as though I was right in the front rank, terrified and pushing against the Spartan onslaught with my colleagues and trying to avoid injury. Also, I had my heart in my mouth at the final confrontation in the mountainside hut of which several characters had dreamt from the beginning of the story, not knowing why they had had these dreams or where the hut might be.

Although never boring, the middle of the novel did bog down somewhat; I felt there was repetition and the argument over whether or not to invade the Peloponnese was prolonged too much. The chapter on Phrynê and her brothel could have been cut way down. On the katabasis south into Laconia and at the Eurotas River there was too much conversation, too much repetition, too much drawing out of events. Mêlon was quite a different protagonist than the usual: an ordinary man of fifty, bald, and lame from a previous war wound [an intended hamstring] inflicted by a Spartan ephor. He was not the usual handsome young soldier we might have expected in military fiction. I wish there had been at least one sympathetic Spartan; all were negative stereotypes and odious. Not light reading, this novel takes concentration; but the story flows and overall I was pleased with the pacing. The author brought the period to life for me. I liked the presentation of the Pythagorean ethical and theological system: a form of monotheism and equality of all men. I learned that Pythagoras is more than mathematics.

I feel this book is a "must-read" about a little-known historical figure, Epaminondas and this whole period. I read it twice through, once immediately after the other.

[Ozymandias · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I strongly disliked this book, and that’s unfortunate since Epaminondas is one of my favorite underappreciated historical figures. I would love to see a biography of him, fictional or otherwise, or any stories set in the little-remembered Theban ascendency that overcame both Greece’s traditional leaders (Athens and Sparta) in the days before the conquest of Philip of Macedon and the end of Classical Greece. But from the get-go I found myself frustrated by this novel in ways that were impossible to avoid.

Probably the biggest issue that people might have is with the writing style. This book is apparently intended to be a Neo-Homeric epic, complete with ponderous and allusive phraseology designed to seem self-important. People only talk in bland snippets of wisdom and reveal their personality through the author’s narration. Hanson says he tried to find a pleasing compromise between archaic patterns and casual speech, but I know Greek and this sounds nothing like that. And by that I don’t mean that this isn’t Greek phraseology, I mean that this isn’t how the Greeks regularly talked. It’s epicspeak; archaic even for the time. And it sounds awkward as hell. What makes this particularly grating is that this isn’t really an epic subject. You can write an epic poem about a historical event (see the Pharsalia or Punica) but it requires making compromises on accuracy and the sort of stories you can tell. But here we get the epic style telling us everything from farming practices to political assemblies.

One thing I did like was the Battle of Leuctra. Leuctra was that rare battle won entirely by clever tactics and planning. And we get a description of it here that fully lives up to Hanson’s work as a military historian. The description of the arms is right (though I was surprised to hear them still wearing Corinthian helmets in the 370s), the description of Spartan fighting methods and practices is right, the disorder and negotiated nature of Greek commands seems spot-on. And the noise and chaos of the battle is brought vividly to life in a way that makes what should be obtuse tactics clear. It’s largely this battle that gives the book its second star.

But this battle also screamed Homer, and in all the wrong ways. Every time someone dies we get a potted history of their life and how all their ambitions end here. Every single time! The four chapters(!) of this battle are stuffed with at least a dozen death-introductions of characters we’ll definitively never see again. With Homer this was an effort to give every hero his due. Many of his patrons would have claimed descent from these heroes, and his listeners would at least have recognized many of the local ones. But here it’s just affectation. And the glee with which each gruesome death is described is even more uncomfortable when placed in a more modern structure. Reading of someone’s horrible fate is bad enough without hurling mockery at their panicked reactions.

The book also suffers from a bit of an Alexander conflict. If you’ve seen that film you’ll know that it starts off with a battle (one of the finest ever put on screen) and then struggles mightily to find something new to catch our interest. The thing about battles is that they make great resolvers of conflict. All relationships and characters are thrown up in the air and anything can happen. But they’re terrible for establishing conflicts and relationships. Who spends the middle of a battle describing what they do for a living or how this situation came to pass? We never find out the cause of Leuctra. So if you start with a battle, once its over you have to establish relationships and character from the ground up. And anything that comes after such high drama is bound to be a letdown. It’d be different if the battle was merely a prelude to an even greater battle down the road, but the whole rest of the story is anticlimactic. The Thebans march down to Sparta, establish fortified cities for all Sparta’s slaves, and then come back with little to no fighting.

Sadly, this really does read like a book designed by a pundit (which is basically what Hanson has become over the last twenty years). Why do the Spartans hate the Thebans so much? Because they’re a democracy. That really is their only reason, even though the Spartans had been dealing with (and sometimes allying with) democracies for a century-and-a-half at this point. Have you ever heard some pundit say “they hate us because they hate our freedoms?” This is that. Even in his historical notes at the end Hanson is unable to conceive of a reason why rational people could oppose democracy. “We don’t know exactly all the reasons why Plato (Platôn) so distrusted democracy and favored the Spartans, but it was more than just the democracy’s execution of Sokrates and his own exile.” Sure we do. He disliked democracy because it was fickle and frequently made bad decisions based on mass outbursts of emotion. There’s plenty of snobbery in that attitude, but even a brief glance at Athens’ behavior during the Peloponnesian War will show that there’s some truth in it as well.

Motivations on the good side are hardly better. Why do the Thebans want to destroy the Spartans? For universal democracy and freedom for all slaves. Yes, that’s right: all slaves, not just the helot underclass that the Spartans rely on to feed them while they train for war. And any who speaks out against this war to end slavery is a strawman of some sort or another. Literally every single one is bribed (conveniently) and either corrupt, cowardly, or snobbish. Or all three. Also thrown in there is a lot of religious talk in the form of Pythagoreanism. I have no idea why this was focused on so excessively. As far as I know the only Pythagorean connection with Thebes is that Epaminondas was quite fond of his Pythagorean tutor as a child. Yet this book makes Pythagoreanism the underlying basis for all Thebe’s ideals. I found that very confusing.

Here’s what’s missing here: any sense that the various city-states are seeking power for power’s sake. Any sense of competition between city-states for glory and prestige. Any sense that the city-states want to expand their empire. Or even any sense of revenge for past wrongs on a national scale. The Greeks were more open about all of these motives than we are today. But all we get here is ideology and the crudest of personal motives: the need to defend their homeland (which isn’t under threat after the first part) and rescue the damsel in distress. It’s like he can’t imagine any public motives between “defend our farms” and “give everyone democracy.”

Know what else is missing? Homosexuality. The Ancient Greeks were famously devoted to homosexual (male) relationships, but all we see here is the offhand mention of the occasional boylover (the age thing definitely being the most uncomfortable aspect of this part of Greek life). These figures are invariably viewed with disgust by our leads and presented as unnaturally effeminate. Not really one of us. No mention that Epaminindas himself was notoriously and exclusively homosexual (he had several male lovers and never married or fathered children) or that the Sacred Band was made up of paired lovers. That doesn’t fit with his ideology. The Thebans are supposed to be American minutemen: strong, independent farmers who take up arms only to defend themselves from the evil empire of red-cloaks (as he often calls them). They’re even given a radical and (ahistorical) powerful evangelical movement in the form of the Pythagoreans. There’s no room here for queers.

I suppose the oddly dogmatic and limited nature of everyone’s motivations wouldn’t have bothered me so much if the rest of the book had appealed to me, but by the interminable middle section I just wanted it done. I forced myself to finish it, but there was little apart from Leuctra to catch my interest. And the gradual decline from the epic speech to a more traditional swords and sandals style didn’t help so much as confuse. At the end of the day, I still don’t know any of these characters. Epaminondas is every bit as much a blank now as he was when the book started. Pelopidas is almost invisible. Plato… he’s just another generic pompous ass. Philip of Macedon (here called Melissos, the bee), oddly enough, is the important historical figure with the most personality, but it’s just that of an enthusiastic and heartfelt youngster. This attitude just seems wrong for Philip who was, much like his son Alexander, a willful and proud man. And his tearful farewell speech in which he promised (accurately) to return with an army and crush his new friends was really… odd to say the least. Without memorable characters, without context, without some emotional core that doesn’t feel manufactured, I just couldn’t like this book. And I really wanted to.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very heavy, but rewarding tale of historical fiction about the final days of Sparta. It is told in a 'Neo-Homeric' voice, which was Hanson's intention. This adds to some of the difficulty in reading it, but it keeps the atmosphere of this story very well in my opinion. This is a high tale about the fall of empires, and the poetic flourishes help with this.

I would recommend this book, and recommend that people stick with it. It starts strong, sags a bit in the middle, but finishes well.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Victor David Hanson! This was the only book I have ever purchased new as a hardback! Terrific story and you know he got the history right!

[Keith Currie · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘No man a slave’

Very many years ago – I might still have been at school – when I first read about the exploits of the Theban statesman and general, Epaminondas and his masterly defeat of the Spartans at the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, I thought this would make a tremendous plot for a novel. I even thought, vainly, that I might write it myself.

No need now, as Hanson has written the perfect novel of the events around the Boeotian victory at Leuctra, truly one of history’s turning points, as it led to the immediate decline in Spartan fortunes and the end of the Spartan reputation for invincibility. I enjoyed this immensely.

The first third focuses on the night before the battle and the battle itself. Epaminondas and his supporters have the task of persuading thousands of part time farmer soldiers to change the martial habits of many lifetimes and adopt a new, potentially suicidal, strategy in the next day’s battle. It is Hanson’s genius to make his tactician an historical figure, the mercenary Aineias, who later wrote a partly surviving handbook on war strategy. The second third follows the victory and the death of the Spartan king, and the attempts of Epaminondas and other liberating democrats to persuade the Thebans to do something else never attempted before – an invasion of the Peloponnese and a direct attack on Sparta itself. The third part follows the invasion. Among these is the philosopher, Alcidamas, the author of the quotation at the head of this review.

Woven through the narrative and in fact at the centre of things is the story of a frontier family from the higher slopes of Mt Helikon and the part they play in these momentous events. Their story is moving, at times gruesome, but also inspiring, as they help mould the liberation of the Greek city states from the malign control of Sparta. At the same time, a minor character, a young hostage prince of Macedon, observes and learns and later returns to deny the Greeks once again their freedom.

Post script: It did occur to me that genuine Classicist though Hanson is, he may also have had another story to tell in this novel: frontier family, liberating democrats inspired by philosophical ideas, constant reference to the Spartans as Red Cloaks, the Spartan defence of their imperialistic behaviour as protection from other external forces – is this 371 BC, or is it in fact AD 1775 and another war of national independence?

[Eileen Iciek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an outstanding debut novel, although it will not be to everyone's taste. The author is one of my favorite historians and the book reflects his intimate knowledge of the events portrayed. His writing avoids the sometimes awkward wording that most first time novelists have, but it is Homeric in style, which is not an easy sell in the 21st century. It is not an easy read, and I can understand how some readers would be put off by it. In fact, I delayed reading it due to some of the negative reviews the book received.

The one issue I had was that the author occasionally uses Greek terms that are not defined anywhere. Usually I could figure out meanings from the context, but not always. There is a glossary at the end, but it did not cover everything.

The story is about the beginning of the fight to end Sparta's thuggish dominion over most of the other Greeks in the 4th (5th?)century BC. It was led by a remarkable general named Epaminondas,a Theban who fought not just the Spartans, but the political forces both in Thebes and in other parts of Greece (notably the Athenians, who cowered after the Pelopennesian War,and the Corinthians) who were inclined to just let the Spartans run things. Epaminondas, a devotee of Pythagoras, thought freedom was a better option.

Aside from learning a lot about this period of ancient Greece, I learned that there was a lot more to Pythagoras than the geometric equations I learned in high school.

The breadth of knowledge the author had to have to even conceive this book is amazing. Combined with a writing style that tries to put the reader in the mind of the ancient Greeks, the book is a tour de force.

[Victor Bruneski · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an epic struggle to finish this book, not unlike Epaminondas struggle to finally defeat Sparta. This is a story told from multiple view points of the Thebans defeat of Sparta at the battle of Leukta, and afterwards of the nothing that finally defeated Sparta. That's right, nothing.

You can't really blame the author for the actionless ending to the Thebes - Sparta conflict, since the book is based on history, but it really makes the book drag.

It starts off with an explosive start, with the battle of Leukta. You have many viewpoints from both the Thebans and Spartans, the Thebans being the obvious good guy - fighting for freedom and democracy and all that. You can tell that the author is a historian, as everything is very accurate. You learn alot about the two cities and armies that you wouldn't from a standard his-fic book.

After that is the problem. The book really drags. It tells of the Thebans building an army to finish the Spartans off. There is a lot of time building this up. Unfortanely there is no pay off, as in no final battle. Of course this isn't the author's fault as I said, but it doesn't make good fiction. The Theban and allies army just ravage the country side, freeing it from the Spartans who don't leave their city to defend it. Instead we are treated to a battle between some of the main characters, which is pretty anti-climatic.

The book is great for historical detail, but falls short on the entertainment value. So it really depends on what you want from your story. For me, it was a struggle just to get through it, I caught myself skipping pages just to get to the end.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is too long, and the story bogs down for me in the secondary characters. But, like other reviewers note, Hanson makes up for this with an epic style and great descriptive action. When he describes the Spartan march just prior to the Battle of Leuctra, you know for sure that your knees would knock and your bladder would void had you been there.

I'm glad Hanson tackled this subject, which in the wake of '300' is timely. I understand and appreciate Spartan valor and sacrifice, and the movie only echoed ancient historian's take on the battle. But to make them the emblem of 'freedom' is cruelly ironic. The Spartans enslaved and abused on a scale much larger than any other city-state. They needed destroyed, and Hanson makes you feel that as well, without being preachy or overly one-sided.

[Alicja · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating: 3/5

I'm torn about this book... It was a heavy, tedious read. I almost gave up a few times. It was definitely a lesson in patience.

It actually starts off very well... with an epic battle. Hanson does battle scenes well, action-packed and moving fast. But then, well, history intervened. Too many secondary characters and historical details slowed the story to an almost standstill... And yes, the history buff in me did appreciate the historical details and accuracy. But unfortunately the ending (after all that struggle) just seemed so anticlimactic (damn you history).

[SoulSurvivor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading Victor Davis Hanson when he writes non-fiction , especially on the subjects of politics and war strategy . This book was an allegory or something close to it ? Whatever ; I didn't care much for it but wanted to finish it for his prospective on the demise of Sparta . I note that in may of his subsequent books this one is not listed as a previous work . I understand why now .

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told with the elegant literary grace of Homer's poetry and just as compelling as any Tom Clancy military thriller, "The End of Sparta" is Victor Davis Hanson's vividly rendered fictional portrait of Theban general Epaminondas as seen through the eyes of these fictional characters, the gentleman farmer Melon and his two most trustworthy slaves and friends, his personal servant Chion and the virgin seer Neto. Hanson recounts in spellbinding prose, the little known history of Epaminondas, his armies and their noble aims to free Messinian helots, enslaved for generations by the warlike Spartans, and thus, to weaken, perhaps forever, Sparta's paramount role as the preeminent military power in Hellas (ancient Classical Greece). In a narrative prose as memorable as Homer's epic poetry for both its lyricism and grace, Hanson starts with the battle of Leuktra itself, giving readers an intimate, yet quite cinematic, account of the fighting as seen through the eyes of both the outnumbered Spartan hoplites (armored foot soldiers) and their far more numerous Boiotian foe, who, under Epaminondas' able leadership, crush the invading Spartan army. He offers a relentless narrative in which we see not only the enthusiastic support, and occasional doubts, of Epaminondas' key lieutenants, but those of the Spartan military elite too, as Sparta reacts to Epaminondas' commitment toward waging an almost total war within Lakonia (Sparta and its surrounding countryside), as a means of achieving an ultimate victory against Sparta and freedom for the centuries-enslaved Messinian helots. Through Melon, his servants, his fellow Theban hopolites, and such notable historic figures as Alkidamas, Pelopidas, and Epaminondas himself, we are exposed to the rationalistic anti-polytheistic Pythagorean philosophy which compels Epaminondas' messianic quest to rid the Peloponnesos (rocky, mountainous southern Greece) of its generations-old Spartan political dominance and slavery, and to extend to Messinian helots, the virtues of self rule as practiced by Thebes' relatively nascent, yet quite vigorous, democracy. And yet, the most beguiling character is the young seer Neto, devoted adherent of Classical Greece's polytheistic faith, whose mystical dreams and visions compel Messinian helot fighters onward in their heroic struggle for freedom from Spartan tyranny and slavery. With "The End of Sparta", Hanson has rendered a most fascinating, quite absorbing, glimpse into Classical Hellenic civilization, and one that is certainly more realistic than Steven Pressfield's acclaimed novels of Classical Greece and its epic struggles against Persia. Victor Davis Hanson has made a most impressive fictional debut with a historical novel that should be viewed as among the year's best.

(Reposted from my 2011 Amazon review)

[Jason Golomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historian Victor Davis Hanson has created an absolutely epic first novel with "The End of Sparta". It's built on a gigantic scale with larger than life warriors who fight in Herculean battles against opponents who have legendary reputations. Combatants walk across bloody battlefields fighting off not only near immortal foes, but also otherworldly gods and specters, all while holding the banner of freedom and democracy. All I could think of through the first third of the book is that this is what a Homeric poem would read like if it were written in modern times.

This magnificent Homer-like poem, written on a grand scale with complex characters and lively plot threads, makes for a tremendously courageous effort by Hanson. Sometimes it works. But sometimes it doesn't.

"The End of Sparta" follows the legend of one of ancient Greece's greatest generals - Epaminondas. In the mid 300s B.C., he led an army of several thousand Thebans, made up mostly of part-time warriors and full-time farmers, in a series of heroic battles against Sparta, the highly militaristic city-state whose economy was built and sustained on the backs of slaves. The Thebans were fighting for freedom. The Spartans were fighting for themselves and their status quo.

Hanson displays a deft touch in developing his characters. He doesn't feel the need to over-narrate their motivations, but allows a simple action to hold enough significance that conveys purpose. I'm surprised and impressed at how the historian has made such a successful and impressive leap into fiction. He wordsmiths in such a way that the story flows like a blockbuster movie. It's big and bold with dramatic scenery and smartly written scenes that cut between heroes on both sides and those awaiting to take advantage of the outcome.

In their early introductions, characters are referenced by their proud warrior lineages and their performances in previous battles. Characters are prone to much speech-making, and Hanson continuously incorporates Greek words without providing strong enough context or any translation as to what the words actually mean.

While overall this creates a very profound, weighty, and yes...Homeric tone, it also creates a speed bump for the reader who must adjust to Hanson's' writing style. This approach works well in his chapters on the battle of Leuktra and the immediate aftermath. This approach doesn't work well in most other areas. After a time, I felt just worn down by the weight of the story and the writing.

The testosterone-fueled battle sequences are exciting. What's in between is cumbersome. If you like this time period and are excited by the opportunity to read a modern day epic 'poem' then this book is a solid read and recommended.

I received this book through Amazon's Vine program.

[Abigail]

I'm usually a fast reader, but I started this several months ago and am still "currently reading." (I do intend to finish, it's just been slowgoing.) I'm about halfway and can say so far:

--The battle scenes (from early on) were very good. I was able to understand and imagine something of what it was like to be a spearman in the phalanx.
--I've enjoyed learning some of the history of this time, including the small details of everyday life.
--I like names, including Greek names, so those haven't been any particular problem for me.
--The pace overall is very slow and rather less than engaging--in particular the style seems clumsy to English ears; perhaps in consequence, I'm having a hard time caring about the characters.

Content:
--The battle scenes are, well, battle scenes. Not glossed over, but vivid without wallowing in offensively graphic detail.
--Language and descriptions are occasionally blunt, but convey the vulgarity of some characters without descending into raunchiness (or one might say that a character might be raunchy but the book itself is not, if that distinction makes sense).
--There is a chapter that is set mostly in a house of prostitution. Not as bad as it could have been, I suppose, but there were still a few paragraphs that went further than they needed to, in my opinion (though I'm sure quite historically accurate). If you are wary of this sort of thing (and so far it has only involved this one chapter) you can skim or skip without losing much, if anything at all, as regards plot.

I'll update further once I have finished the whole thing.

Disclosure: I won this book through Goodreads First Reads.

[John Nevola · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s as if he was there.

Victor Davis Hanson is one of the most gifted classicists of our time. He is also one of the greatest thinkers of this generation. His descriptions of ancients times as well as his analysis of modern times demonstrates an understanding and brilliance shown by few.

In The End of Sparta, he describes the political events that led to the Sparta’s loss of hegemony in Greece. For centuries, the Spartan war-machine ruled over most of Greece. They were professional soldiers, trained from the age of seven whose needs (planting, harvesting, maintaining a city) were supplied by slaves and Spartan women, Their adversaries were mostly farmers, shopkeepers, blacksmiths and other simple folk who laid down their tools and picked up the implements of war, whatever they owned, to fight this professional army. Sparta easily won virtually all battles.
The Battle of Leuktra, the highlight of this book, was the first time the Spartan phalanx was routed. Using unusual tactics and motivated by a cause to free the slaves, Epaminondas of Thebes routed the Spartans and pursued them to their home in Laconia.

This book is difficult to read at times and slows down after the Battle of Leuktra. However, there is a wealth of information and explanation on the downfall of one of the greatest city-states in antiquity if the reader sticks with it.

John E Nevola - Author of The Last Jump and The Final Flag
U.S. Army Veteran – SP/5
Military Writer's Society of America

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, started well, became really stolid in the middle and then perked up again at the end. I would have enjoyed it more if the editor had cut out about 250 pages in the middle section.

Ok as a sweeping narrative but a bit light on characterisation so couldn't get overly involved with them.
But I learned quite a lot about Ancient Greece so that was a plus.

[GBL · Rating 3 out of 5]

The End of Sparta by Victor Davis Hanson tells the story of Epaminondas, the Theban general who led his army to triumph over the Spartans at Leuktra in 371 BC and then went on to lead his army south to invade Sparta and release the helots, the slaves of the Spartan state.
The story is told through the eyes of Melon, a Farmer, who is the hero of Leuktra after, as was prophesied, killing the Spartan King Kleombrotos. Melon is present at all the significant events of the defeat of Sparta and his viewpoint is the one that guides the novel. The other major characters in the novel - Chion and the prophetess Neto - are linked to Melon and their stories build a wider picture of events.
There is a powerful story here but I am not sure it is well told by Hanson. The prose is dense and the drama is often drowned in detail and for me the scholarship is too heavy for the story being told. This is Hanson's first novel and perhaps the scholar has won here, losing the sense of what a novel should do to engage and interest the reader. Three stars seems a poor reward for such a weighty novel but I think the story would have been better served in the hands of a Scarrow or a Kane or a Cameron or a Sidebottom.

[Jason Tanner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I imagine the germ of this story was someone saying something generic about Athens and Sparta and how Sparta was the "warrior culture" and then Victor Davis Hanson said "but actually..." and went on a long-winded speech about Thebes that nobody cared to listen to.

Because that's how it reads. I like history. I like novels. I like historical novels. But this one was a slog. It featured a bunch of people I couldn't be bothered to care about going to war for some reason, then coming home and doing something else for a while, and finally going back to war because whatever.

(Spoilers: Sparta didn't end in this book.)

I'm glad I finished this book in the same way I'm glad when I do an extra set of push-ups: I didn't get any immediate satisfaction out of it, but I can convince myself that I am somehow a slightly better person for having done it.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a really hard time with this one. My main issue was with the stilted language, which interfered with my reading of the story and characters. I could see the poetry in the writing when the author mimicked the Iliad's style for some of the battle scenes, but the style didn't work the rest of the time. I could never care about the majority of the characters and simple events took far too long to tell. I kept going because I am stubborn and because I did want to know what happened, but it was a long slog.

[K.A. Masters · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are four women in this book:
* Elektra, queen of Sparta. Two lines of dialog. Taunts the protagonist, gets murdered
* Damo, the protagonist's daughter-in-law, who has two lines of dialog and gets married [without her say] to the protagonist's slave so he can stay on the farm.
* Erinna, Amazon poet, who fights for freedom, but gets tortured and murdered.
*Neto, protagonist's idealistic love interest, who who gets brutally raped, humiliated, and tortured over numerous chapters.
I'm tired of reading books like these.

[Robert E. Metzger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Victor Davis Hanson and pretty much gobble up all his work. Unfortunately this novel has been hard for me to read, I think it’s because of my lack of knowledge of Ancient Greek history. The battle scenes are outstanding but I found the other chapters somewhat tedious. I’ll still read VDH but not sure of reading more novels

[Mark McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rare foray into historical fiction for this writer, whose works on ancient Greece and especially warfare in that period are superb. A good fun read - it moves along very nicely, and the characters are lively and interesting.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is well-written in the sense that it closely appropriates the style of an ancient epic. However, the lofty and dense nature of the text makes this novel pretty laborious to read. I found myself skipping over large portions of rhetoric just to get through.

[Candace Centanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF. Nothing wrong with the book itself or writing style, I could just tell by the first few pages that it wasn’t what I was looking for in a novel. If you’re into this genre, I would still recommend checking it out. This is more just a personal preference.

[R. Silva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring

I was expecting an interesting and engaging novel. This is not a novel. The prose is dull, the story very slow, the characters not well developed.

[Al Adducci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victor Davis Hanson!

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been on my reading list for so long that I forget where the recommendation came from. It's a pretty good yarn about a period of classical Greece that I know virtually nothing about. Enjoyable but didn't blow me away. Bit long-winded. Some odd choices in the structure but I'll trust the author's intent there. Wasn't a fan of all the prophecy parts. It never really gets back to its own high-water mark of the first battle in the beginning of the book.

[Alia parr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miss Sparta

Interesting story but really miss the ( half of the events ) from the point of view of the Spartans.

[Adrian Gonzales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, Great Telling

Mr. Hanson is unmatched in his knowledge of Greece, and shares this knowledge with us here. I enjoyed this telling of the fall of Sparta very much.

[Lanko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptionally well-written. I actually thought this was an History book, but it's historical fiction.

The first third or so of the book is fantastic, with great sentences, writing and vivid descriptions and discussion of battles.

After that the dust settles and it kinda of loses holding power... I think it was because the characters were viewed from too much narrative distance of how they were feeling and described.
I think the author himself said something about it being challenging writing as a "novel". Indeed, historians really like facts, events and descriptions. But storytelling really requires another set of skills. While I could say who was who, I couldn't say I really felt for the characters.

On the other hand there are fantastic passages and I heavily quoted the book. Some passages really had me put the book down and reflect a bit.
I specifically liked how the author kept a sense of ancient atmosphere in the writing. Far too many times I read books that are set in Medieval-inspired settings, or Ancient and such, but have such a too modern feel in the speech, the descriptions and character's actions.
But here I really felt like I was seeing how things really were in Ancient Greece, from speech to their superstitions, to their expectations and desires, the language style, etc.

This alone made the book really interesting. Even the details of farm management and city construction were fascinating, specially when the text gets a little philosophical about it.

Overall great read, if a bit dry and slow at various parts in the middle.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me more than 150 pages to develop any kind of fondness for The End of Sparta, any kind of appreciation for it as a novel (for long stretches, it felt like the "Silmarillion of Ancient Greece," and I mostly despise Tolkien's great folly of a book). Because for long stretches it (Sparta) doesn't feel like a novel! Victor Davis Hanson is never as interested in human dimension as a novelist should be (the characters, throughout the whole first half of the book, felt less like characters or personalities than like chess pieces Hanson was maneuvering about -- in fact, Epaminondas never feels like anything more than a cipher); likewise, he (Hanson) is not in the least interested in language (the prose is dry as a bone, not unlike the prose likely found in his history texts). So what happened? How did I end up liking a novel with so little interest in characterization and poetics? Answer: Hanson figures characterization out at the midway point. Once we find Neto (whose clairvoyance begins to feel genuinely intriguing rather than like some quirk in character) meeting Erinna the Warrior Bard of Lesbos (by a mile, my favorite character in the novel), the pieces start falling into place -- and lots of characters feel increasingly fleshed out: Chion, Ainias, Gorgos, Melon and Proxenos, from the earliest pages, assume real personalities (Gorgos proves to be a chilling villain, as is Elektra), while new characters (especially Erinna and Gaster, and to a lesser extent Melissos -- how cool was it to learn, in the final pages, that he would go on to father Alexander the Great!) leap off the page, too. But the book, as a whole, was so frustrating in that it would be enthralling for big chunks (I found the strategies on the eve of Leuktra marvelous, and the close quarters battle itself as marvelous) and dull as shit for long patches (the whole year after Leuktra, with all of the characters lazing about in a kind of Grecian ennui, was insufferable). But it recovers -- and becomes a narrative populated with people we care about, which The Silmarillion never does.

Were these men the revolutionary thinkers they sometimes appear to be? Well, someone in that day and age was politically revolutionary. And I think Hanson does a good job of creating a kind of heady brew in which his characters steep -- these were men and women who were springing up in a vibrant philosophical tradition, whose reverence for Pythagoras informs their thought and action in much the same a Christian's reflections on Christ inform his or her thought, action, conversations, etc. It seems they were feeling their way through a thicket of conflicting impulses -- a clashing of their ethics and idealistic vision with their anxieties about people proving undeserving. We have these same conversations now. And the point seems to be that truism that history repeats itself, that nothing ever really changes. So when Hanson writes "A democracy [...] could not survive should its leaders trample the laws as they pleased" -- it feels true for then precisely because it remains true now. American democracy will fall and vanish, in the end -- and when that happens, it will be in large part because of the contempt its leaders have for its design and parameters. That we see Epaminondas riding off into the sunset as an icon, rather than being held accountable for thumbing his nose at the laws meant to keep his imperialist nature in check, feels true, too, because we see it all the time. Presidents assert privileges they never have nor were meant to have -- and they get away with murder. And we still build monuments to them, name libraries after them, etc. So the novel adheres pretty closely, I think, to the flaws and friction in the human political drama -- and this makes up a good deal for what is lacking in the characters feeling like characters for much of the book. In sum: Hanson gets much of the minutiae wrong, but much of the vast canvas absolutely correct. He's an astute writer, but not a very good novelist.

So there it is: a good book that could very well have been a great book and -- for a helluva long time -- felt like a bad book.