Esparta : Auge y caída de una superpotencia de la Antigüedad

At Thermopylae, three hundred Spartans defied the Persians, the most powerful empire of the ancient world, and forged a legend that has lasted for millennia. Their scarlet cloaks and bronze shields remain the universal symbol of courage, discipline, and sacrifice, but behind the myth lay a radical and extraordinary society. Who were the Spartans, really? What made Sparta the most fearsome power in classical Greece? In Sparta, Andrew Bayliss immerses us in the astonishing story of the most formidable polis of antiquity, drawing on ancient sources and the latest archaeological findings, and shows us how a modest community in the Peloponnese became the dominant power in the Greek world. From the Messenian Wars that cemented its expansion to its victorious clash with Athens in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta forged an unstoppable machine, whose inner workings we will explore: the rigorous agoge that hardened boys into fearsome hoplites, the pervasive discipline, the shared authority of its two kings, and the unusual freedom and influence of its women within the context of the Greek world, who were able to manage land and wealth while the men fought. Sparta was a ruthless power whose legacy endured far beyond its own time. This is the essential story of the great military power of Classical Greece.