Book description
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
Hanson performs the difficult feat of not talking down to readers
while still presuming no prior knowledge of the war.
Victor
Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in
Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution,
Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California
State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for
Tribune Media Services. His many books include the acclaimed The
Father of Us All, A War Like No Other, The Western Way
of War, Carnage and Culture, and Ripples of Battle.
