Dr. Owen Rees

Yeah, absolutely.

It's one of those sort of ironies of Spartan history where at the moment of its great success, it is already falling apart.

So as much as it is them at their sort of hegemonic point, allegedly leading the Greeks, it is just a downward trajectory pretty much from that point onwards.

Yeah.

And the other irony with Sparta is the fourth century is when we actually get almost good evidence.

bold claim for Sparta.

The Spartan history of the early fourth century is very much the work of Xenophon, who has a good understanding of Spartan systems.

He spends time in Spartan lands.

He knows the Spartan king.

His account is we get to see Sparta not necessarily realistically.

There's still a propagandistic nature to what he's doing, but it is better than we've had before.

Precisely that.

And he is writing about it in various different books.

He's given us these different perspectives.

So it is quite odd.

You are right.

We sort of overlook the fourth century as a result.

And the irony is never sort of lost on us.

He is.

I'll upset people now.