It is 30 years since the publication of the title's first edition, and it is testament to M.'s approach that this remains a thought-provoking and stimulating book. M. sets out not to demonstrate that there truly was a ‘Spartan Mediterranean’, but rather to explore the use of myth in different political contexts; chiefly, to pave the way for future settlement and to link different communities together through a shared ‘Spartan’ heritage. M. envisages Spartan horizons as a triptych with panels depicting Lakonia, the Peloponnese, and overseas links such as Thera, Taras, Lybia, Herakleia Trachinia, Melos and Crete. Although the reality of a Spartan Mediterranean is not the principal focus, it is positive to see a presentation of potential Spartan mobility over a long period and wide area, in opposition to the stereotype of a landlocked power primarily interested in direct territorial expansion, which has proved persistent.
M. consistently argues for a high dating of Spartan colonisation in the Mediterranean, specifically that Sparta was an active coloniser in the eighth century bce but stopped with the Messenian Revolt of the seventh century (p. 72). In so doing, M. actively pushes against ideas of Spartan inactivity in this sphere and the notion of a ‘Dark Age’, a position that requires significantly less defence now than it did 30 years ago thanks to considerable subsequent study of the Early Iron Age. However, too many of these reconstructions of Spartan colonisation rely on speculative dating and, often, late literary evidence. There is generally too much trust placed in these literary sources, while certain other traditions are dismissed almost out of hand. For example, evidence for a Spartan foundation of Selge in Asia Minor (Polyb. 5.76; Strabo 12.7.3) is dismissed as patently fictive (p. 67); yet Pharis, Geronthrai and Pherai are considered ‘possible candidates for acceptance’ as short-distance colonies, whose inhabitants were removed and replaced by Spartans in the eighth century, on the testimony of Pausanias and Conon (p. 85).
Despite these occasional inconsistencies, M. is generally persistent in questioning the cynicism of traditional qui bono arguments surrounding mythical foundation stories and instead presses the view that myths may exist and be brought to the forefront at suitable moments in history. Myths concerning the travels of Menelaos and Herakles are central to this thesis, and the regular appearance of the former in particular (that Herakles’ travels took him to most corners of the Greek world, and beyond, makes him an easier hero to rely upon) offers some support to M.'s position. However, this approach is not without its minor drawbacks, notably that myths and traditions could be invented as well as (re)emerge at opportune moments. We would surely not regard all traditions relating to the Persian Wars (e.g. Hdt. 8.94) as springing up in the immediate wake of 479 bce nor believe that all contained some kernel of truth, but we must concede that some developed later, to suit different needs at different times. M. often places too much faith in sources later than Herodotus for the reconstruction of movement in the early Archaic period. Significantly, more rigour could also be applied to the context of the later literary sources. Just as M. argues that existing traditions could be brought to the fore at a useful time, this consideration of the ‘right time’ could also be applied to the context of ancient writers – did it benefit Herodotus, Thucydides, Diodorus, Plutarch, Strabo or, more crucially, any of their intermediary (mostly lost) sources, to bring forward certain myths to explain certain actions in the context of their writings? Individual sources are subject to consideration and criticism in flashes (e.g. Isokrates on p. 22 or Strabo's quotation of Antiochos of Syracuse at p. 117), but this is not maintained consistently.
M. seeks to qualify this approach somewhat in the introduction to the second edition, where he ‘insist(s) on quasi-historical myths as historical facts, serving as a frame of reference for collective identity … while not necessarily regarding these accounts as reflecting any kernels of truth’ (p. xxxv), though the subsequent paragraph immediately restores the potential for kernels of truth explaining the genesis and sustainability of certain myths. Chief among these is the Return of the Herakleidai, Sparta's ‘charter myth’, the existence and persistence of which M. uses to largely dismiss suggestions of continuity of habitation from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age in Lakonia (pp. 43–6). The picture is far more complex than M. acknowledges, and there is considerable material and archaeological evidence that should be brought to bear. Indeed, it would be good to see more archaeology incorporated into the approach to this topic. This is not the focus of the work, but the natural expansion of this approach would be to see the application of material evidence. Regarding the incorporation of material evidence, the work often suffers from the curse of a second edition. For example, a discussion of Spartan and Argive ties to the island of Kythera is cut short by the statement that ‘archaeology from Kythera is too late for comfort’ (p. 82), in spite of considerable archaeological discoveries from the island in the past 20 years that shed significantly more light on this discussion. The integration of more material evidence would enable firmer conclusions than M. achieves in reliance on literary evidence about whether these mythologies, used to justify expansions and form friendship ties, were mere stories put about to justify actions and ambitions, or if they obscure some distant grain of truth, links largely forgotten and mythologised, but which continued to bind people together. M. advocates for such an approach, centred on archaeological evidence (p. 71), and in the new introduction praises I. Finkelstein's archaeological approach to myth and territory in the Near East (p. xxxvii), yet the integration of material evidence is largely lacking throughout this work, and readers should wonder whether this is an approach that could also be more rigorously applied to the question of a ‘Spartan Mediterranean’.
Sparta itself looms large throughout this work, mostly as a shadow. M. rightly highlights that many examples of Spartan colonisation were driven by discontent groups in Sparta and Lakonia, from the Partheniai of Taras to the wanderings of the Spartan prince Doreios, and suggests similar motives for other potential colonies with particular reference to Amyklaians at Melos, Gortyn, Thera and Taras. This focus on continuity is a positive feature, but Sparta itself is too often slightly monolithic, and more consistent and detailed consideration of archaic and classical Spartan society would be welcome. Indeed, there could be more attention to Spartan attitudes towards these colonisation myths and wider self-presentation, for example, the resurgence in popularity of Achaian heroes in sixth-century Sparta.
Despite these limitations, this remains a stimulating work. The core focus and approach of this book remain important to students of Spartan history and Greek colonisation, and even 30 years after its initial publication it offers detailed analysis that should continue to spark valuable further investigation.
