Dr Andrew Bayliss - SPARTA: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Superpower

About

Sparta has long captured the modern imagination. Its legendary warriors and stark discipline have been held up as a model for toughness, justice and masculinity, influencing everyone from political theorists to football managers. But behind the familiar images of bronze shields and austere heroism lies a far more complex, and more human, story.

In this absorbing and gripping talk, based on the book described by The Times as absorbing and praised by Sam Leith as gripping, Dr Andrew Bayliss takes us deep inside the world of Sparta: from its beginnings as a small settlement in the Peloponnese to its astonishing ascent as the foremost military power in Classical Greece. Bayliss explores the remarkable institutions that set Sparta apartits double monarchy, its stark and demanding system of education, and the unusual freedoms held by Spartan women, which puzzled and fascinated their Greek contemporaries.

Yet this is also a story of fragility beneath the armour. Drawing on archaeology, ancient texts, and modern reinterpretation, Bayliss examines the tensions and contradictions that ultimately contributed to Sparta's decline. As Dan Snow put it, There are few bits of history more mythologised, sensitive and political than Sparta but luckily we have Bayliss.This is history that speaks as much to our own worldidentity, state power, collective myth-makingas to the ancient past. For anyone interested in how societies rise, define themselves, and ultimately change, this is an unmissable session.

Dr Andrew Bayliss is Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Birmingham and one of Britains leading authorities on Sparta and the ancient Greek world. He is the author of Sparta: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Superpower and The Spartans: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press), both widely praised for bringing clarity and insight to a subject long clouded by myth.

Bayliss has appeared on Dan Snows History Hit, BBC History Extra, and The Spectator Book Club, where his ability to combine scholarly rigour with lively storytelling has made him a sought-after commentator. His research focuses on Spartan society, values, emotional culture, and the ideological structures that sustained its power.He is a clear, engaging and thoughtful speaker, known for making the ancient world vivid, relevant and deeply compelling for modern audiences.

A Q&A Session will follow.