In which Epa makes a snarky book recommendation - the 1st Victor Davis Hanson novel

Review

“Like Victor Davis Hanson, I have a fondness for the much-abused ancient Greek Thebans, and I entirely share his glowing admiration for Epaminondas of Thebes, Sparta’s nemesis and the supreme philosopher-general of all antiquity. In The End of Sparta, his debut novel, the remarkable classical historian Victor Hanson does full and equal justice to both the arms and the man.”—P.A. Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge

Product 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.