Pious Warriors: Thucydides’ Account of the Spartans

Pious Warriors offers a fresh and thorough interpretation of the “other side” in one of history’s most studied conflicts. Attending closely to the narrative of the The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, Travis Hadley presents a comprehensive account of Thucydides’ Sparta on its own terms, giving the Spartan perspective on the war its due.

The Spartans emerge not just as foils to the Athenians, but as principled interlocutors who expose the limits of Athenian cynicism and the assumptions of contemporary realism. Whereas the Athenians hold that necessity absolves them from acting justly, the Spartans remain bound to justice through their piety. For Thucydides, Hadley argues, Sparta stands as the moral city in his history, a position that discloses unsettling truths about necessity, justice, the force of moral psychology in politics, and human nature itself.

“Hadley’s study of Thucydides’ Sparta is unique in its effort to comprehend the Spartan regime on its own terms, and not – as most commentators do – through Athenian eyes. The results are, therefore, especially valuable for the student of Thucydides. Particularly commendable are the book’s insights into the moral psychology of Spartan policy and action, specifically the complex relations between belief, speech, and deed. Hadley helps us to see past the problem of ‘Spartan hypocrisy’ as he recovers Thucydides’ careful articulation of the Spartan perspective. Ultimately, the book demonstrates why any cogent political ‘realism’ must root its analysis in a sympathetic understanding of the regime and its governing opinions.”
–Paul Diduch, University of Colorado Boulder