This title includes ten new essays from a distinguished international cast that treat Spartas most famous area of activity. The results are challenging. Among the contributors, Thomas Figueira explores the paradox that Spartas cavalry was an undistinguished institution. Jean Ducat conducts the most thorough study to date of Spartas official cowards, the tremblers. Anton Powell asks why Sparta chose not to destroy Athens after the Peloponnesian War. And Stephen Hodkinson argues that the image of Spartan society as militaristic may after all be aamirage. This is the sixth volume from the International Sparta Seminar, founded by Powell and Hodkinson in 1988. The series has established itself as the main forum for the study of Spartan history.