Published on May 13, 2026 (Episode 454)
Introduction
The story of classical Greece is often told, rightly or wrongly, as the story of the alliance, competition, and eventual war between Athens and Sparta. Even in antiquity, each city fascinated the other. Athenians imagined Spartans as disciplined, laconic conquerors; Spartans regarded Athens with a mixture of admiration, suspicion, and alarm. Yet despite their differences, both cities shared fundamental Greek assumptions about honor, competition, citizenship, and excellence.
In his new book Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece , my guest Adrian Goldsworthy tells the story of classical Greece through the relationship between these two cities: from their legendary origins, through the Persian Wars, and into the tensions that would ultimately lead to the catastrophe of the Peloponnesian War. Along the way we discuss democracy, slavery, naval warfare, the strange logic of Greek politics, and why the Greeks never succeeded in becoming “Greece.”
About the Guest
Adrian Goldsworthy is a historian of the classical world and the author of numerous books on Greece and Rome, including biographies of Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Philip and Alexander. He was last on Historically Thinking to discuss Augustus. This is his sixth appearance on the podcast.
For Further Investigation
Adrian Goldsworthy, Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece (Basic Books, 2026)
The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War (Free Press, 1998)
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, translated by Robin Waterfield (Basic Books, 2025)
The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories (Anchor Books, 2009)
Herodotus, The Histories, translated by Tom Holland (Penguin, 2015)
Barry Strauss, The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece— and Western Civilization (Simon and Schuster, 2005)
Battle of Salamis
Jennifer T. Roberts, The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece (Oxford University Press, 2017)
—, Out of One, Many: Ancient Greek Ways of Thought and Culture (Princeton University Press, 2024)
Related Episodes
The Forever War—Jennifer Roberts on the Peloponnesian War
This is Sparta—Andrew Bayliss on whether Sparta was what we think it was
The Forgotten City—Paul Cartledge on Thebes
Out of One, Many—Jennifer Roberts on what made the Greeks…Greek
Athens—Bruce Clark on the long history of the city of Athens
Tags
Ancient Greece; Athens; Sparta; Peloponnesian War; Persian Wars; Classical History; Greek Democracy; Military History; Adrian Goldsworthy; Historical Thinking
