All Outputs (11)

Standing Among the Spartans: Institutions and Status within the Spartiate Community (2025)
Book
Davies, P. (2025). Standing Among the Spartans: Institutions and Status within the Spartiate Community. Bloomsbury Publishing

Conformity, uniformity, institutionality, exceptionality – each of these terms encapsulates an aspect of the common perception of Sparta, both among scholars and in the popular imagination.

This volume seeks to interrogate how rightly we may apply... Read More about Standing Among the Spartans: Institutions and Status within the Spartiate Community.

Sparta in Plutarch's Lives (2023)
Book
Davies, P., & Mossman, J. (Eds.). (2023). Sparta in Plutarch's Lives. Classical Press of Wales. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.5053549

Plutarch (born before AD 50, died after AD 120) is the ancient author who has arguably contributed more than any other to the popular conception of Sparta. Writing under the Roman Empire, at a time when the glory days of ancient Sparta were already l... Read More about Sparta in Plutarch's Lives.

Equal contributors? Agesilaus and Lysander within Plutarch’s ‘ Spartan Cycle’ (2023)
Book Chapter
Davies, P. (2023). Equal contributors? Agesilaus and Lysander within Plutarch’s ‘ Spartan Cycle’. In P. Davies, & J. Mossman (Eds.), Sparta in Plutarch's Lives (93-112). The Classical Press of Wales. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.5053549.8

Plutarch’s Sparta: Intertextual and Experiential (2020)
Book Chapter
Davies, P. (2020). Plutarch’s Sparta: Intertextual and Experiential. In T. Schmidt, M. Vamvouri, & R. Hirsch-Luipold (Eds.), The Dynamics of Intertextuality in Plutarch (429-439). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004427860_035

In this chapter I propose a substantive usage of ‘intertextual Sparta’ as denoting the pervasively intertextual character of Plutarch’s understanding of Sparta. I examine the scope and definition of this ‘intertextual Sparta,’ and I distinguish it fr... Read More about Plutarch’s Sparta: Intertextual and Experiential.

Polyaenus 1.45.4: Lysander’s Heracles or Thasos’s? (2019)
Journal Article
Davies, P. (2019). Polyaenus 1.45.4: Lysander’s Heracles or Thasos’s?. Mnemosyne, 72(6), 1036-1040. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12342648

Plutarch, Lysander, and a Disappearing Heraclid Reform (2018)
Journal Article
Davies, P. (2018). Plutarch, Lysander, and a Disappearing Heraclid Reform. Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 58(4), 523-541

Out of the Archives: Oxford, the SPSL, and Literae Humaniores Refugee Scholars (2017)
Book Chapter
Davies, P. (2017). Out of the Archives: Oxford, the SPSL, and Literae Humaniores Refugee Scholars. In S. Crawford, K. Ulmschneider, & J. Elsner (Eds.), Ark of Civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930-1945 (77-95). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780199687558.003.0005

This chapter provides a broader analysis of the reception of refugee scholars by Oxford’s academic community. Drawing heavily upon the SPSL’s archive and Oxford University’s own archives, Davies considers the cases of around a dozen refugee scholars... Read More about Out of the Archives: Oxford, the SPSL, and Literae Humaniores Refugee Scholars.

The Cinadon Conspiracy as Literary Narrative and Historical Source (2017)
Book Chapter
Davies, P. (2017). The Cinadon Conspiracy as Literary Narrative and Historical Source. In V. Pothou, & A. Powell (Eds.), Das Antike Sparta (221-243). Franz Steiner Verlag

Equality and Distinction within the Spartiate Community (2017)
Book Chapter
Davies, P. (2017). Equality and Distinction within the Spartiate Community. In A. Powell (Ed.), A Companion to Sparta (480-499). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119072379.ch18

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved. Spartan society possessed a number of idiosyncratic institutions and practices, elements of which were described using specifically Spartan vocabulary. This chapter considers the extent to which th... Read More about Equality and Distinction within the Spartiate Community.

Lynette Mitchell, The Heroic Rulers of Archaic and Classical Greece. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Pp. xi, 207. ISBN 9781472510679. $29.95 (pb) (2014)
Journal Article
Davies, P. (2014). Lynette Mitchell, The Heroic Rulers of Archaic and Classical Greece. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Pp. xi, 207. ISBN 9781472510679. $29.95 (pb). Bryn Mawr Classical Review,

‘Kalos kagathos’ and Scholarly Perceptions of Spartan Society (2013)
Journal Article
Davies, P. (2013). ‘Kalos kagathos’ and Scholarly Perceptions of Spartan Society. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 62(3), 259-279. https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2013-0013

In the course of his exhaustive study regarding the development of the term kalos kagathos, Félix Bourriot has proposed a specifically Spartan usage of the term, with a narrow military meaning. Here, I critically examine his arguments for this Sparta... Read More about ‘Kalos kagathos’ and Scholarly Perceptions of Spartan Society.