The Call for Papers for the panel “The Spartan Politeia”, to be held at the 17th Celtic Conference in Classics, Maynooth, 14–17 July 2026, has been issued.
The Spartan Politeia
Organizers:
Marcello Lupi, Università della Campania
Massimo Nafissi, Università di Perugia
Annalisa Paradiso, Università della Basilicata
Spartan prosperity and power were notoriously attributed by the ancient tradition to the soundness of its politeia, i.e. the set of political institutions and social practices (politeumata and epitedeumata) believed to have been introduced largely by the lawgiver Lycurgus. As is well known, this politeia and the way of life it promoted have been at the centre of extensive historiographical debate in both ancient and modern times. Already in the 5th century BCE, this debate took shape in a series of booklets usually entitled Lakedaimonion Politeia, which, though largely lost, outlined the framework of a reflection on the Spartan politeia that has continued into modern scholarship. Over the past decades, the exponential growth of research has produced countless studies on individual aspects of Spartan social and institutional order and, by seeking to move beyond the “mirage”, has placed the analysis of the Spartan politeia on a new footing.
In addressing such a widely debated issue, we aim to suggest some more defined lines of research, namely:
-a historiographical approach, which – building also on recent publications, notably the commentary by the late Jean Ducat to the new edition of Xenophon’s Spartan politeia in the Collection de l’Université de France – aims to reconsider the literary works dealing with the Spartan politeia from the 5th century to the Roman period, their authors, texts and contents;
-a history of ideas approach, focused on the concepts that underpinned Sparta’s politeia, such as homonoia, nomos, homoiotes, sophrosyne, arete, etc.;
-an institutional approach, which situates the Spartan case within the broader framework of Greek social and political institutions and updates our understanding of Spartan political structures through insights from contemporary political theory;
-a historical approach, reassessing the development, persistence, crises and transformations of Spartan institutions from the archaic to the Roman period.
Submission guidelines
Abstracts (in English) of no more than 300 words should be sent to the organisers
([email protected], [email protected], [email protected])
in both PDF and Word formats by 27 March 2026.
Papers may be 20 or 40 minutes in length; please indicate your preferred format in the abstract.
Given the limited number of available slots through this call, 20-minute papers are especially welcome.
Notification of acceptance will be sent on 31 March 2026.
