Paul Anthony Cartledge is the 1st A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University, having previously held a personal chair in Greek History at Cambridge. He was educated at St Paul’s School & New College, Oxford where he took his 1st degree & completed his doctoral thesis in Spartan archaeology in 1975 under Prof. Sir John Boardman. After a period at the University of Warwick he moved in 10/79 to Cambridge University where he’s a fellow of Clare College.
He’s a world expert on Athens & Sparta in the Classical Age & has been described as a Laconophile. He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series The Greeks & the Channel 4 series The Spartans, presented by Bettany Hughes. He’s also a holder of the Gold Cross of the Order of Honour & an Honorary Citizen of modern Sparta. Besides the Leventis Professorship, he holds a visiting Global Distinguished Professorship at New York University, funded by the Greek Parliament.

Books in order of publication:

Publications

  • Aristophanes and His Theatre of the Absurd (1989), Duckworth.
  • Nomos : Essays in Athenian Law, Politics and Society (1991), Cambridge University Press.
  • Spartan Reflections, a collection of essays new and revised (Duckworth, 2001).
  • Sparta and Lakonia (2nd edn. 2002).
  • Hellenistic and Roman Sparta (rev. edns 2002), (with A. Spawforth).
  • The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others (2nd edn, 2002), the product of research into Greek self-definition.
  • Kosmos: essays in Order, Conflict and Community in Classical Athens (coauthor Paul Millett; (2002), Cambridge University Press.
  • The Spartans: An Epic History (2nd edn, 2003).
  • Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past (2004).
  • Helots and Their Masters in Laconia and Messenia: Histories, Ideologies, Structures (2004), Center for Hellenic Studies. Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World (2006), The Overlook Press.
  • Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice (2009), Cambridge University Press.
  • Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities, (2009), Oxford University Press.
  • Democracy: A Life (2016), Oxford University Press.