Stephen Hodkinson - Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta

In the course of many years study of classical Sparta I have accumulated debts to a great number of persons and institutions. My education in ancient Greek history began as an undergraduate in the Manchester History School, where I was inspired to work on Sparta by the teaching of Cosmo Rodewald and the writings of Geoffrey de Ste Croix. My postgraduate research at Cambridge was skilfully guided, initially by Sir Moses Finley, and latterly by Paul Cartledge, to whom I owe over two decades of personal encouragement and advice. Anthony Snodgrass too has since the late 1970s given consistent support to my work. I am especially indebted to him and to James Roy for their helpful comments as examiners of my doctoral dissertation, of which this volume is a distant descendant.

Most of the research and writing for this book was performed during my tenure of a Nuffield Foundation Social Science Research Fellowship and an award under the Research Leave Scheme of the British Academy Humanities Research Board. The University of Manchester provided a further semester of sabbatical leave and also, through the Faculty of Arts Recurrent Grant for Research, funding for invaluable teaching relief during the final months of writing. My capacity to undertake this research has been aided immeasurably by the excellent holdings of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, supplemented where occasionally necessary by the efficient efforts of the InterLibrary Loans department. A fruitful month in the library of the British School at Athens enabled me to access numismatic material and work by Greek scholars not easily accessible in the UK. I also thank the editor of the BSA Studies Series, Dr W.G. Cavanagh, for permission to reproduce material from my contribution to vol. 4 in the series (Hodkinson 1998b) which forms a major part of

I am glad to express my gratitude to my colleagues (both academic and secretarial) in the School of History and Classics at the University of Manchester for their personal and practical support during the long gestation of this book. I am grateful to colleagues in the Department of Classics at the University of Nottingham, who generously offered me the honorary position of Special Lecturer, which has permitted my access to the Universitys library and computing facilities. David Taylor of the Department of Archaeology at Nottingham has kindly produced the volumes maps. One of the joys of working on Sparta today is the growing spirit of international cooperation among scholars from different nations. Many colleagues around the world have assisted me with specialist advice on particular aspects of my study. I have endeavoured to acknowledge their help at appropriate points in the text; and I apologise here to any whom I have inadvertently omitted. Certain academic friends, however, merit special mention. Robin Osborne and Paul Cartledge have provided constructive criticism of several chapters, which have been materially improved by their comments. Noreen Humble generously volunteered to proof-read several chapters. Above all, Anton Powell, my editorial collaborator over many years, has contributed much expert academic and technical assistance. To his unstinting efforts and to the unrivalled typesetting skills of Ernest Buckley I am indebted for the prompt production and publication of this complex book.

My greatest debts, however, are personal ones. My children (Christopher, David, Rosemary, Peter and Joy) have learned, with the enviable flexibility of the young, to tolerate a fathers constant preoccupation with a project seemingly without end. My wife Hilary Hodkinson has proof-read the entire volume and greatly improved my clarity of exposition. Her unswerving support has been a continual reminder that there are more important things in life than property and wealth. I dedicate this book to her.