Self-styled Spartans storming the US Capitol, pro-Brexit Spartans in the House of Commons, Spartans on the silver screen (in the film 300), a Spartan warrior tattooed on the arm of Olympic breaststroker extraordinaire Adam Peaty: Spartans, Spartans everywhere, but not a drop of truth to be found, according to the author of this latest history of the ancient Spartans, who flourished during the last millennium BC.

The principal lineaments of the Spartan myth are clear enough, though they seem to expand with the telling. In battle the Spartans always preferred death to dishonour and never ran from a fight; they hated wealth and disdained giving or receiving bribes; they sought only collective, never individual,