{{Short description|British ancient Greece historian (born 1947)}}
{{For|the music producer|Paul Cartledge (music producer)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}
{{Infobox academic
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| name               = Paul Cartledge
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| image              = Paul Cartledge in 2014 (2 av 5).jpg
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| caption            = Cartledge in [[Stockholm]] 2014 due to his books ''Alexander the Great'' and ''The Spartans: An Epic History''
| birth_name         = Paul Anthony Cartledge
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1947|3|24}}
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| education          = [[New College, Oxford]] ([[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin)|MA]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|DPhil]])
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| doctoral_advisor   = [[John Boardman (art historian)|John Boardman]]
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| discipline         = [[Ancient history]]
| sub_discipline     = {{hlist|[[Ancient Greece]]}}
| workplaces         = {{plainlist|
* [[New University of Ulster]]
* [[Trinity College, Dublin]]
* [[University of Warwick]]
* [[Clare College, Cambridge]]
* [[Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge]] }}
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'''Paul Anthony Cartledge''' (born in London<ref>{{Cite web |title='Sparta and the Commemoration of War' and 'The Killing Ground' review {{!}} History Today |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/sparta-and-commemoration-war-and-killing-ground-review |access-date=2026-01-27 |website=www.historytoday.com}}</ref> on 24 March 1947)<ref name="WW">"CARTLEDGE, Prof. Paul Anthony", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010; [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U42541 online edition]</ref> is a British [[ancient historian]] and academic. From 2008 to 2014, he was the [[A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture]] at the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref name="Cambridge University News">{{Cite web |url=http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2008100701 |title=University of Cambridge News 7 October 2008 |access-date=9 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207164929/http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2008100701 |archive-date=7 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2007-08/weekly/6115/22.html Cambridge University Reporter 11 June 2008]</ref> He had previously held a [[personal chair]] in [[History of Greece|Greek history]] at Cambridge. He is currently Emeritus A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge and a Global Distinguished Professor at [[NYU]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marranca |first=Richard |date=2025-07-31 |title=The Odyssey Still Matters! Dr. Paul Cartledge on Homer's Epic |url=https://www.thecollector.com/paul-cartledge-odyssey-interview/ |access-date=2025-12-20 |website=TheCollector |language=en}}</ref>

==Early life==
Cartledge was educated at [[St Paul's School (London)|St Paul's School]]<ref>[http://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/academic/classics St Paul's School: Classics Department]</ref> and [[New College, Oxford]], where, with his contemporaries [[Robin Lane Fox]] and [[Terence Irwin]], he was a student of [[G. E. M. de Ste. Croix]]. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, later promoted to [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|MA (Oxon)]] by seniority, in 1969. He remained at the [[University of Oxford]] to undertake [[postgraduate studies]], completing a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] (DPhil) under the supervision of [[John Boardman (archaeologist)|Professor Sir John Boardman]]. His thesis focused on [[Sparta#Archaeology of the classical period|Spartan archaeology]].

==Academic career==
Cartledge lectured at the [[New University of Ulster]] in 1972–73, at [[Trinity College, Dublin]], from 1973 to 1978, and at the [[University of Warwick]] in 1978–79.<ref name="WW"/> In October 1979, he moved to Cambridge University<ref>[http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/87854/frontmatter/9780521887854_frontmatter.pdf ''Sophocles and the Greek Tragic Tradition''], Cambridge University Press 2009 {{ISBN|978-0-521-88785-4}} foreword by Paul Cartledge</ref> where he is a [[fellow]] of [[Clare College]].<ref>[http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/directory/paul-cartledge Cambridge University Classics Faculty website]</ref>

In 2008, Cartledge was elected to the newly established [[A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture|A. G. Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture]] at [[Cambridge University]],<ref name="Cambridge University News"/> a position from which he retired at the end of September 2014.<ref>[[A. G. Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture]] Cambridge Classics Faculty News January 2014</ref>

Cartledge holds a visiting Global Distinguished Professorship at [[New York University]], funded by the [[Greek Parliament]],<ref name="Cambridge University News"/> and sits on the European Advisory Board of [[Princeton University Press]].<ref>[http://press.princeton.edu/about_pup/european_advisory_board.html Princeton University Press Accessed 17 April 2014] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608160559/http://press.princeton.edu/about_pup/european_advisory_board.html |date=8 June 2011 }}</ref>

Cartledge is also a holder of the Gold Cross of the [[Order of Honour (Greece)|Order of Honour]] of Greece and an [[Honorary citizenship|Honorary Citizen]] of [[Sparta, Peloponnese|(modern) Sparta]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scott, (Doctor) |first1=Michael |title=Honorary Graduands and Medallists - Summer 2017 |url=https://warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/hongrads/summer2017/#Cartledge |website=warwick.ac.uk |publisher=U. of Warwick |accessdate=1 June 2018}}</ref>

He is Vice-Chair of the [[British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cartledge |first=Paul |date=2023-06-11 |title=Elgin, Byron, and those marbles revisited |url=https://neoskosmos.com/en/2023/06/12/dialogue/opinion/elgin-byron-and-those-marbles-revisited/ |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=NEOS KOSMOS |language=en}}</ref>

==Field of study==
Cartledge's field of study is [[Athens]] and [[Sparta]] in the Classical Age; he has been described as a [[Laconophile]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-31 |title=British Philhellene Paul Cartledge Honored by the Greek State |url=https://www.greece-is.com/news/british-philhellene-paul-cartledge-honored-hellenic-republic/ |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=Greece Is |language=en}}</ref>

He was chief historical consultant for the [[BBC]] TV series ''The Greeks'' and the [[Channel 4]] series ''The Spartans'', presented by [[Bettany Hughes]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria - Ancient Sparta: Myths versus Reality |url=https://old.greekcommunity.com.au/gocmv_public/index.php/en/latest-news/890-ancient-sparta-myths-versus-reality |access-date=2024-06-16 |website=old.greekcommunity.com.au}}</ref>

Cartledge has appeared several times over his career on the [[BBC]] radio program ''[[In Our Time (radio series)|In Our Time]]'' on episodes that discuss the ancient world.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/guide | title=BBC Radio 4 - in Our Time - Episode guide }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Cartledge is married to Judith Portrait, a solicitor who acts as trustee of part of the [[Sainsbury family]] shareholding in [[Sainsbury's]] in blind trust.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2004/sep/05/theobserver.observerbusiness The Observer 5 September 2004] accessed 9 October 2014</ref>

In August 2014, Cartledge was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''[[The Guardian]]'' opposing [[Scottish independence]] in the run-up to September's [[2014 Scottish independence referendum|referendum on that issue]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/07/celebrities-open-letter-scotland-independence-full-text |title=Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories &#124; Politics |publisher=theguardian.com |date=7 August 2014 |accessdate=26 August 2014}}</ref>

==Publications==
* ''[[Agesilaus II|Agesilaos]] and the Crisis of Sparta'' (1987), [[The Johns Hopkins University Press]]. {{ISBN|9780801835056}}
* ''[[Aristophanes]] and His Theatre of the Absurd'' (1989), [[Duckworth Books|Duckworth]]. {{ISBN|1-85399-114-7}}
* ''[[Nome (Greece)|Nomos]] : Essays in [[Athenian]] Law, Politics and Society'' (1991), [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-521-37022-1}}
* ''The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece'' (1997), [[Cambridge University Press]].
* ''The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization'' (TV Books, L.L.C., 2000; BBC Worldwide, 2001; 2nd ed. [[Oxford University Press]], 2002)
* ''Spartan Reflections'', a collection of essays new and revised (Duckworth, 2001), {{ISBN|0-7156-2966-2}}
* ''Sparta and Lakonia'' (2nd edn., [[Routledge and Kegan Paul]], 2002).
* ''[[Hellenistic]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] Sparta'' (rev. edn., Routledge, 2002), (with A. Spawforth).
* ''The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others'' (2nd edn, [[Oxford University Press]], 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. {{ISBN|0-521-52593-4}}
* ''The Spartans: An Epic History'' (2nd edition, [[Pan Books]], 2003).  Published in the U.S. by The Overlook Press/Peter Mayer Publishers as ''The Spartans:  The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece, from Utopia to Crisis and Collapse'' (2003) {{ISBN|1-58567-402-8}}.
* ''[[Alexander the Great]]: The Hunt for a New Past'' ([[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]], 2004).
* ''[[Helots]] and Their Masters in [[Laconia]] and [[Messenia]]: Histories, Ideologies, Structures'' ([[Center for Hellenic Studies]], 2004). {{ISBN|0-674-01223-2}}
* ''[[Thermopylae]]: The Battle That Changed the World'' ([[The Overlook Press]], 2006). {{ISBN|1-58567-566-0}}
* ''Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice'' (Cambridge University Press, 2009). {{ISBN|978-0-521-45455-1}}
* ''Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities,'' (Oxford University Press, 2009). {{ISBN|978-0-191-57157-2}}
* ''Democracy: A Life'' (Oxford University Press, 2016). {{ISBN|978-0-199-83745-8}}
* ''Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece'' ([[Picador (imprint)|Picador]], 2020). {{ISBN|978-1509873166}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite news|accessdate=21 April 2007 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2007-03-05-300-history_N.htm
|work=USA Today
|title=This is Sparta? The history behind the movie '300'
|author=Dan Vergano
|date=6 March 2007}} Interview with Paul Cartledge.
* [http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/529941 'Forever Young: why Cambridge has a Professorship of Greek Culture' ] An inaugural lecture by Professor Paul Cartledge to mark the establishment of the A G Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture, Monday 16 February 2009 at Mill Lane Lecture Theatre, Cambridge
* [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/feb/17/classics-cambridgeuniversity The myths of 'ancient Greece' dispelled], as explained by Paul Cartledge
* {{cite web
 |accessdate  = 19 January 2008
 |url         = http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/staff-bios/academic-research-staff/paul_cartledge/
 |title       = Ancient History at Cambridge
 |work        = Faculty of Classics
 |publisher   = University of Cambridge
 |url-status     = dead
 |archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080411232442/http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/staff-bios/academic-research-staff/paul_cartledge/
 |archivedate = 11 April 2008
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
* [http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1663363 ''Forward To The Past! Hello To Democracy, Sparta, And All That'']  A valedictory lecture by The AG Leventis Professor Of Greek Culture, Professor Paul Cartledge, Thursday 20 February 2014 at Mill Lane Lecture Theatre, Cambridge

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{{succession box|title=[[A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture]] at [[Cambridge University]]|years=2008 – 2014 |before=None: new position|after=[[Tim Whitmarsh]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cartledge, Paul}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:People educated at St Paul's School, London]]
[[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Clare College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Scholars of ancient Greek history]]
[[Category:English historians]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Academics of Ulster University]]
[[Category:Classical scholars of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Warwick]]
[[Category:Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of classics]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:Professors of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Contributors to the Oxford Classical Dictionary]]