2 out of 4 stars
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Ancient historical writings record the existence of Leotychides, the son of the famous military King, Agis II of Sparta. It does not include any details of his life, except that he did not become King upon his father’s death. The Fox, by M. N. J. Butler, chronicles the life of Leotychides at the end of the Peloponnesian war. We follow him after Sparta’s decisive victory over Athens and observe the beginning of the decline of the Spartan alliance.
I liked that the book used Leo’s boyhood training to present the exclusive Spartan culture and expectations. At age six, all boys leave home to live outdoors and learn Spartan discipline in the harshest of environments. They suffer their wretchedness in silence. Sparta has no written law, so the boys learn it by heart. Sparta has no currency, so a man measures his worth in accomplishments. The royal houses do not extend beyond the King and his heir. All other relatives are ordinary citizens. In this tradition of austerity, Leo learns pride, confidence, loyalty, and honor.
I expected the Fox to be a real person. Instead, it represents the Spartan citizen’s ability to sublimate his own physical and emotional pain for the good of Sparta. The construct comes from a fable taught during a boy’s military training. A young recruit who stole a fox thrust it under his cloak to hide it from the elder who questioned him about the theft. In fact, he hid it for so long that it began to scratch, bite, and tear at him. The youth did not flinch, but stood at attention to hide his larceny and suffer the pain in silence. You see, youngsters were not punished for stealing. They were punished for being caught.
As a young lad, Leo never meets his father. In fact, King Agis and his General, Lysander, are rumored to be lovers. Leo is the biological son of the neglected Queen and one of the enemy’s greatest admirals, Alkibiades. Leo suffers his shame and fury in silence. His mother’s brother, King Pausanios, is a surrogate parent for him. They develop a warm and loving relationship, which ends when Pausanios is exiled as the result of court intrigue. Leo holds back his outrage. Dorius, Leo’s platoon leader, and first love, falls in battle. Leo holds his dead body long enough to get control of his wild grief, then presents a radiant smile to his troops to reflect the pride he must show in Dorius’s honorable death. He loses one after another of his cousins, friends, and comrades, as the warrior King Agisilaos pushes for violent confrontation. He reluctantly joins with others who wish to see the King’s actions curbed. Without benefit of a Spartan trial, as is their right, the tyrannical King executes them all. Leo mourns for what his glorious country has become and flees. He ends his days as a mercenary dictating his story to a scribe. The scribe works for Philippos of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great. At times, a blond-haired Macedonian Prince is listening intently to Leo’s account.
As much as I enjoyed the story in The Fox, I found much of it to be annoying in its presentation. The first chapter is full of parenthetical expressions. When the reader is trying to become accustomed to unfamiliar names and fix the characters in mind, an aside does not help clarify. The book does not link the lengthy index of characters at the beginning to the text in the pdf version. It may have been more useful to footnote within the narrative. A geographical reference may have been helpful, too. The city-states were too numerous to absorb after a while. The conflicts and battles became repetitive and tedious. I think there may have been a better way to show how the constant warfare led to the depopulation of Sparta. The editing was not top rate. Misspelled words, sentence fragments, and quote marks out of place were common. I would give The Fox a 2 out of 4 star rating and recommend it only to an audience who has a passion for ancient history and, in particular, the Peloponnesian war.
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The Fox
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