Central Greece and the Politics of Power in the Fourth Century BC

by John Buckler, Hans Beck

Overview

The streams of Greek history in the fourth century are highly controversial. Sandwiched between the Classical fifth century and the Hellenistic period, the era has invited various readings, most prominently the verdict of decrepitude and decline. Recent discoveries, however, indicate that the period was not simply illustrative of the political, social, and economic weaknesses of the Greek city-state. This book examines the fourth century from an area with its own regional dynamics: central Greece, a region often considered as a backwater for macro-politics. The authors disclose a vivid tension between regional politics in Boeotia and its adjacent territories and Greek affairs. They provide a meticulous and, at times, microscopic investigation into the region's military and political history, together with detailed analyses of the topography of the places 'where history was made.' The result is a dazzling account of Greece's power transition crisis on the eve of the Macedonian conquest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521837057
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/24/2008
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

JOHN BUCKLER is Emeritus Professor of Greek History. Selected publications include The Theban Hegemony, 371-362 B.C. (1980), Philip II and the Sacred War (1989) and Aegean Greece in the Fourth Century B.C. (2003).

HANS BECK is John MacNaughton Professor of Classics at McGill University in Montreal and has published widely in the field of Greek federalism. He is the author of Polis und Koinon (1997).

Table of Contents

Prologue: power politics in fourth-century Greece; Part I. Alliance: 1. A survey of Theban and Athenian relations between 403 and 371 BC; 2. The incident at Mt. Parnassus, 395 BC; 3. The Battle of Coronea and its historiographical legacy; 4. The King's Peace, alliance, and Phoebidas' strike (382 BC); 5. Sphodrias' raid and the evolution of the Athenian League; Part II. Hegemony: 6. The re-establishment of the boeotarchia (378 BC); 7. The Battle of Tegyra, 375 BC; 8. Plutarch on Leuctra; 9. Alliance and hegemony in fourth-century Greece: the case of the Theban hegemony; 10. Xenophon's speeches and the Theban hegemony; 11. The phantom synedrion of the Boeotian Confederacy, 378–335 BC; 12. Boeotian Aulis and Greek naval bases; 13. Epaminondas and the new Inscription from Cnidus; Part III. Domination: 14. Thebes, Delphi, and the outbreak of the Sacred War; 15. Pammenes, the Persians, and the Sacred War; 16. Philip II, the Greeks, and the King, 346–336 BC; 17. A note on the Battle of Chaeronea; 18. Philip's designs on Greece; 19. Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

'Well-written and carefully researched, the volume offers many novel and interesting insights into the nature of Roman imperialism and hegemony in Italy as well as into local conditions in the southern parts of the peninsula, along with ample demonstration of relevant research.' De novis libris iudicia

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