Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Chronology and King Lists
Introduction I: Historical Background
Introduction II: Environmental Background
ACT I: The Archaic Period (c. 750-480): The Formation of States
1: The Emergence of the Greeks in the Mediterranean
2: Aristocracy and the Archaic State
3: The Archaic Greek World
4: Athens in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries
5: The Athenian Democratic Revolution
6: Sparta
7: Greek Religion
8: The Persian Wars
9: The Greeks at War
ACT II: The Classical Period (479-323): A Tale, Mainly, of Two Cities
10: The Delian League
11: The Economy of Greece
12: Periclean Athens
13: Women, Sexuality, and Family Life
14: The Peloponnesian War
15: Socrates and the Thirty Tyrants
16: The Futility of War
17: Athens and Macedon
18: Alexander the Great
19: The Instability of Syracuse
ACT III: The Hellenistic Period (323-30): Greeks, Macedonians, and Romans
20: The Successor Kingdoms
21: Greeks and Macedonians in the Third Century
22: The Greek Cities in the New World
23: Life and Culture in the Hellenistic World
24: The Roman Conquest
25: A Feat of Imagination
Glossary
Recommended Reading
Index

About the Author

Robin Waterfield is an independent scholar, living in southern Greece. In addition to more than twenty-five translations of works of Greek literature, he is the author of numerous books, most recently Taken at the Flood: The Roman Conquest of Greece (OUP, 2014).

Reviews

`Drawing on contemporary literature and inscriptions, informed by the most up-to-date archaeology, illustrated throughout with half-tone photographs and containing an excellent timeline (from 1200 to 27 BC), lists of rulers (of Ptolemaic Egypt, Macedon from the fourth century, Pergamum, Persia, Syracuse and Seleucid Syria), fifteen maps and a glossary, this book provides an invaluable resource for anyone wishing a comprehensive account of Greek history and
culture, while reading lists point the way for those who wish to find out more. W's masterly review of how tensions between cultural unity and political disunity unfolded over eight hundred years is to be
thoroughly recommended.'
David Stuttard, Classics for All
`Waterfield's tone is suitably authoritative and measured... his book is enlivened by its detail.'
Daisy Dunn, Sunday Times
`Engaging but rigorously researched narrative history. All you ever needed to know about the Greeks.'
The Lady
`The scholarship is thorough, deep, and well-explained ... Readers looking for an authoritative account of almost any aspect of ancient Greek history should be thoroughly gratified.'
Kirkus