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

by John Buckler , Hans Beck

• ISBN13: 9780521837057
• ISBN10: 0521837057
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

List of maps	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
List of abbreviations	p. xv
Prologue: Power politics in fourth-century Greece (by Hans Beck)	p. 1
Alliance	p. 31
A survey of Theban and Athenian relations between 403-371 BC	p. 33
The incident at Mt. Parnassus, 395 BC	p. 44
The battle of Coronea and its historiographical legacy	p. 59
The King's Peace, alliance, and Phoebidas' strike (382 BC)	p. 71
Sphodrias' raid and the evolution of the Athenian League	p. 79
Hegemony	p. 85
The re-establishment of the boiotarchia (378 BC)	p. 87
The battle of Tegyra, 375 BC	p. 99
Plutarch on Leuctra	p. 111
Alliance and hegemony in fourth-century Greece: the case of the Theban Hegemony	p. 127
Xenophon's speeches and the Theban Hegemony	p. 140
The phantom synedrion of the Boeotian Confederacy, 378-335 BC	p. 165
Boeotian Aulis and Greek naval bases	p. 180
Epaminondas and the new inscription from Cnidus	p. 199
Domination	p. 211
Thebes, Delphi, and the outbreak of the Sacred War	p. 213
Pammenes, the Persians, and the Sacred War	p. 224
Philip II, the Greeks, and the King, 346-336 BC	p. 233
A note on the battle of Chaeronea	p. 254
Philip II's designs on Greece	p. 259
Epilogue	p. 277
Glossary	p. 284
References	p. 287
Index	p. 305
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