Athens and Sparta is an essential textbook for the study of Greek history. Providing a comprehensive account of the two key Greek powers in the years after 478 BC, it charts the rise of Athens from city-state to empire after the devastation of the Persian Wars, and the increasing tensions with their rivals, Sparta, culminating in the Peloponnesian Wars. As well as the political history of the period, it also offers an insight into the radically different political systems of these two superpowers, and explores aspects of social history such as Athenian democracy, life in Sparta, and the lives of Athenian women. More than this though, it encourages students to develop their critical skills, guiding them in how to think about history, demonstrating in a lucid way the techniques used in interpreting the ancient sources. In this new third edition, Anton Powell includes discussion of the latest scholarship on this crucial period in Greek history. Its bibliography has been renewed, and for the first time it includes numerous photographs of Greek sites and archaeological objects discussed in the text. Written in an accessible style and covering the key events of the period - the rise to power of Athens, the unusual Spartan state, and their rivalry and eventual clash in all out war - this is an invaluable tool for students of the history of Greece in the fifth century BC.

The Greek World is a collection of twenty-seven previously unpublished articles by distinguished scholars in the field of ancient history. The articles are thematically linked and cover a wide range of political, social, religious and philosophical topics in ancient history which take account of recent major developments in the study of ancient Greece. The contributors demonstrate how traditional, central topics in Greek history can be illuminated by examining the marginal elements of Greek society, such as far-flung communities on the edges of the Hellenic world, or the poor in its more famous cities.
This major work is both a reference collection of essays by leading specialists in their own fields and also a collective demonstration of new directions in Greek history.

This collection, first published in 1989, investigates aspects of the Spartan polity which have often been overlooked or underestimated. Viewed at least until the Renaissance as the epitome of classical virtues, Sparta has in the last two centuries suffered a rapid decline in reputation among liberal-minded scholars, repelled by many of the repressive measures employed by this remarkably successful city-state, which for centuries dominated mainland Greece. Recent studies have emphasised permanent problems which beset Sparta: the small size of her citizen body, the tensions between noble Spartiates and commoners, the ambiguous role of women, and, of course, the helots. Classical Sparta: Techniques Behind Her Success seeks to present this intriguing polis by exploring how its perennial difficulties were, for so long, ingeniously overcome. Specifically, the essays in this volume address themselves to broadly ideological issues, demonstrating how skilful propaganda and deception contributed significantly to the longevity of the Spartan state.

This collection, first published in 1989, investigates aspects of the Spartan polity which have often been overlooked or underestimated. Viewed at least until the Renaissance as the epitome of classical virtues, Sparta has in the last two centuries suffered a rapid decline in reputation among liberal-minded scholars, repelled by many of the repressive measures employed by this remarkably successful city-state, which for centuries dominated mainland Greece. Recent studies have emphasised permanent problems which beset Sparta: the small size of her citizen body, the tensions between noble Spartiates and commoners, the ambiguous role of women, and, of course, the helots. Classical Sparta: Techniques Behind Her Success seeks to present this intriguing polis by exploring how its perennial difficulties were, for so long, ingeniously overcome. Specifically, the essays in this volume address themselves to broadly ideological issues, demonstrating how skilful propaganda and deception contributed significantly to the longevity of the Spartan state.

In the past twenty years the study of Sparta has come of age. Images prevalent earlier in the 20th century, of Spartans as hearty good fellows or scarlet-cloaked automata, have been superseded by more complex scholarly reactions. As interest has grown in the self-images projected by this most secretive of Greek cities, increasing attention has focused on how individual Greek writers from other states reacted to information, or disinformation about Sparta. The studies in this volume provide new insights into the traditional historians' question, "What actually happened at Sparta?". But the implications of the work go far beyond Laconia. They concern preoccupations of some of the most studied of Greek writers, and help towards an understanding of how Athenians defined the achievment, or the failure, of their own city.

Euripides' interest in the psychology and social position of women is well known. Of the great Greek playwrights, he most directly reflects contemporary philosophical and social debates, and his work is of great value as a source for social history.
The important new studies in this volume explore Euripides' treatment of sexuality and Greek ideals of women's behaviour. Using a wide range of analytic techniques, seven scholars direct new light not only on Euripides' own views of women but also on the ideals and preoccupations of his contemporaries in this area. Athenian women of the classical period were used, in Plato's phrase, 'to a life in the shadows'. This book helps us to see how far the influence of these cloistered women extended into the sunlit world of men.

Euripides' interest in the psychology and social position of women is well known. Of the great Greek playwrights, he most directly reflects contemporary philosophical and social debates, and his work is of great value as a source for social history.
The important new studies in this volume explore Euripides' treatment of sexuality and Greek ideals of women's behaviour. Using a wide range of analytic techniques, seven scholars direct new light not only on Euripides' own views of women but also on the ideals and preoccupations of his contemporaries in this area. Athenian women of the classical period were used, in Plato's phrase, 'to a life in the shadows'. This book helps us to see how far the influence of these cloistered women extended into the sunlit world of men.

The work contains new articles by 27 specialists in ancient Greece. Periods studied range from Mycenean to the late Hellenistic; the Greek cultures in question are not only those of mainland Greece but include Asia Minor, Egypt and Italy.
A theme shared by many of the chapters in the volume is social history, and especially the history of those who were, metaphorically, at or beyond the margins of power - Women, the poor and slaves. In addition, several contributors look, in keeping with modern interests, at those who were on the literal margins of the Greek world. The work seeks to show how research into areas once disregarded as marginal can shed vital light on topics and authors traditionally seen as central. For example, Plato's reforms are illuminated through a consideration of his impatient and revolutionary attitude to women. Another essay shows how most potent symbol of old-fashioned, `central' Greek history, the Parthenon, can be understood more fully, as a political symbol, given a knowledge of the cosmetic techniques of (and the gossip about) the women of Classical Athens.
THe Greek World is a uniquely comprehensive and authoritative volume, in which social and political history interact in a way which is stimulating and enlightening. It is an essential library purchase for all scholars of ancient Greece.

eBook available with sample pages: PB:0415170427 EB:0203042166

Contents:
1. Euripides and Sparta 2. Laconica: Aristophanes and the Spartans 3. The Duplicitous Spartan 4. Two Shadows: Images of Spartans and Helots 5. Xenophon, Sparta and the Cyropaedia 6. `Blind Ploutos'?: Contemporary Images of the Role of Wealth in Classical Sparta 7. Images of Sparta: Writer and Audience in Isocrates' Panathenaicus 8. Plato and Sparta: Modes of Rule and of Non-rational Persuasion in the Laws 9. Aristotle on Sparta 10. Sparta Re(de)valued: some Athenian Public Attitudes to Sparta between Leuctra and the Lamian War

The study of the Spartans is now pursued more widely and intensively than ever. Indeed, no longer is Sparta the 'second city' of ancient Greece. This volume, the fourth in the established series on which Powell and Hodkinson have collaborated, breaks fresh ground, not least in the range of its contributors. The authors of the fourteen new papers represent nine different countries and demonstrate many of the fertile modern approaches to the history, the archaeology - and the still-influential image - of the city on the Eurotas.

Athens and Sparta is an essential textbook for the study of Greek history. Providing a comprehensive account of the two key Greek powers in the years after 478 BC, it charts the rise of Athens from city-state to empire after the devastation of the Persian Wars, and the increasing tensions with their rivals, Sparta, culminating in the Peloponnesian Wars. As well as the political history of the period, it also offers an insight into the radically different political systems of these two superpowers, and explores aspects of social history such as Athenian democracy, life in Sparta, and the lives of Athenian women. More than this though, it encourages students to develop their critical skills, guiding them in how to think about history, demonstrating in a lucid way the techniques used in interpreting the ancient sources. In this new third edition, Anton Powell includes discussion of the latest scholarship on this crucial period in Greek history. Its bibliography has been renewed, and for the first time it includes numerous photographs of Greek sites and archaeological objects discussed in the text. Written in an accessible style and covering the key events of the period - the rise to power of Athens, the unusual Spartan state, and their rivalry and eventual clash in all out war - this is an invaluable tool for students of the history of Greece in the fifth century BC.

The political aspects of Augustan poetry have attracted much academic interest. The aim of this study is to take account of the effects of Augustan propaganda not only on the work of contemporary Roman writers, but also on the critical tradition itself. The six essays presented in this volume explore the political themes in the work of major poets such as Virgil, Ovid, Horace and Propertius. Using traditional as well as post-structuralist approaches, the essays examine the controversies of the Civil Wars, the emerging issues of treason and free speech and changing representations of Cleopatra and female power.