Athens has, at different times and from different points of view, been cited as a model of moderate democracy and triumphant humanism, or, on the contrary, as an illustration of the disorders due to demagoguery and misguided imperialism. Professor Mossé looks beyond these judgments to discuss the exceptional destiny of Athens – a city which for two centuries dominated the Eastern Mediterranean world, but then faded from the political scene when Rome extended its control over the whole Mediterranean. The history of Athenian democracy does not end in 404 BC, as is sometimes thought, when the city capitulated to Sparta at the end of its Golden Age. Athens in Decline, first published in 1973, demonstrates how the city experienced another seventy-five years of greatness, and survived, more or less curtailed, under Macedonian domination. She examines the reasons for the final collapse and follows the stages of a decline which was not wholly without grandeur.

Historians are used to studying the origins of war. The rebuilding in the aftermath of war is a subject that – at least in the case of Athens – has received far less attention. Along with the problems of reconstructing the economy and replenishing the population, the problem of renegotiating political consensus was equally acute. Athens after the Peloponnesian War, first published in 1986, undertakes a radically new investigation into the nature of Athenian political groups. The general model of ‘faction’ provided by political anthropology provides an indispensable paradigm for the Athenian case. More widely, Professor Strauss argues for the importance of the economic, social and ideological changes resulting from the Peloponnesian War in the development of political nexus. Athens after the Peloponnesian War offers a detailed demographic analysis, astute insight into political discourse, and is altogether one of the most thorough treatments of this important period in the Athenian democracy.

Law and Society in Classical Athens, first published in 1987, traces the development of legal thought and its relation to Athenian values. Previously Athens’ courts have been regarded as chaotic, isolated from the rest of society and even bizarre. The importance of rhetoric and the mischief made by Aristophanes have devalued the legal process in the eyes of modern scholars, whilst the analysis of legal codes and practice has seemed dauntingly complex. Professor Garner aims to situate the Athenian legal system within the general context of abstract thought on justice and of the democratic politics of the fifth century. His work is a valuable source of information on all aspects of Athenian law and its relation to culture.

First published in 1951, The People of Aristophanes provides a sociological account of Athens in the period of its greatest glory. Drawing upon Old Attic Comedy and the plays of Aristophanes, the author recreates, for the reader, the life of Athens at that time. He writes extensively about social structure, family, religion and political relationships within the state, and discusses the far-reaching changes which took place within Athenian society.

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.

Plutarch’s Life of Phocion has not been closely analysed since 1840. Laurence Trittle’s study, first published in 1988, offers a new assessment of this significant and complex personality, whilst illuminating the political climate in which he thrived. Though often thought to be of humble origin, Phocion was educated in Plato’s Academy, rose to prominence in the innermost circles of Athenian political life, and was renowned as a soldier throughout the Greek world. Professor Trittle traces the origins and development of the historical tradition that so shaped an image of the "Good" Phocion, so that his actual achievements as a politician and general were all but lost. He can thus now be seen in the context of fourth-century Athens: as a major political leader, a worthy opponent of Philip of Macedon, and a champion of a politics of justice rather than of the traditional politics of enmity.

During the fourth century BC the number of Greeks who did not live as citizens in the city-states of southern mainland Greece increased considerably: mercenaries, pirates, itinerant artisans and traders, their origins differed widely. It has been argued that this increase was caused by the destruction of many Greek cities in the wars of the fourth century, accompanied by the large programme of settlement begun by Alexander in the East and Timoleon in the West. Although this was an important factor, argues Dr McKechnie, more crucial was an ideological deterioration of loyalties to the city: the polis was no longer absolutely normative in the fourth century and Hellenistic periods. With so many outsiders with specialist skills, Alexander and his successors were able to recruit the armies and colonists needed to conquer and maintain empires many times larger than any single polis had ever controlled.