Content area
Full Text
Simon Hornblower, The Greek World 479-323 BC, Routledge, London, 2011. pp. 410 ISBN: 978-0-415-60292-1(pb); $57.00
This is the fourth edition of Hornblower' s now classic textbook, The Greek World 479-323 BC, the first edition of which was published in 1983. The work deals with the history of the Greek world from the end of the Persian wars to Alexander's death in 323, with an emphasis on military and political history in particular. A central goal of this text is to emphasise regional diversity in the Greek world, as well as to provide a clear narrative of the period it considers. This new edition retains the detailed analysis and broad regional coverage of the three previous editions, while adding comprehensive updates of the notes and expanding the regional coverage through the inclusion of a new 'sub-chapter' on the islands of the Greek world.
For those unfamiliar with earlier editions of this work, a brief outline of the contents is in order, though the many detailed arguments on numerous historical and historiographical topics preclude a detailed discussion of all the points made therein. The book opens with an introduction that outlines the scope of the work and introduces the relevant ancient sources, including helpful information for the student on English translations of these. Chs 2 and 3 detail the foundation of the Delian League and its growth into an 'Empire'. At the end of Ch. 3, following his discussion of the revolt of Samos in 440, Hornblower inserts his new sub-chapter on the islands, discussed further below.
The section on islands introduces a series of chapters dealing with various regions of the Greek world, beginning with Ch. 4 on South Italy and Sicily, followed by Kyrene and Egypt in Ch. 5, the Persian Empire and Asia Minor in Ch. 6, Argos in Ch. 7 and Macedón, Thessaly and Boiotia in Ch. 8. These regional chapters reflect the book's attempt to break away from Athensdominated narratives of Greek history - as Hornblower (H) states in his preface, for him 'Greek world means Greek world' (p. xvii). Most of these chapters contain a useful short survey on the important sources for the region's history and examine a variety of topics, including political structures and points of religious life....