Waging War in Fourth Century Athens: New Appraisals

This volume provides a new assessment of Athens’ military capabilities and war efforts in the fourth century BC, highlighting the close connection between its democracy and military affairs. Athens after the Peloponnesian War has been the subject of intense study, particularly its military capabilities and war efforts and the workings of its democracy. We still do not have, however, a comprehensive assessment of Athens’ military record in the fourth century. This book provides a new detailed picture of this period, exploring what Athens was capable of and what it achieved militarily and diplomatically after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War. The volume also reassesses aspects of Athenian war making and warfare, including diplomatic and economic matters, from 404 BC down to and including the Lamian War of 323-322 BC. Waging War in Fourth Century Athens: New Appraisals is suitable for students and scholars in Classics and Ancient History, as well as those operating in adjacent fields of study, along with the general reader interested in the ancient world, warfare, and politics.

Table of Contents:
General Introduction (Paul Cartledge); 1. Warfare, Politics, and Economics; 1. Democracy, Politics, and War in the Fourth Century (Lynette Mitchell); 2. Rethinking Athenian Military Public Finance: Financial Strategies for Warmaking in the Early Fourth Century (Annabel Florence); 3. The Theorika in its Social, Fiscal, and Discursive Context: Fighting Philip or Helping the Needy (Dorothea Rohde); 4. The Military Reforms of Fourth Century Athens (David M. Pritchard); 2. Military Branches; 5. The Athenian Navy in the Fourth Century: Restoration, Incrementation, Transformation (Vincent Gabrielsen); 6. What do Do with the Thousand Hippeis After 404? Debating Reforms to the Athenian Cavalry in the Fourth Century (Jérémy Clement); 7. ‘Not Diminished, but Greater and Better’: Athenian Hoplite Performance in the Fourth Century (Adam Schwartz); 8. Athenian Peripoloi, Ephebic Training, and Peltasts (Nicholas V. Sekunda); 3. Military Power and War Efforts; 9. From the ‘Sound of the Flute’ to the ‘Death of a City’. Reflections on Athenian Poliorcetics from 404 to 322 (Julien Baldacini); 10. The Revival of Athenian Hegemony in the Corinthian War (Marie Durnerin); 11. From the Cadmea to Chaeronea: The Second League as A Form of Athenian Imperialism (Sviatoslav Dmitriev) 12. The Athenian War Effort against Philip II of Macedonia (Ian Worthington); 13. From Chaeronea to Lamia: A ‘Shipwrecked State’? (Lara O’Sullivan); 4. Popular Attitudes and the Military; 14. Generals and Generalship in the Fourth-Century Orators (Joseph Roisman); 15. From Villain to Hero: Conon’s Rehabilitation, Warfare, and Democracy (Aggelos Kapellos); 16. Military Values in Fourth-Century Tragedy (David Carter).

About the Author :
David M. Pritchard is Associate Professor of Greek History, Discipline of Classics and Ancient History, at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, and has published widely on Greek history. His most recent publications are Athenian Democracy at War (2019) and the edited The Athenian Funeral Oration: After Nicole Loraux (2024). Ian Worthington is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney, and has published extensively on Greek History and Greek oratory. His most recent publications are Macedonia Under the Argead Kings (2025), The Military Legacy of Alexander the Great: Lessons for the Information Age with Major Michael Ferguson (2024), and The Last Kings of Macedonia and the Triumph of Rome (2023).