Throughout the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first, Athens and Sparta have largely dominated Classical Greek scholarship. In recent years, however, wider perceptions of the Greek world have become increasingly prominent. While the merits of studying Athens and Sparta remain unchallenged, the critical look beyond them has generated a truly multifaceted picture of Greek political culture. At the same time, interest in, if not obsession with, the polis as the form of Greek statehood is now being balanced by growing research on the ethnos. Scholars explore patterns of constructing collective ethnic identities, expressions of such identities in material and immaterial culture, and their interaction with relation to the rise of urban communities that fostered the development of distinct, and exclusive, city identities. These approaches, in turn, all make their individual contributions to understanding the vexed question of the relationships prevalent in polis-politics.

This book reflects both changes. It focuses on a region that we believe decisively shaped Greek affairs of the Classical period. Conceiving of central Greece and its core Boeotia as an area with its own regional dynamics, this collection of essays attempts to examine Greek history in a test tube: while paying particular attention to regional patterns of interstate relations, we also hope to disclose the interaction between regional politics and Panhellenic affairs. This approach should add to the rising interest in a period in Greek history that still widely lacks understanding.

As the title indicates, we emphasize power in its broadest sense.