ABSTRACT
Ancient Greece, during the four centuries from about 500 to about 100 BC, occupies a more central position in the evolution of modern international society than any other system in this part of our enquiry, and deserves our more detailed attention. It is important to us for two reasons. First, the city states and the Persians in the first half of the period, and the Hellenistic monarchies in the second, organized their external relations in very innovative and significant ways. Second, the GrecoPersian system exercised great influence on the European system, out of which the present system has developed; and for several centuries aspects of Greek practice served as models for the European society of states. There was a natural resemblance between the two societies. Both were in theory well towards the independences end of the spectrum; and the parallels were greatly reinforced by the classical education of European and American statesmen and thinkers who dominated international practice from the Renaissance to the early part of this century.
