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 Greco-Persian 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.