ABSTRACT
Wimbledon, July 1991) War is often said to have been central to Greek society. As well as introducing some of the themes running through this volume of papers presented at seminars in the universities of Leicester and Nottingham during 1988-90, this paper aims to suggest, via a brief examination of the real scope and nature of Greek warlike activity as presented in ancient and modern writers, that its importance and effects in ‘real’ terms have been exaggerated. At the same time, however, it follows from this that war in ancient Greece was (and is) presented as more important than it ‘actually’ was for a variety of ideological reasons; when these are laid bare, Greek society is better understood.1
