ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is a map of Greek history and of the issues that exercise scholars who study it. It traces the political history of the fourth century down to and including the conquests of Alexander. It explores the ways in which what it was to be Greek was changed by the loss of political independence. It shows how the kings who took over and split between them Alexander's new empire encouraged Greek cities by their patronage to conform to their vision of what those cities were, and shows how being Greek came to be re-invented not as a claim to political freedom but as a cultural identity. It looks at the changed dynamics of the fifth-century Greek world after the great Persian Wars of 480-479 BC. It focuses more on Athens and Sparta and politics than a broad and equal survey would have afforded.
