ABSTRACT
Athenian politics after 403 cannot be understood apart from Athenian society and the economy, which were affected so drastically by the Peloponnesian War, especially in its last phase and by the civil war. A survey of the postwar economy ought not to include foreign possessions. Funke's recent description of a broad consensus, even after 403, among Athenians of middling wealth is an underestimate of the divisions in postwar society. When it came to war and empire, perhaps the greatest difference between the two ends of the socioeconomic scale was political. The empire, it is argued, was good for townsmen, but of little benefit for the freeholders of the countryside. This chapter considers the effect on society and economy of the Iono-Decelean and civil wars; the consequent class and geographical divisions, and the impact of these divisions on politics.
