ABSTRACT
This book discusses with the conviction by studying Athens after the Peloponnesian War, one could understand an important and absorbing 20 year period, and, as well, reach general conclusions about the nature of politics in classical Athens. The following conclusions are divided into four main subjects: unity and disunity in Athens during the period 403-386, the relation of socioeconomic to political developments in the period 403-386, the light shed by this period on the nature of Athenian politics, and the importance of the period in the broad sweep of classical Athenian history. The first conclusion is that Athenian political unity between 403 and 386 was fragile, at times tenuous. This stands counter to the prominent thesis that once the storm of the Thirty was weathered, only superficial and relatively unimportant political divisions existed in Athens.
