Athenian Democracy at War

Classical Athens perfected direct democracy. The plays of this ancient Greek state are still staged today. These achievements are rightly revered. Less well known is the other side of this success story. Democratic Athens completely transformed warfare and became a superpower. The Athenian armed forces were unmatched in size and professionalism. This book explores the major reasons behind this military success. It shows how democracy helped the Athenians to be better soldiers. For the first time David M. Pritchard studies, together, all four branches of the armed forces. He focuses on the background of those who fought Athens' wars and on what they thought about doing so. His book reveals the common practices that Athens used right across the armed forces and shows how Athens' pro-war culture had a big impact on civilian life. The book puts the study of Athenian democracy at war on an entirely new footing.

1. Athenian democracy at war; 2. The armed forces; 3. Naval matters in old comedy; 4. Costing festivals and wars; 5. The cost of the Peloponnesian War; 6. Public finance and war in Ancient Greece; 7. Sport and war; 8. War and Panhellenic sporting victory.

David M. Pritchard is an ancient historian at the University of Queensland. He has won ten research fellowships in Australia, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In 2018 Pritchard is again a research fellow in Strasbourg University's Institute for Advanced Study. He has authored Sport, Democracy and War in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 2012) and Public Spending and Democracy in Classical Athens (2015), edited War, Democracy and Culture in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 2010), and co-edited Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World (2003). In addition to his five books, Pritchard has published more than fifty book-chapters and peer-reviewed articles. He speaks on radio and regularly writes for newspapers around the world.