Thebes in the Fifth Century: Heracles Resurgent

It comes as no surprise to discover that this book is a revision of a PhD thesis: writing the history of Thebes in the fifth century BC is the sort of thankless task which one would hardly choose to undertake without the carrot of a doctorate dangling before one's nose. The main events are already familiar: Thebes medised in the Persian Wars; Athens won the hegemony of Boeotia in 457 and lost it in 447; Thebes became the dominant partner in the Boeotian League, and played an increasingly active role in the Peloponnesian War, coming into conflict with Sparta first over the Peace of Nicias, and later over the question of whether Athens ought to be destroyed after her defeat. Her enhanced military power, confidence and prestige at the end of the century, and her resentment of Sparta's high-handedness, laid the foundations for her period of hegemony in the fourth century under the inspired leadership of Epaminondas.