From Plataea to Potidaea

Book excerpt: From the Greek victory over Persian forces on the field of Plataea to the Athenian blockade of the rebel city of Potidaea - key events in the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, respectively - the half-century of Greek history known as the Pentecontaetia is an era for which sources are few and interpretation is controversial. Now, eminent historian E. Badian brings together six essays - one new and five revised for this volume - that shed new light on one of the key periods in the history of the ancient world. How was the Persian War finally settled, and what was the nature of the relationship that emerged between the two great powers of the Aegean, Athens and Persia? Is it possible to determine the sequence of events of the half-century between Xerxes' retreat and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War? Should the general picture of Thucydides as the objective and "scientific" historian be revised, at least as far as this period is concerned? In addressing these and other questions, E. Badian provides the penetrating insights and rigorous scholarly argument, to which his readers have become accustomed.