Aegean Greece in the fourth century BC /

Prominent scholar of Greek history Buckler (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) provides a book of impressive strengths, yet serious flaws. The worst flaw, the book's cost, prices it out of reach for most scholars and many college libraries, yet ancient history faculty and graduate students studying mainland Greece or the Aegean islands from the end of the Peloponnesian War (404 BCE) to the death of Philip II (336 BCE) need to consult this book. It is a great piece of scholarship with good maps, photographs, extensive notes, a thorough bibliography, and Buckler's eyewitness accounts of topography. Unfortunately, Buckler's perspective is warped. First, Thebes can do no wrong; later, Philip II of Macedonia becomes the innocent victim of Athenian skullduggery. A more balanced guide is G.T. Griffith's account of Philip II in N. G. L. Hammond and Griffith, History of Macedonia, volume 2 (CH, Oct'79). Buckler rants against Demosthenes, yet Demosthenes fought for the autonomy of Athens against the burgeoning power of Philip, which threatened to engulf all Greek poleis. Demosthenes failed, but Athens' citizens considered the failure a noble one, and Greek defeat was not inevitable, nor was the independent polis obsolete. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. M. Williams SUNY College at Geneseo