Athenian Democracy and the Revival of Imperialistic Expansion at the Beginning of the Fourth Century B.C.

Abstract

7T~HE story of Athenian aspirations to hegemony and the history of Athenian imperialism are well established subjects of research in Greek history. Discussion of Athenian imperialist policy generally also touches on the problem of connection between external policy and the composition and ideology of the political parties within the state. Though the composition of the political parties and the inner circulation of their leadership have recently been reconsidered,1 it seems that there is still a widespread tendency to attribute extreme imperialistic policy to extreme democratic parties and a moderate foreign policy or opposition to imperialistic expansion to moderate or antidemocratic political parties. Can this be also deduced from our sources for the period at