Matthew P. Maher. The fortifications of Arkadian city states in the Classical and Hellenistic periods.

Abstract

Matthew Maher’s monograph on the fortifications of Arkadian city states is (although not mentioned in the book) based on a PhD dissertation at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) in 2012. It is a very welcome volume, because it supplies the growing interest in both the history and archaeology of Arkadia as a central Greek region and in ancient fortifications in a regional scope. As Maher writes in his introduction, he sees his study in the light of the ‘move away from traditional stereotypical interpretations of a poor and isolated Arkadia towards a view of a moderately prosperous region whose inhabitants generally followed the same patterns of social, political, and cultural development seen elsewhere in ancient Greece’ (p. 1) – a move that only can be appreciated.