Archaic Eretria : A Political and Social History from the Earliest Times to 490 BC

Eretria, on the island of Euboia, was an early and significant coloniser in both the Levant and in the West.

During the period of the Persian advance towards the Aegean, the city was the moving spirit in the Greek resistance to Persian domination.

Her democratic government pre-dates that of Athens and given the presence in Eretria of political exiles from Peisistratid Athens, it may have provided the basic model of Kleishthenes' reforms in Attica.

This comprehensive and well-argued book is the first detailed history in any language of the city, one of the most prosperous and important of the pre-classical period.

This study offers an alternative to the orthodox Athenocentric perception of the history of late sixth-and early fifth-century Greece.

Keith Walker's stimulating and thoughtful work seamlessly synthesises evidence from archaeology, philology, textual research, epigraphy and numismatics.

The study begins by examining the period from the later Neolithic to the early Iron Age.

The following chapters cover the city's rise to prominence in the Archaic era. Throughout there is skilful reconstruction of the complex alliances and enmities of the Greek cities, crucial to understanding significant events such as the Ionian Revolt.

The text is complemented by 60 photographs and other useful maps and illustrations, along with detailed appendices on issues of particular interest and a comprehensive bibliography.