The ancient Greek world consisted of approximately 1,000 autonomous polities scattered across the Mediterranean basin and was remarkable for both its diversity and its uniformity. As Greeks dispersed throughout the Mediterranean, the different environmental and human ecosystems they encountered created important differences among widely scattered settlements: each Greek community developed its own unique set of socio-political institutions and social practices. Nonetheless, despite their dispersal and diversity, Greek communities were bound together by a network of commercial, cultural, diplomatic, and military ties and shared important commonalities, most notably language and religion.

The Oxford History of the Archaic Greek World, a collaborative effort by more than forty eminent scholars, offers twenty-one detailed and comprehensive studies of key sites from across the Greek world in the period between c. 750 and c. 480 BCE. During that period, Greeks confronted a series of demographic, political, social, and economic challenges and generated an array of responses that transformed the ways in which they lived, worked, and interacted. Much of what is now seen as distinctive about Greek culture--such as democracy, stone temples, and nude athletics--first developed during the Archaic period.

The series is organized alphabetically by polis. Volume I contains detailed and up-to-date studies of Argos, Chalcis and Eretria, Chios-Lesbos-Samos, and Corcyra. Together with the other volumes in the series, the Oxford History of the Archaic Greek World offers a new and unique resource for the study of ancient Greece that will transform how we understand a crucial era in antiquity.

Paul Cartledge is Inaugural A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the Faculty of Classics at University of Cambridge. His previous books include Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction and After Thermopylae: The Oath of Plataea and the End of the Graeco-Persian Wars.

Paul Christesen is Associate Professor of Classics at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Ancient Greek History and Olympic Victor Lists and Sport and Democracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds.

Note to the Reader
Series Editors' Preface
A Note on Chronology
Spelling Divergences
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Argos
Jonathan M. Hall

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Sources
1.3 Natural Setting
1,4 Material Culture
1.5 Political History
1.6 Legal History
1.7 Diplomatic History
1.8 Economic History
1.9 Familial/Demographic History
1.10 Social Customs and Institutions
1.11 Religious Customs and Institutions
1.12 Cultural History
1.13 Conclusion

Guide to Further Reading
Contributor Biography
Gazetteer
Bibliography

Chapter 2: Chalcis and Eretria
Sylvian Fachard and Samuel Verdan

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Sources
2.3 Natural Setting
2,4 Material Culture
2.5 Political History
2.6 Legal History
2.7 Diplomatic History
2.8 Economic History
2.9 Demographic History
2.10 Social Customs and Institutions
2.11 Religious Customs and Institutions
2.12 Cultural History
2.13 Conclusion

Guide to Further Reading
Contributor Biographies
Gazetteer
Bibliography

Chapter 3: Chios, Lesbos, and Samos
Paul Christesen, Giuseppe Lentini, Sarah Murray, and Matt Simonton

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations

3.1 General Introduction
Section A Chios
3.2a Sources
3.3a Natural Setting
3,4a Material Culture
3.5a Political History
3.6a Legal History
3.7a Diplomatic History
3.8a Economic History
3.9a Demographic History
3.10a Social Customs and Institutions
3.11a Religious Customs and Institutions
3.12a Cultural History

Section B: Lesbos
3.2b Sources
3.3b Natural Setting
3,4b Material Culture
3.5b Political History
3.6b Legal History
3.7b Diplomatic History
3.8b Economic History
3.9b Demographic History
3.10b Social Customs and Institutions
3.11b Religious Customs and Institutions
3.12b Cultural History

Section C: Samos
3.2c Sources
3.3v Natural Setting
3,4c Material Culture
3.5c Political History
3.6c Legal History
3.7c Diplomatic History
3.8c Economic History
3.9c Demographic History
3.10c Social Customs and Institutions
3.11c Religious Customs and Institutions
3.12c Cultural History

3.13 General Conclusion

Guide to Further Reading
Contributor Biographies
Gazetteer
Bibliography

Chapter 4: Corcyra
Hans-Joachim Gehrke and Philip Sapirstein

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Sources
4.3 Natural Setting
4,4 Material Culture
4.5 Political History
4.6 Legal History
4.7 Diplomatic History
4.8 Economic History
4.9 Familial and Demographic History
4.10 Social Customs and Institutions
4.11 Religious Customs and Institutions
4.12 Cultural History
4.13 Conclusion

Guide to Further Reading
Contributor Biographies
Gazetteer
Bibliography