It is impossible, and undesirable, to separate war in and between ancient Greek poleis from their economies or from their societies, or to separate their economies and societies from each other. Nor is it helpful to consider 'war' as a freestanding factor that can be added, like an ingredient to a cake, to make up a final picture of the 'society' or the 'economy' of a 'model polis'. War did not just affect society and economy in a unilateral way: social and economic factors were often themselves very strong influences on war, in a flexible system in which complex...
prominence to citizen-hoplite-farmers as the use of mercenary and naval forces increased. We saw how the economics of funding warfare had major social implications and led to high social tensions. We examined how ubiquitous images of war in the ancient world were, and how linked they were to concepts of citizenship and manliness. We haven't at all been able to perform any more than a brief examination of these three areas, and yet one point emerges every time. War, society and economy in the ancient Greek world are inseparable, both for the Greeks themselves and for us their historians.