Research into the mechanisms and the morality of Athenian hegemony is now perhaps livelier than ever. Of particular importance are the methods by which Athens drew money from the Aegean world with which to fund a vast fleet, to facilitate her own demokratia and to create ambitious public buildings still visible today. This collection of new studies, inspired and guided by an internationally acknowledged authority on ancient finance, Thomas Figueira, by focusing on how Athens raised finance, sheds light on more familiar questions: How oppressive, or otherwise, was Athens to fellow-Greeks and how did her demands vary over time? Contributors here suggest that Athens may have exercised hegemonic ambitions for longer than usually thought, applying greater experience, and more sensitivity to individual communities.

Thomas Figueira is Distinguished Professor of Classics and of Ancient History at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and an internationally-recognised authority on the politics and economics of ancient Greece. Among over one hundred and twenty-five publications, he is the author of Aegina: Economy and Society (1981); Athens and Aigina in the Age of Imperial Colonization (1991); Excursions in Epichoric History (1993); The Power of Money: Coinage and Politics in the Athenian Empire (1998), and co-author of Wisdom from the Ancients: Enduring Business Lessons from Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and The Illustrious Leaders of Ancient Greece and Rome (2001). He has also edited or co-edited five collections of essays.

Sean R. Jensen was educated at Brown University and Rutgers University, and has taught Classics and Ancient History at a range of institutions including Rutgers, Harvard, and Southern Indiana. His research interests lie primarily in Greek history, epigraphy, and literature, on which he has published a number of articles. He has been the Michael Jameson Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Harvard College Fellow in Greek History. His doctoral dissertation investigated sub-hegemonies in the Athenian fifth-century arkhe.