I taught for many years at Camden School for Girls and then at Roedean. I was Head of Classics at both schools, teaching Latin, Greek, Ancient History and Classical Civilisation. CSG was a grammar school when when I joined (1973) but became progressively comprehensive from 1976 onwards. This greatly affected my style and approach to teaching, as I encountered more and more mixed-ability teaching. I loved teaching Classics but Ancient History was always my first love.
The thinking behind the first edition (1996) was to give a continuous political and military history of Ancient Greece - but with a difference. Each chapter would cover an aspect of Greek History (e.g. The Persian War) but the approach would be based on the most commonly set essay questions (i.e. Greek Strategy and the Leadership of Sparta in 480-479). In addition, each chapter would cover the views of the different schools of scholarly thought; would have plentiful quotations of the full range of primary sources; and a critical discussion of their reliability and usefulness.
The second edition (2010) is more than 20% bigger. There are three main reasons for this new edition: first, to meet the requirements of the new A/S and A2 syllabuses - hence extended material on the Delian League and the Athenian Empire, and the extra chapter covering the period 421-413; second, to update all the relevant quotations and references in the fourth edition of LACTOR no. 1: The Athenian Empire which underpins so much of my fifth-century chapters; third, to include and update the radical new scholarly thinking on Sparta and its society. I hope that, after many years' experience as a classroom teacher of Ancient History and as a member of the J.A.C.T. Ancient History Committee with its emphasis on primary sources as the best possible means to construct Greek history, this book will be of use to students.