Reflection. While historians and other intellectuals of the fifth century B.C.E. took the polis for granted, the trauma of the Peloponnesian War led philosophers such as Plato to think beyond the political reality of the fourth century to speculate about a political Utopia, a model for a polis that could achieve some permanence. As important as Plato's speculations have been for the history of philosophy, however, the political reality that he rejected was moving beyond the polis altogether. Government was needed that could encompass areas and populations greater than any one polis, and yet no city could achieve lasting dominance over the others.

Spartan Hegemony. The restoration of democracy in Athens in 403 had little effect in the rest of Greece, where Sparta's power was unchallenged. This period of time is referred to as Spartan hegemony. The word...