Conclusion

This concluding chapter identifies the similarities and differences in the defensive activities of the Phocians, Aetolians, Acarnanians, and Arcadians circa 490–362. The tactics of the four ethnos, the potential threats to each ethnos, and the amount of foreign involvement in each defense provide sources of variation. Despite all of this variety, a common theme cuts across the four cases that reveals an underlying unity to the defense of Greek upland ethnē. Each of the four ethnos developed peculiar defensive strategies tailored to their respective geopolitical circumstances that guarded against potential invasions from the lowlands. Their methods and aims may have been different, but the calculation, coordination, and sophistication on display in the four cases show that these upland Greeks recognized the potential threats that surrounded them and had planned accordingly. The chapter then explains how the defensive strategies of the four ethnos differed from that of the polis-centric realm. It also explores the military roots of ancient federal states.