The book offers a political and economic history of the Peloponnese in the early Hellenistic period, combining fragmentary literary, epigraphic and numismatic evidence with fieldwork archaeology. The beginning of the introductory Chapter 1 lays out the reasoning behind the project; namely, that the Peloponnese has conventionally been treated as ‘a backwater of little interest’ for scholars of the late Classical and Hellenistic periods (p. 1). S. explains this attitude as the result of a misperception that the Peloponnese, and Greece as a whole, experienced a general state of decline under oppressive Macedonian rule, as most famously stated by Polybius (esp. 2.41 and 2.62). Throughout the book, S. challenges the narrative of Hellenistic decay by pointing to the strong economic investment and political interest in the Peloponnese by Macedonian authorities. As such, the end of Macedonian involvement in the region after the battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 bc marks the end of the book's narrative. S. chooses this seemingly conventional endpoint to highlight the evidentiary discrepancy between the perceived negative impact of the Macedonians over the Peloponnese and the socio-economic realities on the ground. The book, therefore, ultimately makes a larger claim about how we should approach the Hellenistic period in general, arguing for broad continuity from the late Classical period.

Chapter 2 provides a detailed overview of the military and political history of the Peloponnese in the fourth and third centuries bc. S. attempts to clarify the long and necessarily convoluted narrative by emphasising geo-political continuities in the region: inter-polis conflict and diplomacy continued with the same virulence in the third century bc as it did before, due in no small part to the resilient irredentism of Sparta. S. convincingly argues against the idea of a Macedonian ‘sphere of influence’ or a systematic strategy of forceful domination in the Peloponnese. Instead, he suggests that Macedonian kings often preferred a ‘hands-off’ approach to Greek affairs. They adopted ‘divide and conquer’ attitudes aimed at maintaining, but also containing, the Spartan threat that was meant to avoid the consolidation of a serious Greek threat to their authority. S. carefully constructs his argument so as to draw our attention to the continued agency of Peloponnesian poleis in regional affairs, thus further undermining the flawed view that Hellenistic poleis became subservient to a domineering Macedonia.

The theme of political continuity in the early Hellenistic Peloponnese is further developed in Chapter 3, where S. argues against Polybius’ claim (2.41.9–10) that Macedonian kings (esp. Gonatas) systematically replaced local regimes with tyrants and garrisons. First, S. persuasively challenges the veracity of the literary accounts about widespread tyrannies being imposed on the Hellenistic Peloponnese. Then, he explains the few credible cases as instances of broad constitutional continuity from the Classical period. To support his arguments, S. points to the endemic problem of potential stasis within polis communities that continued into the Hellenistic period, noting that regime change always came about with internal support from at least part of the population with either pro- or anti-Macedonian leanings. S. thus concludes that internecine strife was the result of practical (if at times violent) collective discourse, not ideological ‘revolutionary’ aspirations, about what was best for the polis community in certain circumstances. In other words, the polis was alive and well, while Macedonian kings were willing participants in a more expansive game of internal politics.

In Chapter 4 S. looks to determine ‘whether people were worse off, better off, or in much the same state by the end of the early Hellenistic period’ (p. 159). The chapter thus provides the economic argument against the persistent theme of Hellenistic ‘decline’. His fieldwork expertise through his work on the Laconia Survey Project makes the chapter a particularly strong one. S. takes issue with methodological approaches that rely on modern capitalist expectations to see economic ‘growth’ where local conditions suggest that there are other socio-political phenomena at work. For instance, one may be tempted to see relatively smaller farmsteads or rural settlements as signs of economic depression following widespread destruction brought about by Macedonian aggression. However, survey archaeology provides a likelier explanation by pointing to increasing estate sizes with more diversified agriculture. S. connects this development to the growing financial and political capital of local elites in their crystallising role as benefactors of their respective communities (pp. 237–9). Indeed, literary and material evidence suggests that Macedonia's economic impact was in fact favourable, especially in the north-east Peloponnese.

In the final chapter (5) S. explains why the Hellenistic Peloponnese experienced broad continuity from the late Classical period. His answer has to do with the natural and political geography of the peninsula, whose highly fragmented character created physical and conceptual obstacles that inhibited socio-political and economic change. Once again, S.’s geographic understanding stands out, as he reiterates (see 1.2) the importance of approaching geographic space in non-unitary terms. For instance, his suggestion that we should see the peninsula as a set of regions due to its harsh and varied terrain (p. 254), helps explain why the Macedonians’ control always remained patchy and intermittent. Furthermore, S. argues that the geography of the place sustained the primacy of the resilient polis as the locus of local identity, infrastructure and interstate interaction. Accordingly, he interprets even innovative initiatives to form regional koina as efforts to safeguard the continued importance of the polis (pp. 290–1). And herein lies S.’s conclusion: since local elites dominated commercial, social and political interstate networks, the continuity of the vibrant polis served its elites most and was in turn safeguarded by them (pp. 287–93).

The book is a timely and important contribution to Hellenistic and Peloponnesian studies, which successfully retrieves the Peloponnese from a dual relegation in historiographic consciousness, being at once overshadowed by the Spartan mirage and by a narrative of transition between Athens and Rome. At the same time, some arguments in the book would have benefited from more discussion. For instance, recent scholarship on ancient Greek diplomacy (cf. A. Kydd, International Relations Theory: the Game Theoretic Approach [2015]) questions A. Eckstein's argument about the rudimentary character of diplomacy and the absence of international law in ancient Greece, to which S. adheres. Also, one would expect a title with a focus on networks to include a survey on network theory, especially considering the function of urban sanctuaries (mentioned briefly on pp. 291–2) as hubs connecting various nodes of individuals, cities or regions (cf. G. Reger, ‘Networks in the Hellenistic Economy’, in S. Ager and R. Faber [edd.], Belonging and Isolation in the Hellenistic World [2013], pp. 143–54). Finally, the conclusion on the role of elites in the Hellenistic polis is sure to cause debate among scholars, mainly because the question as to what constitutes a Hellenistic ‘elite’ is not yet settled. While there is general consensus that the function and agency of leading individuals in Hellenistic poleis changed after the advent of Rome, it is by no means clear what the nature of that evolution looked like from the early third century to the second century bc. The debate between J. Ma and C. Ando (BMCR 2014.02.21) captures the opposing views on the topic and highlights the stakes of the question. For this reason, a clear definition of the term ‘elite’ for the purpose of the book would have been very useful.

These points notwithstanding, scholars and students will benefit greatly from this long overdue narrative of Peloponnesian history, and especially from S.’s insight into survey archaeology and regional economy. Readers will also appreciate that the book has been very carefully edited; this reviewer caught only two minor typographical errors. The only small stylistic shortcoming is the inelegant enumeration of chapters and sub-chapters, producing slightly confusing section numbers such as ‘IV.1.f’. The book also includes a comprehensive index section, several helpful and well-designed maps as well as several very useful tables on poleis, tyrannies, and inscriptions and coinage production. Finally, S.’s careful analysis and robust methodology will serve as a worthy model for students and scholars on how to properly use literary, archaeological and geographic evidence to produce strong and persuasive historical arguments.