... prevent them from making an alliance with Persia against the rest of the Greeks. However, Hesiod still focuses on the polis as the ultimate when he talks about community in his Works and Days. Herodotus, writing at around 446 B.C, would have been writing from the perspective of his times, with it's increasing focus on democracy, and at the height of the Athenian Empire. During the Persian Wars, the city-states of Greece were forced to come together in a military alliance against Persia. It is from these roots that the idea of pan-Hellenism that would lead to the age of empire came about. The small, weak states clung to the strong military and naval powers of Sparta and Athens respectively. After the success of the battle of Salamis, more states asked for the protection of Athens, who had built up a formidable navy through Themistocles' deployment of the new silver ...

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