From Persia with love : propaganda and imperial overreach in the Greco-Persian Wars / Tom Holland -- Pericles, Thucydides, and the defense of empire / Donald Kagan -- Why fortifications endure : A case study of the walls of Athens during the classical period / David L. Berkey -- Epaminondas the Theban and the doctrine of preemptive war / Victor Davis Hanson -- Alexander the Great, nation building, and the creation and maintenance of empire / Ian Worthington -- Urban warfare in the classical Greek world / John W. I. Lee -- Counterinsurgency and the enemies of Rome / Susan Mattern -- Slave wars of Greece and Rome / Barry Strauss -- Julius Caesar and the general as state -- Adrian Goldsworthy -- Holding the line : frontier defense and the later Roman Empire -- Peter J. Heather.