''The Fractured Imaginary': Popular Thinking on Military Matters in Fifth-Century Athens'

Military thought in fifth-century Athens was a potpourri of traditional hoplitic and newfangled naval material. The Athenians did not challenge the centrality and prominence of the hoplite in popular thought as he became an increasingly marginal figure militarily. Instead they simply added new imaginary capital about citizen sailors and their glorious fleet. While this babble contributed to the political cohesion of the imperial city, as both sailors and hoplites received acknowledgment, justification and praise, it also contained ideas that sat uncomfortably with each other or were even directly contradictory. Thus with respect to popular thinking on military matters in fifth century Athens it is fitting to speak once again of the fractured imaginary.