The book re-assesses ancient Greek warfare by examining literary evidence from the 5th and 4th Century BCE.
It also re-examines Western scholarship on the topic from the 19th Century onwards.
Konijnendijk rejects theories that the Greeks primarily engaged in ritualized warfare on a limited scale.
Kyle Fingerson, writing for Bryn Mawr Classical Review, called it "a much-needed reevaluation of the traditional views of classical Greek warfare," and recommended that it be used in future studies of the subject.
[1] It received similar praise from Kostas Vlassopoulos in Greece & Rome,[2] and Pavel Nývlt in Eirene: Studia Graeca et Latina.