Arcadia. the sound of pan pipes in leafy, sunny hollows; shepherds and the Goat God merrymaking in a painting by any one of the Old Masters; a vanished age of heroes, gods and goddesses. we each have our own images. But there is a reality behind the legend, and in this fascinating, immaculately researched book, Athanasius N Kollias opens it both for the lay reader and the scholar. Kollias gives us a detailed and exact picture of the archaeology, the topography, the daily life, the economy, the convoluted politics, the shifting alliances and constant warfare, of one particular city and area of Arcadia, from the earliest to relatively modern times. Methydrion is a microcosm, but anyone who reads this book will have an infinitely fuller idea of "the glory that was Greece", and of the first and arguably greatest culture of Europe, whose ideas, whether or not we know it, still inform our language, our ethics, our politics and our daily life. Athanasius N. Kollias was born in Athens, Greece, in 1946. His family originates from Arcadia. His grandfather was born in Nemnitsa, modern-day Methydrion, near the ruins of ancient Methydrion.