Athens In The Fifth Century And Other Studies In Greek History

Athens in the fifth century B.C. offers a striking picture: the first democracy in history; the first empire created and ruled by a Greek city; and a flourishing of learning, philosophical thought, and visual and performing arts so rich as to leave a remarkable heritage for Western civilization. To what extent were these three parallel developments interrelated? An international group of fourteen scholars expert in different fields explores here the ways in which the fifth-century "cultural revolution" depended on Athenian democracy and the ways it was influenced by the fact that Athens was an imperial city. The authors bring to this analysis their individual areas of expertise--in the visual arts, poetry and drama, philosophy, archaeology, religion, and social, economic, and political history--and a variety of theoretical approaches. The product of a colloquium at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., "Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens" sheds new light on a much debated question that has wide implications. The book is illustrated and enriched by a comprehensive bibliography on the subject.

"It is not the purpose of this book to tell any part of the story of Greek history. That lies within the province of the narrative historian. Our object is a more modest one: to group together certain facts and to trace the course of certain ideas which may help to make that story and the men who acted in it more intelligible to modern readers. Greek civilization differs from our own both in its material environment and in its feelings and ideas. Our method will be to deal first with the main features of that environment; next with the political institutions which the Greeks established within it; next with their means of livelihood, that is with their 'economics' or housekeeping; and lastly with the conflict which arose, as it has arisen in many modern civlized communities, between the driving necessities of economic development and the accepted institutions and ideals of national life -- a conflict which broght inward unhappiness and outward disaster upon the foremost Greek community at the very height of her greatness and left its mark upon the mind and writings of the men who laid the foundations of European political thought. We shall thus be approaching Greek civilization from a direction contrary to that often taken by modern writers, approaching it from the side on which its differences from our own are most apparent and from which its unique characteristics are most easily seized." [Introductory note.

Fascinating discussions of fifth-century Athens and its modern interpretation

A reprint of the Princeton University Press edition of 1972, with new Preface by the author. In this powerful contribution to our understanding of politics in fifth-century Athens, Connor constructs models of Athenian political groupings to explain the rise of the "new politicians," young men who launched a new kind of democracy by appealing to the citizenry at large. With Pericles as prototype and Cleon as exemplar of the new politician, this engaging work provides an important insight into the politics of Athens at the height of its power.

First comprehensive collection of evidence of the relations between Athens and Persia in fifth century BC.

Mid-fifth-century Athens saw the development of the Athenian empire, the radicalization of Athenian democracy through the empowerment of poorer citizens, the adornment of the city through a massive and expensive building program, the classical age of Athenian tragedy, the assembly of intellectuals offering novel approaches to philosophical and scientific issues, and the end of the Spartan-Athenian alliance against Persia and the beginning of open hostilities between the two greatest powers of ancient Greece. The Athenian statesman Pericles both fostered and supported many of these developments. Although it is no longer fashionable to view Periclean Athens as a social or cultural paradigm, study of the history, society, art, and literature of mid-fifth-century Athens remains central to any understanding of Greek history. This collection of essays reveal the political, religious, economic, social, artistic, literary, intellectual, and military infrastructure that made the Age of Pericles possible.

Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC offers a new study of a canonical topic in ancient Greek history, the fifth-century BC Athenian empire. While previous studies have largely focused on Athens and Athenian narrative history, this book brings the Athenians' imperial subjects to centre stage.