Publisher's Synopsis
The mystery of Athens is simple: how did a tiny community of 200,000 souls or so manage to give birth to towering geniuses across the range of human endeavor, create one of greatest civilizations in history, and lay the foundations of our own contemporary intellectual universe? With the city of Athens as his protagonist, Anthony Everitt attempts to answer this question by charting the characteristics, flaws and unique brilliance of this ambitious city-civilization. Filled with adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, this book celebrates the city-state that created the world's first democratic experiment-from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning, moving on to the city's political and cultural heyday, and concluding with its decline into a pleasant 'university town.' Although its story is less well known than that of Rome, the allure of Athens would go on to impact Alexander the Great, the Romans, as well as the Founding Fathers. The Athenians laid the foundations of the house in which we live today, and Anthony Everitt brings its story to life.
