The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles

Cambridge Companions to the Ancient World

by Loren J. Samons II

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.

Genres: History, Ancient History

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2007

Reviews

[Bogdan Raț]

Good collection of essays to supplement other readings, with somehow different perspectives, and a good summary of mid-fifth century BC Athens.

[Jonathan]

“Among other things, Pericles’ oration should remind us that Athenian demokratia in its Periclean form was not an ancient version of modern liberalism or social democracy, and that Pericles and his fellow Athenians were far more like their contemporary Spartan adversaries than like twenty-first-century democrats.”

[Craig Bolton]

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles (Cambridge Companions to the Ancient World) by Loren J. Samons II (2007)