The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World’s Greatest Civilisation

Classical Athens, a community of just 200,000 citizens, not only gave birth to some of antiquity’s greatest geniuses but also created the world’s first democracy, raising political issues that remain relevant today. Complementing his account of The Rise of Rome, Everitt surveys the Athenian achievement, from the early centuries of kings and tyrants, through the democratic revolution and the city’s intellectual and artistic flowering in the age of Socrates and Pericles, to its decline with the growth of Macedon.