The Rise of Athens

The Rise of Athens PDF Author: Anthony Everitt
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812994590
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
A magisterial account of how a tiny city-state in ancient Greece became history’s most influential civilization, from the bestselling author of acclaimed biographies of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian Filled with tales of adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, The Rise of Athens celebrates the city-state that transformed the world—from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning, through the city’s political and cultural golden age, to its decline into the ancient equivalent of a modern-day university town. Anthony Everitt constructs his history with unforgettable portraits of the talented, tricky, ambitious, and unscrupulous Athenians who fueled the city’s rise: Themistocles, the brilliant naval strategist who led the Greeks to a decisive victory over their Persian enemies; Pericles, arguably the greatest Athenian statesman of them all; and the wily Alcibiades, who changed his political allegiance several times during the course of the Peloponnesian War—and died in a hail of assassins’ arrows. Here also are riveting you-are-there accounts of the milestone battles that defined the Hellenic world: Thermopylae, Marathon, and Salamis among them. An unparalleled storyteller, Everitt combines erudite, thoughtful historical analysis with stirring narrative set pieces that capture the colorful, dramatic, and exciting world of ancient Greece. Although the history of Athens is less well known than that of other world empires, the city-state’s allure would inspire Alexander the Great, the Romans, and even America’s own Founding Fathers. It’s fair to say that the Athenians made possible the world in which we live today. In this peerless new work, Anthony Everitt breathes vivid life into this most ancient story. Praise for The Rise of Athens “[An] invaluable history of a foundational civilization . . . combining impressive scholarship with involving narration.”—Booklist “Compelling . . . a comprehensive and entertaining account of one of the most transformative societies in Western history . . . Everitt recounts the high points of Greek history with flair and aplomb.”—Shelf Awareness “Highly readable . . . Everitt keeps the action moving.”—Kirkus Reviews Praise for Anthony Everitt’s The Rise of Rome “Rome’s history abounds with remarkable figures. . . . Everitt writes for the informed and the uninformed general reader alike, in a brisk, conversational style, with a modern attitude of skepticism and realism.”—The Dallas Morning News “[A] lively and readable account . . . Roman history has an uncanny ability to resonate with contemporary events.”—Maclean’s “Elegant, swift and faultless as an introduction to his subject.”—The Spectator “An engrossing history of a relentlessly pugnacious city’s 500-year rise to empire.”—Kirkus Reviews “Fascinating history and a great read.”—Chicago Sun-Times

The Rise of Athens

The Rise of Athens PDF Author: Anthony Everitt
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812994590
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 576

Get Book

Book Description
A magisterial account of how a tiny city-state in ancient Greece became history’s most influential civilization, from the bestselling author of acclaimed biographies of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian Filled with tales of adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, The Rise of Athens celebrates the city-state that transformed the world—from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning, through the city’s political and cultural golden age, to its decline into the ancient equivalent of a modern-day university town. Anthony Everitt constructs his history with unforgettable portraits of the talented, tricky, ambitious, and unscrupulous Athenians who fueled the city’s rise: Themistocles, the brilliant naval strategist who led the Greeks to a decisive victory over their Persian enemies; Pericles, arguably the greatest Athenian statesman of them all; and the wily Alcibiades, who changed his political allegiance several times during the course of the Peloponnesian War—and died in a hail of assassins’ arrows. Here also are riveting you-are-there accounts of the milestone battles that defined the Hellenic world: Thermopylae, Marathon, and Salamis among them. An unparalleled storyteller, Everitt combines erudite, thoughtful historical analysis with stirring narrative set pieces that capture the colorful, dramatic, and exciting world of ancient Greece. Although the history of Athens is less well known than that of other world empires, the city-state’s allure would inspire Alexander the Great, the Romans, and even America’s own Founding Fathers. It’s fair to say that the Athenians made possible the world in which we live today. In this peerless new work, Anthony Everitt breathes vivid life into this most ancient story. Praise for The Rise of Athens “[An] invaluable history of a foundational civilization . . . combining impressive scholarship with involving narration.”—Booklist “Compelling . . . a comprehensive and entertaining account of one of the most transformative societies in Western history . . . Everitt recounts the high points of Greek history with flair and aplomb.”—Shelf Awareness “Highly readable . . . Everitt keeps the action moving.”—Kirkus Reviews Praise for Anthony Everitt’s The Rise of Rome “Rome’s history abounds with remarkable figures. . . . Everitt writes for the informed and the uninformed general reader alike, in a brisk, conversational style, with a modern attitude of skepticism and realism.”—The Dallas Morning News “[A] lively and readable account . . . Roman history has an uncanny ability to resonate with contemporary events.”—Maclean’s “Elegant, swift and faultless as an introduction to his subject.”—The Spectator “An engrossing history of a relentlessly pugnacious city’s 500-year rise to empire.”—Kirkus Reviews “Fascinating history and a great read.”—Chicago Sun-Times

The Story of Athens

The Story of Athens PDF Author: Phillip Harding
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134304471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
A leading authority in the field, Phillip Harding presents the very first English translations of the six Athenian writers known as the Atthidographers. In his vivid and detailed history, Harding examines the remaining fragments of these historical writers' work – in chronological order – and how these writings, dating from the fifth and fourth century BC, reveal an invaluable wealth of information about early Athenian history, legend, religion, customs and anecdotes. Harding also goes on to study how these histories of Athens and its people were the source for later surviving historians such as Plutarch and Diodorus. With the aid of linking text and detailed annotation, anyone with an interest in Athenian history, classical Greece need look no further.

The Gates of Athens

The Gates of Athens PDF Author: Conn Iggulden
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643136674
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Evoking two of the most famous battles of the Ancient World—the Battle of Marathon and the Last Stand at Thermopylae—The Gates of Athens is a bravura piece of storytelling by a well acclaimed master of the historical adventure novel. In the new epic historical novel by New York Times bestselling author Conn Iggulden, in ancient Greece an army of slaves gathers on the plains of Marathon . . . Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army—swollen by 10,000 warriors known as The Immortals—have come to subjugate the Greeks. In their path, vastly outnumbered, stands an army of freeborn Athenians. Among them is a clever, fearsome, and cunning soldier-statesman, Xanthippus. Against all odds, the Athenians emerge victorious. Yet people soon forget that freedom is bought with blood. Ten years later, Xanthippus watches helplessly as Athens succumbs to the bitter politics of factionalism. Traitors and exiles abound. Trust is at a low ebb when the Persians cross the Hellespont in ever greater numbers in their second attempt to raze Athens to the ground. Facing overwhelming forces by land and sea, the Athenians call on their Spartan allies for assistance—to delay the Persians at the treacherous pass of Thermopylae . . .

The Story of Athens

The Story of Athens PDF Author: Howard Crosby Butler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description


Lords of the Sea

Lords of the Sea PDF Author: John R. Hale
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780670020805
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Presents a history of the epic battles, the indomitable ships, and the men--from extraordinary leaders to seductive rogues--who established Athens' supremacy, taking readers on a tour of the far-flung expeditions and detailing the legacy of a forgotten maritime empire.

Democracy's Beginning

Democracy's Beginning PDF Author: Thomas N. Mitchell
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300217358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
A history of the world’s first democracy from its beginnings in Athens circa fifth century B.C. to its downfall 200 years later. The first democracy, established in ancient Greece more than 2,500 years ago, has served as the foundation for every democratic system of government instituted down the centuries. In this lively history, author Thomas N. Mitchell tells the full and remarkable story of how a radical new political order was born out of the revolutionary movements that swept through the Greek world in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., how it took firm hold and evolved over the next two hundred years, and how it was eventually undone by the invading Macedonian conquerors, a superior military power. Mitchell’s history addresses the most crucial issues surrounding this first paradigm of democratic governance, including what initially inspired the political beliefs underpinning it, the ways the system succeeded and failed, how it enabled both an empire and a cultural revolution that transformed the world of arts and philosophy, and the nature of the Achilles heel that hastened the demise of Athenian democracy. “A clear, lively, and instructive account…. [Mitchell] has mastered the latest scholarship in the field and put it to good use in interpreting the ancient sources and demonstrating its character and importance in shaping democratic thought and institutions throughout the millennia.”—Donald Kagan, author of The Peloponnesian War “[Mitchell’s] close scholarship shines in documenting the transition of Athens from financially and morally bankrupt oligarchy to emancipated democracy 2,500 years ago…with a commendable attention to detail that beautifully captures the essence of ancient Greek culture and politics.”—Roslyn Fuller, Irish Times

24 Hours in Ancient Athens

24 Hours in Ancient Athens PDF Author: Philip Matyszak
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN: 1782439773
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
During the course of a day we meet 24 ancient Athenians from all levels of society - from the slave-girl to the councilman, the fish-seller to the naval commander, the housewife to the hoplite - and get to know what the real Athens was like by spending an hour in their company.

Phoenix

Phoenix PDF Author: David Stuttard
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674988272
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
A vivid, novelistic history of the rise of Athens from relative obscurity to the edge of its golden age, told through the lives of Miltiades and Cimon, the father and son whose defiance of Persia vaulted Athens to a leading place in the Greek world. When we think of ancient Greece we think first of Athens: its power, prestige, and revolutionary impact on art, philosophy, and politics. But on the verge of the fifth century BCE, only fifty years before its zenith, Athens was just another Greek city-state in the shadow of Sparta. It would take a catastrophe, the Persian invasions, to push Athens to the fore. In Phoenix, David Stuttard traces Athens’s rise through the lives of two men who spearheaded resistance to Persia: Miltiades, hero of the Battle of Marathon, and his son Cimon, Athens’s dominant leader before Pericles. Miltiades’s career was checkered. An Athenian provincial overlord forced into Persian vassalage, he joined a rebellion against the Persians then fled Great King Darius’s retaliation. Miltiades would later die in prison. But before that, he led Athens to victory over the invading Persians at Marathon. Cimon entered history when the Persians returned; he responded by encouraging a tactical evacuation of Athens as a prelude to decisive victory at sea. Over the next decades, while Greek city-states squabbled, Athens revitalized under Cimon’s inspired leadership. The city vaulted to the head of a powerful empire and the threshold of a golden age. Cimon proved not only an able strategist and administrator but also a peacemaker, whose policies stabilized Athens’s relationship with Sparta. The period preceding Athens’s golden age is rarely described in detail. Stuttard tells the tale with narrative power and historical acumen, recreating vividly the turbulent world of the Eastern Mediterranean in one of its most decisive periods.

The Reign of the Phallus

The Reign of the Phallus PDF Author: Eva C. Keuls
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520079298
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
At once daring and authoritative, this book offers a profusely illustrated history of sexual politics in ancient Athens, where the phallus dominated almost every aspect of public life. Complementing the text are 345 reproductions of Athenian vase paintings depicting the phallus.

A Story Untold

A Story Untold PDF Author: Michael L Thurmond
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781947309838
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
A Story Untold was born in a classroom in Clarke Central High School in 1971. An 18-year-old Michael Thurmond was a member of the first graduating class of the newly-consolidated Clarke Central, a merging of the all-black Burney-Harris High School and the predominantly-white Athens High School. It was not until the summer between college and the start of law school that Thurmond initiated his effort to document the history of the black community in Athens, a history largely unknown and unrecognized. Over the ensuing years, A Story Untold emerged and was published in 1978. Thurmond says, "We recognize that black history is American history. People of all races and colors understand that defining, documenting and sharing our history benefits all of us. As Southerners, we are connected by a shared heritage and history." A Story Untold is a compilation of nine written essays and one pictorial essay concerning the history of black men and women in Athens, Georgia. Each essay depicts either an individual contribution or the historical development of one the major institutions within the Athens black community.