Athens

City of Wisdom

Bruce Clark

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Year: 2022
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781643138763
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

A sweeping narrative history of Athens, telling the three-thousand-year story of the birthplace of Western civilization. Even on the most smog-bound of days, the rocky outcrop on which the Acropolis stands is visible above the sprawling roof-scape of the Greek capital. Athens presents one of the most recognizable and symbolically potent panoramas of any of the world's cities: the pillars and pediments of the Parthenon – the temple dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom, that crowns the Acropolis – dominate a city whose name is synonymous for many with civilization itself. It is hard not to feel the hand of history in such a place. The birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy and theatre, Athens' importance cannot be understated. Few cities have enjoyed a history so rich in artistic creativity and the making of ideas; or one so curiously patterned by alternating cycles of turbulence and quietness. From the legal reforms of the lawmaker Solon in the sixth century BCE to the travails of early twenty-first century Athens, as it struggles with the legacy of the economic crises of the 2000s, Clark brings the city's history to life, evoking its cultural richness and political resonance in this epic, kaleidoscopic history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Map of Athens and Modern Greece
• Dedication
• Introduction: Rocks that Matter
• Chapter 1: The Beginnings of Greatness, 600–500 BCE
• Chapter 2: Victories of Brilliance, 500–480 BCE
• Chapter 3: Golden Years, 479–432 BCE
• Chapter 4: Pride and a Fall, 432–421 BCE
• Chapter 5: A Blazing Twilight, 421–405 BCE
• Chapter 6: A Chastened Democracy, 405–362 BCE
• Chapter 7: A Dance of Death with Macedonia, 362–239 BCE
• Chapter 8: Other People’s Empires, 239 BCE–137 CE
• Chapter 9: Polytheists and Barbarians, 138–560 CE
• Chapter 10: A Christian Millennium
• Chapter 11: Latin and Greek: the Late Middle Ages, 1216–1460
• Chapter 12: Before and After the Bombardment, 1460–1700
• Chapter 13: Stones of Contention, 1697–1820
• Chapter 14: A Poet Dreams on a Rock, 1809–33
• Chapter 15: Hellenism and Its Expanding Hub, 1833–96
• Chapter 16: Racing to War, 1896–1919
• Chapter 17: Of Loss and Consolidation, 1919–36
• Chapter 18: The Darkest Decade, 1940–50
• Chapter 19: A Wedding and Four Funerals, 1960–2000
• Chapter 20: Pride, a Fall and an Open Future, 2000–18
• Chapter 21: And Greece Travels Onwards
• Photographs
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Notes on Sources
• Index
• Image Credits
• Copyright