The City Research Guide

The definitive account of Athens in the age of Pericles, Meier's gripping study begins with the Greek triumph over Persia at the Battle of Salamis, one of the most significant military victories in history. Meier shows how that victory decisively established Athens's military dominance in the Mediterranean and made possible its rise to preeminence in almost every field -- commerce, science, philosophy, art, architecture, and literature. Within seventy-five years, Athens had become the most original and innovative civilization the ancient world ever produced.

All the historical and archaelogical evidence has been seamlessly pieced together to reconstruct the architectural wonders of these mighty civilizations. Recreating public buildings, religious temples, shops, and houses, Connolly reveals every aspect of life in glorious detail, from religion and food to drama, games, and the baths. In addition to the great monuments and moments of classical Greece and Rome, readers learn about a typical day in the life of an Athenian and a Roman.

Noted classicist Robin Waterfield traces the life and history of Athens, a city whose idealized past continues to inspire the present. This is the only book to cover the entire history of Athens, from its brief period of classical greatness through its decline under a series of occupying empires -Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, and Turkish - to its resurrection in the modern era.