Read more
In this compelling critical biography, Vincent Azoulay provides an unforgettable portrait of Pericles and his turbulent era, shedding light on his powerful family, his patronage of the arts, and his unrivaled influence on Athenian politics and culture. He takes a fresh look at both the classical and modern reception of Pericles, recognizing his achievements as well as his failings while deftly avoiding the adulatory or hypercritical positions staked out by some scholars today. From Thucydides and Plutarch to Voltaire and Hegel, ancient and modern authors have questioned the great statesman's relationship with democracy and Athenian society. Did Pericles hold supreme power over willing masses or was he just a gifted representative of popular aspirations? Was Periclean Athens a democracy in name only, as Thucydides suggests? This is the enigma that Azoulay investigates in this groundbreaking book.
List of contents
List of Figures ix Foreword: Introducing Azoulay's Pericles, Paul Cartledge xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 An Ordinary Young Athenian Aristocrat? 15 Chapter 2 The Bases of Periclean Power: The Strategos 28 Chapter 3 The Bases of Periclean Power: The Orator 40 Chapter 4 Pericles and Athenian Imperialism 51 Chapter 5 A Periclean Economy? 67 Chapter 6 Pericles and His Circle: Family and Friends 84 Chapter 7 Pericles and Eros: Caught between Civic Unity and Political Subversion 94 Chapter 8 Pericles and the City Gods 107 Chapter 9 After Pericles: The Decline of Athens? 127 Chapter 10 The Individual and Democracy: The Place of the "Great Man" 137 Chapter 11 Pericles in Disgrace: A Long Spell in Purgatory (15th to 18th Centuries) 157 Chapter 12 Pericles Rediscovered: The Fabrication of the Periclean Myth (18th to 21st Centuries) 192 Notes 227 Bibliography 265 Index 287
About the author
Paul Cartledge is A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at Clare College, Cambridge. Over the course of his distinguished career he has written and edited numerous books on the ancient Greek world. He also served as chief historical consultant for the BBC television series The Greeks.
Summary
The definitive biography of the legendary "first citizen of Athens"
Pericles has the rare distinction of giving his name to an entire period of history, embodying what has often been taken as the golden age of the ancient Greek world. "Periclean" Athens witnessed tumultuous political and military events, and achievements of the highest order in philosophy, drama, poetry, oratory, and architecture. Pericles of Athens is the first book in decades to reassess the life and legacy of one of the greatest generals, orators, and statesmen of the classical world. In this compelling critical biography, Vincent Azoulay takes a fresh look at both the classical and modern reception of Pericles, recognizing his achievements as well as his failings. From Thucydides and Plutarch to Voltaire and Hegel, ancient and modern authors have questioned Pericles’s relationship with democracy and Athenian society. This is the enigma that Azoulay investigates in this groundbreaking book. Pericles of Athens offers a balanced look at the complex life and afterlife of the legendary "first citizen of Athens."
Additional text
"[F]ascinating…Azoulay is one of France's most coruscating classicists…With a pellucid foreword by the peerless British ancient historian Paul Cartledge, maps, illuminating figures…it is indispensable reading for historians. The elegant, pungent prose of the translation itself is exquisite…. An intellectual feast awaits those interested in the problems of extracting truth about any particular historical figure from a maze of discordant voices."---Edith Hall, , Literary Review
Report
"Remarkable in every way."--Roger-Pol Droit, Le Monde
