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What does it look like to transform your political system from a tyranny to a democracy? This book takes a deep dive into the built environment of ancient Athens during a period of transition in order to answer this question, illuminating the close relationship between politics and architecture.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Akropolis: Monuments and Military Dominance
- Chapter 2: The Agora: Form, Function, and Ideology
- Chapter 3: The Astu: The Architectural Matrix of the Polis
- Chapter 4: The Demes: Delineation and Interconnectivity
- Chapter 5: Buildings and Democracy
- Appendix I: Building Chronology in Athens and Attika, 508/7 - 480/79 B.C.E.
- Appendix II: IG I3 4B, The Hekatompedon Decree: Text, Translation, and Brief Commentary
- Appendix III: Dating the Old Bouleuterion and Stoa Basileios
- Bibliography
About the author
Jessica Paga is a Classical Archaeologist, working primarily on ancient Greek architecture, political theory, and ritual theory. Her work focuses mainly on Archaic and Classical monumental architecture, with particular attention to sacred structures. She is an active field archaeologist in both Sicily and Greece.
Summary
What does it look like to transform your political system from a tyranny to a democracy? This book takes a deep dive into the built environment of ancient Athens during a period of transition in order to answer this question, illuminating the close relationship between politics and architecture.
Additional text
This excellent, well-written book by Paga (College of William & Mary) is an in-depth study of a pivotal period in Greek history and archaeology: the Late Archaic period (c. 510480 BC).... The books strength lies in the way the monuments and their topographical settings are discussed within a political, religious, and social context. The author makes good use not only of the archaeological evidence but also of the literary and epigraphical sources.
