The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World’s Greatest Civilization by Anthony Everitt (PDF)

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

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Athens was definitely the world’s greatest civilization. Contrary to the title, however, the book covers not only its rise but also its downfall. The author argues that it was precisely because of Athen’s direct democracy and especially choosing citizens to fill most roles in government by lot and paying them to do so that it achieved this greatness. Everitt shows how the achievements of the city plus the general ability of its most aggressive leaders to stir the polis lead to overconfidence. This, in turn, lead to aggressive expansion beyond what the city could sustain, harsh treatment of its supposed allies in the Delian League, and outright atrocities against others.Athens great rival Sparta is described in good detail. Other rivals like Phebes and Persia are covered but only briefly. The bulk of the book is focused on Athen’s Golden Age and the Peloponnesian War. It also spends a couple of chapters wrapping up with Athenian history after its loss in this great war up to the rise of Alexander. After that there are a few paragraphs at the end to very briefly recount what happen to the city after Alexander.For the most part the book is a good read. There are, of course, fascinating question to ponder such as how much of an Athenian style democracy we would want today. Many on the left want to move in the direction of more direct democratic so it is an important question to ponder. What benefits would we be likely to get and what would be the risks?The story generally moves along well although in some cases too many years and too many characters are packed into too short a space. The description of the Athenian outlook on life and how religion influenced it is fascinating. Although I liked the amount of detail on exactly how Athen’s government worked I would have liked to see more time spent on its intellectual achievements. These are described but I felt too little time is spent there compared to military and political history. Every empire has its military and political history but Athens’ intellectual achievements are what is most unique about it. So why not more focus there?The book would probably work better as a two volume set. Perhaps have one volume end at the end of the Peloponnesian War and then have another to cover the subsequent period until Phillip’s assassination. As it stands the latter history is breezed through too quickly.

⭐Bought from and review first posted on the UK site a few minutes ago…This is a well-written and entertaining book that has been put together by an author who has thoroughly researched his topic. It is targeted at so-called “general reader”, writing so-called “popular history” and eminently accessible. It is also sufficiently well done that you do not realise at first glance to what extent the title does not really reflect the book’s contents in two main respects.One is that the book is not only about the “Rise of Athens”. It is also includes about a hundred pages on Athens after the Long War, and therefore after the fall of Athens and its surrender to the Spartans. This “long farewell” – which is fact rather short when compared to the total size of the book – summarises the fourth century Athens up to the defeat of Chaeronea against Philip the King of Macedonia during which the once leading city of Greece struggled and failed to restore its past glory and hegemony. The last chapter is about how Athens was reduced into what a Byzantine bishop of the late 12th century termed a “God forsaken hole”.A second point is that much of the book is in fact not so much about Athens as it is about the interactions between Athens, Sparta and the Persian Empire, to the extent that this reads at times more as a history of classical Greece than as a book centred on Athens even if the two other protagonist are treated in less detail. Having mentioned these points, it is also fair to state that they do not necessarily limit the book’s value. Whether you find this book valuable or not, and to what extent, will largely depend upon what you are looking for.Although the narrative has gaps at times, the author’s approach is to tell his stories by focusing on some of the main characters involved. The technique is a powerful one which makes for a lively and entertaining read and you can almost see each of the main Athenian characters – Solon, Pisistratus, Cleisthenes, Miltiades, Aristide, Themistocles, Pericles, Cleon, Alcibiades, Demosthenes and others stepping on the stage and coming under the spotlights for the author’s description and review. A similar technique is used for the major playwrights (Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes etc…) with their main works being related to the political events that were happening at the time.I therefore entirely agree with the comments of another reviewer about the author’s narrative being at its strongest on political history. I would even stress that it is mainly that, with the author’s somewhat utopic enthusiasm in addition. There is comparatively little on the economy and trade of Athens or on every day and living conditions, perhaps because long developments on these social and economic conditions would disrupt the flow and make for a less entertaining and slower book. Moreover, what little there is relates to politics and strategy, in particular Athens need to control access to the Black Sea from which the indispensable grain fleets arrived, or her interest for Egypt or Sicily, two other “breadbaskets”, for similar reasons. There is little about what goods Athens had to other in exchange, about trading routes or about Athens monetary economy and the extent to which Athens’ “owls” (its silver drachmas) became the international currency and the equivalent of the British Pound or the US Dollar during the 20th century.Another feature of this book is the endearing, but perhaps also questionable, enthusiasm displayed by the author when he writes about Athens’ direct democracy. While he does mention some of its limits, such as the fact that the pool of citizens excluded foreigners, women and slaves, he does indeed take Pericles’ funeral oration and panegyric of the Athenian democracy at face value without seeming to realise that it did not exactly work as intended. He also largely glosses over the fact that Pericles’ own longevity and dominance corresponded to the Athens’ “Golden Age” and a period of stability than his (mostly) less talented successors would fail to maintain. A discussion on whether and to what extent Pericles’ ability maintain himself for so long as Athens strongman and dominate the city was compatible with real and radical Athenian democracy is entirely missing. So is an objective analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of such a regime, how instable it could be and how much it encouraged stasis, with the author enthusiastically believing it to be believe possible (or even ideal) nowadays thanks to electronic voting.Four stars for a good introduction, despite some limitations.

⭐This is good book. It does what it should by covering the history of Athens from its mythical past to the Hellenistic age. Unsurprisingly, it draws heavily on Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and other historians of the 4th and 5th century, and provides a fairly conservative interpretation of that period. I thought it was strongest in the “slow fade” section near the end. It does a good job too of covering the development of drama, but I thought was short on the story of philosophy.The book is well written and easy to follow, but it could use a good editor. There are quite a number of unclear sentences, where for example several people are being talked about and in the next sentence, it will say “He did such and such…” without clarifying which “he” we are talking about. In one place the book refers to “the famous bronze of Zeus (or Poseidon)” but with almost no other context. I figured out which statue with a little Google-foo, but these sorts of things could be easily fixed in a second edition.

⭐Read this during a recent trip to Greece. Enjoyed the narrative history style. Nice to have more background while visiting the historical sites of Athens.

⭐This is a very clear and elegant book. From start it seems simple and shallow but lead reader gradually move to deep! Wonderful feeling! Knowledge seep into you automatically!

⭐This is a well-written and entertaining book that has been put together by an author who has thoroughly researched his topic. It is targeted at so-called “general reader”, writing so-called “popular history” and eminently accessible. It is also sufficiently well done that you do not realise at first glance to what extent the title does not really reflect the book’s contents in two main respects.One is that the book is not only about the “Rise of Athens”. It is also includes about a hundred pages on Athens after the Long War, and therefore after the fall of Athens and its surrender to the Spartans. This “long farewell” – which is fact rather short when compared to the total size of the book – summarises the fourth century Athens up to the defeat of Chaeronea against Philip the King of Macedonia during which the once leading city of Greece struggled and failed to restore its past glory and hegemony. The last chapter is about how Athens was reduced into what a Byzantine bishop of the late 12th century termed a “God forsaken hole”.A second point is that much of the book is in fact not so much about Athens as it is about the interactions between Athens, Sparta and the Persian Empire, to the extent that this reads at times more as a history of classical Greece than as a book centred on Athens even if the two other protagonist are treated in less detail. Having mentioned these points, it is also fair to state that they do not necessarily limit the book’s value. Whether you find this book valuable or not, and to what extent, will largely depend upon what you are looking for.Although the narrative has gaps at times, the author’s approach is to tell his stories by focusing on some of the main characters involved. The technique is a powerful one which makes for a lively and entertaining read and you can almost see each of the main Athenian characters – Solon, Pisistratus, Cleisthenes, Miltiades, Aristide, Themistocles, Pericles, Cleon, Alcibiades, Demosthenes and others stepping on the stage and coming under the spotlights for the author’s description and review. A similar technique is used for the major playwrights (Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes etc…) with their main works being related to the political events that were happening at the time.I therefore entirely agree with the comments of another reviewer about the author’s narrative being at its strongest on political history. I would even stress that it is mainly that, with the author’s somewhat utopic enthusiasm in addition. There is comparatively little on the economy and trade of Athens or on every day and living conditions, perhaps because long developments on these social and economic conditions would disrupt the flow and make for a less entertaining and slower book. Moreover, what little there is relates to politics and strategy, in particular Athens need to control access to the Black Sea from which the indispensable grain fleets arrived, or her interest for Egypt or Sicily, two other “breadbaskets”, for similar reasons. There is little about what goods Athens had to other in exchange, about trading routes or about Athens monetary economy and the extent to which Athens’ “owls” (its silver drachmas) became the international currency and the equivalent of the British Pound or the US Dollar during the 20th century.Another feature of this book is the endearing, but perhaps also questionable, enthusiasm displayed by the author when he writes about Athens’ direct democracy. While he does mention some of its limits, such as the fact that the pool of citizens excluded foreigners, women and slaves, he does indeed take Pericles’ funeral oration and panegyric of the Athenian democracy at face value without seeming to realise that it did not exactly work as intended. He also largely glosses over the fact that Pericles’ own longevity and dominance corresponded to the Athens’ “Golden Age” and a period of stability than his (mostly) less talented successors would fail to maintain. A discussion on whether and to what extent Pericles’ ability maintain himself for so long as Athens strongman and dominate the city was compatible with real and radical Athenian democracy is entirely missing. So is an objective analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of such a regime, how instable it could be and how much it encouraged stasis, with the author enthusiastically believing it to be believe possible (or even ideal) nowadays thanks to electronic voting.Four stars for a good introduction, despite some limitations.

⭐Quite enjoyed this fairly comprehensive narrative of Athenian history. It is popular history, not really academic, so quite readable. The only thing I found is that Everitt tends to write in somewhat flowery sentences that force you to read twice or drift asleep during my tube ride.Appreciate how he manages to blend various diciplines (stateform, philosophy, religion) into the historical chronology. Still think that books like these would benefit from presentation slide-style timebars to keep the reader on track.

⭐Fantastic book! I am a big lover for all things Ancient Greece, especially Athens & it’s amazing history. This book covers it all, and in such an orderly and easy way to follow.To be honest, I’ll go as far to say that this is one of the best books I’ve ever read!

⭐Gift well received

⭐Good, concise history of ancient Greece from the possibly mythical Siege of Troy to the Roman conquest and beyond, concentrating on the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War. The text was clear and easy to follow and the story compelling. The background context of art, theatre, philosophy, sexuality, etc. was plentiful without distracting from the narrative.If I had a criticism it would be that this British writer did, on a couple of occasions, use colloquial expressions that were unfamiliar to this Canadian reader.Highly recommended.DF

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