Perikles and his Circle

Perikles and his Circle PDF Author: Anthony J. Podlecki
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707840
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Perikles, the creator of the reputation of Classical Athens was an enigmatic figure. This book traces Perikles' development from a somewhat hesitant, though left-leaning politician, to a mature statesman fully committed to expanding Athens' maritime empire and using the material benefits of that empire to improve the ordinary lives of Athenian citizens. Podlecki examines Perikles' actions and interactions with a large and varied circle of friends, acquaintances, and political adversaries and shows how his circle of friends advised and influenced his development as a leader. Perikles, the 'first citizen', as Thucydides termed him, was a man characterised by a subtle versatility and tenacity of purpose. Of paramount importance was that Athenians be made to appreciate their superiority, and also develop a willingness to assert it, even if that meant war with the Spartans and their allies. Podlecki examines the wealth of sources and documentation on Perikles to provide a lucid account of the achievements of the man, which is both comprehensive and eminently readable.

Perikles and his Circle

Perikles and his Circle PDF Author: Anthony J. Podlecki
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707840
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Get Book

Book Description
Perikles, the creator of the reputation of Classical Athens was an enigmatic figure. This book traces Perikles' development from a somewhat hesitant, though left-leaning politician, to a mature statesman fully committed to expanding Athens' maritime empire and using the material benefits of that empire to improve the ordinary lives of Athenian citizens. Podlecki examines Perikles' actions and interactions with a large and varied circle of friends, acquaintances, and political adversaries and shows how his circle of friends advised and influenced his development as a leader. Perikles, the 'first citizen', as Thucydides termed him, was a man characterised by a subtle versatility and tenacity of purpose. Of paramount importance was that Athenians be made to appreciate their superiority, and also develop a willingness to assert it, even if that meant war with the Spartans and their allies. Podlecki examines the wealth of sources and documentation on Perikles to provide a lucid account of the achievements of the man, which is both comprehensive and eminently readable.

Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?

Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors? PDF Author: Brent L. Sterling
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1589017277
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
A number of nations, conspicuously Israel and the United States, have been increasingly attracted to the use of strategic barriers to promote national defense. In Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?, defense analyst Brent Sterling examines the historical use of strategic defenses such as walls or fortifications to evaluate their effectiveness and consider their implications for modern security. Sterling studies six famous defenses spanning 2,500 years, representing both democratic and authoritarian regimes: the Long Walls of Athens, Hadrian’s Wall in Roman Britain, the Ming Great Wall of China, Louis XIV’s Pré Carré, France’s Maginot Line, and Israel’s Bar Lev Line. Although many of these barriers were effective in the short term, they also affected the states that created them in terms of cost, strategic outlook, military readiness, and relations with neighbors. Sterling assesses how modern barriers against ground and air threats could influence threat perceptions, alter the military balance, and influence the builder’s subsequent policy choices. Advocates and critics of strategic defenses often bolster their arguments by selectively distorting history. Sterling emphasizes the need for an impartial examination of what past experience can teach us. His study yields nuanced lessons about strategic barriers and international security and yields findings that are relevant for security scholars and compelling to general readers.

The Parthenon Enigma

The Parthenon Enigma PDF Author: Joan Breton Connelly
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385350503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Built in the fifth century b.c., the Parthenon has been venerated for more than two millennia as the West’s ultimate paragon of beauty and proportion. Since the Enlightenment, it has also come to represent our political ideals, the lavish temple to the goddess Athena serving as the model for our most hallowed civic architecture. But how much do the values of those who built the Parthenon truly correspond with our own? And apart from the significance with which we have invested it, what exactly did this marvel of human hands mean to those who made it? In this revolutionary book, Joan Breton Connelly challenges our most basic assumptions about the Parthenon and the ancient Athenians. Beginning with the natural environment and its rich mythic associations, she re-creates the development of the Acropolis—the Sacred Rock at the heart of the city-state—from its prehistoric origins to its Periklean glory days as a constellation of temples among which the Parthenon stood supreme. In particular, she probes the Parthenon’s legendary frieze: the 525-foot-long relief sculpture that originally encircled the upper reaches before it was partially destroyed by Venetian cannon fire (in the seventeenth century) and most of what remained was shipped off to Britain (in the nineteenth century) among the Elgin marbles. The frieze’s vast enigmatic procession—a dazzling pageant of cavalrymen and elders, musicians and maidens—has for more than two hundred years been thought to represent a scene of annual civic celebration in the birthplace of democracy. But thanks to a once-lost play by Euripides (the discovery of which, in the wrappings of a Hellenistic Egyptian mummy, is only one of this book’s intriguing adventures), Connelly has uncovered a long-buried meaning, a story of human sacrifice set during the city’s mythic founding. In a society startlingly preoccupied with cult ritual, this story was at the core of what it meant to be Athenian. Connelly reveals a world that beggars our popular notions of Athens as a city of staid philosophers, rationalists, and rhetoricians, a world in which our modern secular conception of democracy would have been simply incomprehensible. The Parthenon’s full significance has been obscured until now owing in no small part, Connelly argues, to the frieze’s dismemberment. And so her investigation concludes with a call to reunite the pieces, in order that what is perhaps the greatest single work of art surviving from antiquity may be viewed more nearly as its makers intended. Marshalling a breathtaking range of textual and visual evidence, full of fresh insights woven into a thrilling narrative that brings the distant past to life, The Parthenon Enigma is sure to become a landmark in our understanding of the civilization from which we claim cultural descent.

Pericles and the Conquest of History

Pericles and the Conquest of History PDF Author: Loren J. Samons, II
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107110149
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Loren J. Samons, II examines the events of Athenian history to understand the actions and legacy of this pivotal historical figure.

Trophies of Victory

Trophies of Victory PDF Author: T. Leslie Shear Jr.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691170576
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
The Greek military victories at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataia during the Persian Wars profoundly shaped fifth-century politics and culture. By long tradition, the victors commemorated their deliverance by dedicating thank-offerings in the sanctuaries of their gods, and the Athenians erected no fewer than ten new temples and other buildings. Because these buildings were all at some stage of construction during the political ascendency of Perikles, in the third quarter of the fifth century, modern writers refer to them collectively as the Periklean building program. In Trophies of Victory, T. Leslie Shear, Jr., who directed archaeological excavations at the Athenian Agora for more than twenty-five years, provides the first comprehensive account of the Periklean buildings as a group. This richly illustrated book examines each building in detail, including its archaeological reconstruction, architectural design, sculptural decoration, chronology, and construction history. Shear emphasizes the Parthenon's revolutionary features and how they influenced smaller contemporary temples. He examines inscriptions that show how every aspect of public works was strictly controlled by the Athenian Assembly. In the case of the buildings on the Acropolis and the Telesterion at Eleusis, he looks at accounts of their overseers, which illuminate the administration, financing, and organization of public works. Throughout, the book provides new details about how the Periklean buildings proclaimed Athenian military prowess, aggrandized the city's cults and festivals, and laid claim to its religious and cultural primacy in the Greek world.

Periklean Athens and Its Legacy

Periklean Athens and Its Legacy PDF Author: Judith M. Barringer
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029278290X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
The late fifth century BC was the golden age of ancient Athens. Under the leadership of the renowned soldier-statesman Perikles, Athenians began rebuilding the Akropolis, where they created the still awe-inspiring Parthenon. Athenians also reached a zenith of artistic achievement in sculpture, vase painting, and architecture, which provided continuing inspiration for many succeeding generations. The specially commissioned essays in this volume offer a fresh, innovative panorama of the art, architecture, history, culture, and influence of Periklean Athens. Written by leading experts in the field, the articles cover a wide range of topics, including: An evaluation of Perikles' military leadership during the early stages of the Peloponnesian War. Iconographical and iconological studies of vase paintings, wall paintings, and sculpture. Explorations of the Parthenon and other monuments of the Athenian Akropolis. The legacy of Periklean Athens and its influence upon later art. Assessments of the modern reception of the Akropolis. As a whole, this collection of essays proves that even a well-explored field such as Periklean Athens can yield new treasures when mined by perceptive and seasoned investigators.

Pericles

Pericles PDF Author: Thomas R. Martin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521116457
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
This is a provocative explanation of why Pericles insisted power was the only guarantee of Athens' survival and flourishing.

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles PDF Author: Loren J. Samons II
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139826697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
Mid-fifth-century Athens saw the development of the Athenian empire, the radicalization of Athenian democracy through the empowerment of poorer citizens, the adornment of the city through a massive and expensive building program, the classical age of Athenian tragedy, the assembly of intellectuals offering novel approaches to philosophical and scientific issues, and the end of the Spartan-Athenian alliance against Persia and the beginning of open hostilities between the two greatest powers of ancient Greece. The Athenian statesman Pericles both fostered and supported many of these developments. Although it is no longer fashionable to view Periclean Athens as a social or cultural paradigm, study of the history, society, art, and literature of mid-fifth-century Athens remains central to any understanding of Greek history. This collection of essays reveal the political, religious, economic, social, artistic, literary, intellectual, and military infrastructure that made the Age of Pericles possible.

Thucydides on the Outbreak of War

Thucydides on the Outbreak of War PDF Author: S. N. Jaffe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198716281
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
The cause of great power war is a perennial issue for the student of politics. Some 2,400 years ago, in his monumental History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides wrote that it was the growth of Athenian power and the fear that this power inspired in Sparta which rendered the Peloponnesian War somehow necessary, inevitable, or compulsory. In this new political psychological study of Thucydides' first book, S.N. Jaffe shows how the History's account of the outbreak of the war ultimately points toward the opposing characters of the Athenian and Spartan regimes, disclosing a Thucydidean preoccupation with the interplay between nature and convention. Jaffe explores how the character of the contest between Athens and Sparta, or how the outbreak of a particular war, can reveal Thucydides' account of the recurring human causes of war and peace. The political thought of Thucydides proves bound up with his distinctive understanding of the interrelationship of particular events and more universal themes.

Pericles

Pericles PDF Author: Stephen V. Tracy
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520256042
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Pericles, Greece's greatest statesman and the leader of its Golden Age, created the Parthenon and championed democracy in Athens and beyond. Centuries of praise have endowed him with the powers of a demigod, but what did his friends, associates, and fellow citizens think of him? In Pericles: A Sourcebook and Reader, Stephen V. Tracy visits the fifth century B.C. to find out. Tracy compiles and translates the scattered, elusive primary sources relating to Pericles. He brings Athens's political atmosphere to life with archaeological evidence and the accounts of those close to Pericles, including Thucydides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Protagoras, Sophocles, Lysias, Xenophon, Plato, and Plutarch. Readers will discover Pericles as a formidable politician, a persuasive and inspiring orator, and a man full of human contradictions.