Pericles

A Biography in Context

Author: Thomas R. Martin

Hardcover

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

For non-specialists seeking to understand why Pericles was so famous and controversial in his own time and now, this book explains the notorious family background and unconventional education that shaped him, while arguing that his hardline policies on national power were necessary and his personal life and career were tragic.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

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

Description

Pericles was the most famous leader of the most famous ancient Greek democracy - and also the most controversial in his own time and ever since. Was he a brutal imperialist ready to oppress other Greeks, or a clear-eyed defender of Athens' need for power to survive in a relentlessly hostile world? How did his intellectual training in ideas that many Athenians regarded as dangerous make him the most persuasive leader Athenian democracy ever knew? Why was his personal lifestyle so idiosyncratic? How should we evaluate his responsibility for the suffering and loss of the Peloponnesian War? Thomas R. Martin's unique emphasis on the effect on Pericles of his family's notorious history, his youthful experiences as a wartime refugee, and his unusual education reveals a brilliant politician whose hyper-rationality could not, in the end, protect him or his community from tragedy.

About the Author

With nearly forty years of experience teaching ancient history to non-specialist audiences, Thomas R. Martin is the author of books including surveys of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, Alexander the Great, the works of Herodotus and Sima Qian, and An Overview of Classical Greek History online at the Perseus Project, which has been consulted by countless readers since its appearance as the first resource of its kind on the subject. He has also appeared in various documentaries on ancient history shown on television around the world.