In the second and third quarters of the fifth century BC, when Athens
became both politically and culturally dominant in the Greek world,
Pericles was the leading figure in the city's public life. At this time
Athens developed an empire of a kind which no Greek city had had before,
and its politics were reshaped by the new institution of democracy.
These changes inspired religious developments, while the sophists
revolutionised philosophy, analysed human affairs in human terms, and
Athenian tragedy became the principal Greek poetic form. This volume's
illustrations further show the numerous artistic and sculptural
developments in Pericles' time, as the building programmes attracted
architects, builders and sculptors to Athens, and Athenian red-figure
pottery reached new heights of skill in the scenes painted on it.
This concise and accessible introduction guides students through the key
aspects of this most-studied period of ancient Greek history, focusing
on the major developments, political and cultural, that took place in
Pericles' time.