Charles Alexander Robinson

Athens in the Age of Pericles

University of Oklahoma Press 1980

Stron IX+165, format: 12x19 cm

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The challenge of Periclean Athens to the students of civilizations is unmistakable: the city and its empire reached a level of culture and well-being scarcely paralleled in the history of man elsewhere. And like the characters in a Greek tragedy, the city and its leaders and citizens were busy in their time of glory making provision for their own tragic decline. 

"I have tried to suggest in general terms," says the author, "the meaning of Periclean Athens, addressing my interpretation to lay-men. . . . With the increasing mass of specialized research on ancient Athens, it is imperative to catch a general notion of the significance of the whole. . . . The result is a picture of a complex society, äs any great civilization is bound lo be, with its magnificent achievements and its faults." 

This first volume in the centers of civilization series does indeed give a clear picture of Athenian civilization, its literature, phi-losophy, and political and judicial writing; its painting, sculpture, archi-tecture, music, and drama; and even the arts of war. 

Above all, the book suggests to modern readers the supreme im-portance of decision in all of man's affairs, and the frightful conse-quences of wrong decision, once it is made. 

charles alexander robinson, jr., professor of classics in Brown University, was the author of many books and articles on classical and historical subjects. He also taught at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.