Democracy And Classical Greece

Product Description
The art of classical Greece, and its political and philosophical ideas, have had a profound influence on Western civilization. It was in the fifth and fourth centuries BC that this culture - material, political and intellectual - reached its zenith, and it is this period that is examined in this book. This text is part of the "Fontana History of the Ancient World" series that also includes "Early Greece" by Oswyn Murray.
From the Back Cover
The art of classical Greece, and its political and philosophical ideas, have had a profound influence on Western civilisation. It was in the fifth and fourth centuries BC that this Greek culture – material, political and intellectual – reached its zenith. At the same time, the Greek states were at their most powerful and quarrelsome.
J.K. Davies traces the flowering of this extraordinary society, drawing on a wealth of documentary material: houses and graves, extant sculpture and vases, as well as the writings of historians, orators, biographers, dramatists and philosophers.
Much of the material from these, the best-documented centuries in Greek history presents a formidable challenge to the interpreter. J.K. Davies builds, chapter by chapter, a coherent narrative of events from often sketchy or inconsistent sources, and shows how sometimes the same evidence can throw up quite different interpretations. He uses the material to create a rich and vivid picture of a changing society whose values and achievements have so influenced our own.
About the Author
J.K. Davies was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford, and spent 1961-2 as Junior Fellow at the Centre for Hellenic Studies (Harvard University), Washington D.C. He then became Dyson Junior Fellow in Greek Studies at Balliol College, Oxford, and subsequently Lecturer in Ancient History at St Andrews. He was Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Oriel College, Oxford from 1968 until 1977, and is now Rathbone Professor of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Athenian Propertied Families 600-300 BC (1971).