Paul Cartledge's favorite books on ancient Athens in the time of Pericles

If, like me, when you read a history book, you want to learn something new both about a crucial period or personage in history and about how they reflect more generally on the human condition, then look no further than Jennifer T. Roberts’ magisterial study of the ancient Greek world between the Persian Wars and the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War (490-360 BCE).

It thrilled me and informed me alike from its first page to the last. At the start of her chosen timeframe, the Greek world was at risk of being overwhelmed by the Persian Empire. Had the Persians won… no Greek democracy, no Athenian theatre or philosophy, no Hippocratic medicine? Possibly. But did the Greeks make the most of their freedom from foreign conquest and control? Possibly not.

War between Greeks—of Greek state against Greek state, and between Greek citizens of the same state—was a plague, a metaphorical scourge. Also, a literal, physical plague blitzed democratic Athens in 430, and among the thousands of citizens it carried off was Pericles.

I loved this book, by a brilliant younger French scholar, because it’s simply one of the best books around on the life and times of the Athenian democratic leader and, no less, his fluctuating reputation in and after antiquity right up to the early 21st century.

Being a prominent politician in a direct democracy that lacked political parties and any means of mass communication except face-to-face interaction meant a precarious, topsy-turvy life for would-be ‘demagogues’, leaders of the people, like the great Pericles.

I loved how Dr. Azoulay explored all the facets of Pericles’ multiple interactions during his generally brilliant career, including the more scandalous ones such as his eccentric love life. I loved, too, how he traced all the ups and downs of Pericles’ reputation over 24 centuries, showing expertly just how foreign a country the past can be—our past no less than that of the ancient Greeks.

You have heard of the ‘Thucydides trap’ but have little or no idea what it is, or why it might be interesting or even important? I can think of no other acceptable substitute for reading the work of the man himself.

Thucydides was born into an elite Athenian family about 460 BCE (when Pericles was about 35). His firsthand contemporary history of the Peloponnesian War (431-404) is an all-time classic, a possession forever, drawn on heavily by both Roberts and Azoulay—and by me.

I happen to be able to read him in the original Athenian Greek (which I started learning at age 11), but most of us will need a translation. For us anglophones, I can’t recommend any other as highly as Dr Waterfield’s. Which is not only the most recent but also accurate, clear, and perfectly suited in tone and register to the gravity of the original, as well as being a real page-turner.

You want to read Thucydides’ version of one of the most famous speeches of all time, Pericles’ Funeral Oration over the Athenian dead? Here it is in all its rhetorical glory. Oh, and that ‘Thucydides trap’? Actually, it’s based on a mistranslation! Go figure.

In case it hasn’t yet become rather obvious, I love the history of ancient Greece and especially the city of democratic Athens during the 5th century BCE and the lifetime of Pericles (c. 495-429).

To help explain why, I could just reel off a list of famous names—famous not only in their own time but also still in our own day: playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, philosopher Socrates, historian Thucydides, architects Callicrates and Ictinus, and, not least, master sculptor Pheidias, Athenians all.

The last three were united together with Pericles by their involvement in, indeed, the creation of, one of the greatest buildings of the entire Western tradition: the Parthenon, a temple of Athena the Virgin unique in its aesthetic adornment and refinement.

History, however, should not only celebrate but also educate and even warn, as does independent scholar David Stuttard in his totally gripping cultural history. Hubris has become naturalised as an English word for risky overreach—in the Athenians’ case, that meant imperialist excess, unfortunately not restrained even by the temperate politics and policies of Pericles. US, China, Russia—please note!

I love Cambridge (University Press) Companions—over 900 have been published so far, including many in my own field of ancient Greek history.

There is even a Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles. But that’s not the one I’ve chosen here, partly because Pericles has—rightly—had his fair share of attention and praise in my other choices, but mainly because the city of Athens, especially during Pericles’ lifetime, was one of the great cities of the world in any age.

The volume co-edited by Professors Neils and Rogers has many virtues and strengths, but what I love about it most is its vast breadth of coverage and its tight integration both between and within its 33 chapters of literature, history, and material culture.

It’s invidious to select, but space requires me to, so I’m going to recommend just six: those on the Acropolis, on animals in Athenian life, on the pottery industry, on Athenian religious festivals (including the two play festivals?), on sex and the city, and, last but not least, on early travelers and the rediscovery of Athens.

You probably don’t need any encouragement from me to visit Athens, but if you do, this book will surely help take you over the line!