Athens: A Portrait of the City in Its Golden Age

This examination of classical Athens by Christian Meier focuses on the political aspects of that city.  And while I prefer this emphasis over that of a military emphasis, I would have preferred a broader, cultural review of Athens in its golden age.

Meier provides the most detailed analysis of Athens' political foundations of any book I've ever read; in fact he devotes more than a third of the book to political developments prior to the classical age.

He tries mightily to answer the question of why Greece, and Athens in particular, first invented democracy, while surrounded by a world of kings, despots, tyrants and oligarchies.  

But that question is ultimately unanswerable.  While Meier credits much of Greece's invention of democracy to its people's ingrained desire for independence, I find myself asking, "Why did they develop such a strong desire for independence?"

One cultural area in which Meier devotes much space is Greek tragedy.  Through every phase of Athens' "golden age" he turns to the contemporary works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.  Their works often shone the spotlight on current political issues, pointing out the weaknesses and foibles of Athens' leaders and its nascent form of democracy.

The works were often performed within months of the events on which they reflected, motivating Athens' citizens to contemplate further on the votes they cast in the Assembly.  Greek tragedy entertained, but it also influenced the world in which it thrived.

I'm fascinated by the early Greeks' belief in symmetry that ties back to empirical numbers and the relationships between those numbers.  They attempted to break everything down into rational numbers, including architecture, music and human anatomy in sculpture.

I'm reminded that one of our greatest gifts is to be able to reason and think rationally, something attributed only to human beings.  Then you find the word ratio hidden with rationality.  Coincidence?

If not exactly what I was expecting, at least I have a stronger understand of the important political workings of Athens, before, during and after its apogee.  And that politics is arguably Greece's greatest legacy to the world.