The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles

Mid-fifth-century Athens saw the development of the Athenianempire, the radicalization of Athenian democracy through theempowerment of poorer citizens, the adornment of the city through amassive and expensive building program, the classical age ofAthenian tragedy, the assembly of intellectuals offering novelapproaches to philosophical and scientific issues, and the end ofthe Spartan-Athenian alliance against Persia and the beginning ofopen hostilities between the two greatest powers of ancient Greece.The Athenian statesman Pericles both fostered and supported many ofthese developments. Although it is no longer fashionable to viewPericlean Athens as a social or cultural paradigm, study of thehistory, society, art, and literature of mid-fifth-century Athensremains central to any understanding of Greek history. Thiscollection of essays reveal the political, religious, economic,social, artistic, literary, intellectual, and militaryinfrastructure that made the Age of Pericles possible.