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A review by lenzen
The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization by Anthony Everitt
4.0
Athens was definitely the world's greatest civilization. Contrary to the title, however, the book covers not only its rise but also its downfall. The author argues that it was precisely because of Athens’ direct democracy and, specifically, choosing citizens to fill most roles in government by lot and paying them to serve that it achieved this greatness. Everitt shows how the achievements of the city plus the general ability of its most aggressive leaders to stir the polis led to overconfidence. This, in turn, led to aggressive expansionism beyond what the city could sustain, harsh treatment of its supposed allies in the Delian League, and outright atrocities against others.
Athens’ great rival Sparta is described in good detail. Other rivals like Thebes and Persia are covered but only briefly. The bulk of the book is focused on Athens’ Golden Age and the Peloponnesian War. It also spends a couple of chapters wrapping up with Athenian history after its loss in this great war up to the rise of Alexander. After that there are a few paragraphs at the end very briefly recounting what happened to the city after Alexander.
For the most part the book is a good read. There are, also, fascinating questions that come to mind along the way such as how much of an Athenian style democracy we would want today? Many on the left want to move in the direction of more direct democracy so it is an important question to ponder. What benefits would we be likely to see and what would be the risks?
The story generally moves along well, although in some cases too many years and too many characters are packed into too short a space. The description of the Athenian outlook on life and how religion influenced it is fascinating. Although I liked the amount of detail on exactly how Athens’ government worked, I would have liked to see more time spent on its intellectual achievements. These are described but I felt too little time is spent there compared to military and political history. Every empire has its military and political history, but Athens’ intellectual achievements are what is most unique about it. So why not more focus there?
The book would probably work better as a two-volume set, with one volume ending at the end of the Peloponnesian War and another covering the subsequent period until Phillip's assassination. As it stands, the latter history is just breezed through too quickly.
Athens’ great rival Sparta is described in good detail. Other rivals like Thebes and Persia are covered but only briefly. The bulk of the book is focused on Athens’ Golden Age and the Peloponnesian War. It also spends a couple of chapters wrapping up with Athenian history after its loss in this great war up to the rise of Alexander. After that there are a few paragraphs at the end very briefly recounting what happened to the city after Alexander.
For the most part the book is a good read. There are, also, fascinating questions that come to mind along the way such as how much of an Athenian style democracy we would want today? Many on the left want to move in the direction of more direct democracy so it is an important question to ponder. What benefits would we be likely to see and what would be the risks?
The story generally moves along well, although in some cases too many years and too many characters are packed into too short a space. The description of the Athenian outlook on life and how religion influenced it is fascinating. Although I liked the amount of detail on exactly how Athens’ government worked, I would have liked to see more time spent on its intellectual achievements. These are described but I felt too little time is spent there compared to military and political history. Every empire has its military and political history, but Athens’ intellectual achievements are what is most unique about it. So why not more focus there?
The book would probably work better as a two-volume set, with one volume ending at the end of the Peloponnesian War and another covering the subsequent period until Phillip's assassination. As it stands, the latter history is just breezed through too quickly.