Athens. The history of the great city-state. Clark B.

Panorama of Athens is one of the most recognizable and saturated by symbolism among all cities in the world: columns and pediments of Parthenon - the crowd of the temple, dedicated to the goddess of wisdom Athena - reign over the city whose name many consider the words “civilization” synonym. The meaning of Athens - the homeland of democracy, Western philosophy and theater - is simply impossible not to admit. Only a few cities have history, so rich in artistic creativity and innovative ideas and so dotted alternation of shocks and winding. In the narrative of Bruce Clark, an epic, kaleidoscopic history of the city-from the legal reforms of the legislator of Solon, who lived in the VI century BC, to tests that fell on Athens at the beginning of the XXI century due to the consequences of the economic crises of the 2000s, appears as alive in the living in All their cultural wealth and political significance.

“When Western schoolchildren get acquainted with world history, they often tell that civilization is especially owed to the events that occurred on two rocky hills in different parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. Despite the general features, the meaning of these places is understood very differently. One of them is the Jerusalem Temple Mountain, which is considered a cradle of monotheism, and the second is the Athenian Acropolis, in the precious monuments of which they see evidence of the mind, skill and freedom of man. My book is dedicated to one of these hills and civilization that arose around it, although the currents that originate in these two places were eventually intertwined. ” (Bruce Clark)