Fifth century BC

The fifth century BC was not only the first “classic century” of European civilization - it appeared the first and only, up to the Romans, an era, when political and military power was concentrated in the place that simultaneously possessed the biggest cultural meaning. For this reason, this volume of the “Cambridge history of the ancient world” (volume V) does not have such a wide geographical coverage, as it was in the case of previous volumes; The material here is concentrated mainly on Greece itself and only in a few cases goes beyond it. Although Athens are in the center of the whole picture, both in political and culturally, the events and achievements in other parts of the Hellenic world are considered and evaluated in the book as carefully as the character and state of sources available to modern scientists allow. Two cycles of narrative chapters, one of which is dedicated to the emergence and growth of the Athenian power and the development of Athenian democracy, and the second-the Peloponnesian war, which laid the end of both one and the other, are divided by a series of essays describing the artistic and literary achievements of the 5th century BC.