Pericles and the Conquest of History

Loren J. Samons, II studied classics and history at Baylor University before earning his PhD in ancient history at Brown University. Samons has published widely on Greek politics and history and on the relationship between ancient and modern democracy. His books include What's Wrong with Democracy? From Athenian Practice to American Worship (2004), Empire of the Owl: Athenian Imperial Finance (2000), and (with C. W. Fornara) Athens from Cleisthenes to Pericles (1991). He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles (Cambridge, 2007) and has published articles in such journals as Historia, Hesperia, Classical Quarterly, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, and the Classical Journal.

• 1. To be an Athenian; 2. Curses, tyrants, and Persians (c.500–479); 3. The dominance of Kimon (c.479–462/1); 4. The democratic revolution (c.462/1–444/3); 5. A Greek empire (c.460–445); 6. Pericles and Sparta: the outbreak of the Great War (444/3–431); 7. Pericles and Athenian nationalism: the conquest of history; 8. Athenian culture and the intellectual revolution: Pericles and the people; Epilogue: the Periclean tradition.

'To his credit, Professor Samons resolutely refuses to view Pericles with rose-colored glasses. Instead, he shatters the illusions entertained by his predecessors, emphasizing the degree to which the radical democracy in Athens fostered and was fostered by a brutal, ruthless, exploitative imperialism and exhibited a suicidal ambition for further expansion that, thanks in part to the vision of undying glory and grandeur deliberately projected by Pericles, knew no bounds.' Paul A. Rahe, Hillsdale College, Michigan