Why this Book: I read a fascinating review of this book in the Wall Street Journal. Went right to my Kindle and had it downloaded.

My Impressions: I really enjoyed this book. The author of the WSJ book review is a classics scholar at Stanford, and though he pointed out some of what he called factual errors, he strongly recommended the book, and he was right to do so. Bettany Hughes writes very well, and she brought this fascinating and key period in our Western tradition to life.

The book looks at life in Athens during the Golden Age of Greece through the prism of Socrates’ life.  He fought in most of the wars and key battles of the era, knew and was well known by all of the influential people of Athens at the time.  Ms Hughes is able to connect Socrates to nearly everything that happened of significance during Greece and Athens’  golden age – the last decades of the 5th century BCE.  I was surprised to find that in some ways the turbulence Athens experienced at the end of the 5th century BCE has some parallels with our own.  The Athenians strongly believed in themselves as the most enlightened country in the world, and aggressively sought to expand their influence and their idea of democracy.  Pericles was a Bill Clinton-esque character; his mistress Aspasia was very controversial and hated for the power she exercised over and through him , and she was accused of corrupting the women of Athens.   The intrigue and back biting and viciousness of the era surprised me, while at the same time these people created perhaps the most enlightened government and culture in history to that point.  But most of the people in Athens and Greece were simply trying to live their lives and get along, as are we today.  And reading about how they lived, it doesn’t seem that they were much different from us in temperament.   I also enjoyed learning how much new material about this era is coming to light every year in archeological excavations.  Many of the most interesting facts and insights were based on findings in the last 10 to 20 years.

She offers an explanation as to why Socrates was such a controversial character and why he was sentenced to death. He drank the hemlock in 399 BC just after democracy had been restored after the infamous year of so of the Thirty Tyrants.  The Thirty Tyrants, led by Critias,  a former student of Socrates, overthrew the Athenian democracy and ruled Athens with terror, seeking to purge Athens of their enemies and to even-up old scores.  Shortly before Socrates’ trial, they were themselves overthrown and a fragile democracy was restored to Athens.  But , after so much internal blood-letting and terror, people were jumpy and scared, which in part explains why they were in no mood to continue to tolerate a Socratic gadfly. 

Yes, this was a short, easy to read, and very interesting book.