"Beginning with the classical period, when it reached its pinnacle of power and cultural genius, Athens: A History is peopled with fascinating individuals. Athens' remarkable ascent had been inspired by the ideals embodied in the ancient Olympic games, but the city deliberately turned its back on those ideals, in Athens' stunning rise and rapid fall lies a timeless tragedy of excessive pride brought low. Contrasting its noble ideals and arrogant actions, Waterfield finds in Athens' story a moral for all time - and vital lessons for the current era. " "From its heyday in the fifth century B. C. , Athens: A History traces the city's transformations under the yoke of foreign empires - Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish and Ottoman - and its revival as the capital of the newly independent nation of Greece. Today, it is a burgeoning European city, host of the 2004 Olympics and heir to a momentous historical and cultural legacy. From Pericles and Socrates to Lord Byron and Baron de Coubertin - founder of the modern Olympic games - this is a powerful, evocative history of a city whose glorious past continues to inspire the present. "--BOOK JACKET.