The Rise and Fall of Athens

paperback 320 pages The Rise and Fall of Athens Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch Includes: Theseus, Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, Lysander Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert Writing at the turn of the first century A.D., Plutarch intentionally blended two cultures in his parallel lives of Greek and Roman heroes. The nine biographies chosen for this modern translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert illustrate the rise and fall of Athens from the legendary days of Theseus, the city's founder, to the age of Pericles and the razing of it walls by Lysander. The volume forms a companion to Plutarch's Fall of the Roman Republic and Makers of Rome. However unreliable in places, Plutarch's readable accounts have necessarily been a prime source of much historical knowledge.