The Rise And Fall Of Athens

Athens rose, Athens fell, and somewhere in between it produced democracy, philosophy, tragedy, imperial ambition, political treachery and enough celebrated men to keep Plutarch busily taking notes several centuries later. In The Rise and Fall of Athens, the great Greek biographer assembles the lives of nine figures whose virtues, vanities, victories and spectacular errors helped shape the fortunes of the ancient city. It is history told through character: less a calm procession of dates than a magnificent parade of statesmen, generals, reformers, opportunists and men constitutionally incapable of leaving well enough alone.

Plutarch was particularly interested in the peculiar machinery inside important people—the mixture of principle, ambition, courage, jealousy and unhelpful personal habits that eventually becomes history. His Athens is therefore not an abstract civilisation represented by tasteful marble columns. It is a noisy, quarrelsome place inhabited by people making momentous decisions for reasons that are sometimes noble, sometimes practical and sometimes suspiciously similar to showing off. The result is both grand history and a reminder that public life has always attracted men who believe the fate of the world depends upon their being allowed to speak for another twenty minutes.

This Penguin Classics edition dates from 1976 and has itself enjoyed a modest institutional career. It is an ex-school copy from Old Palace School in Croydon, which gives it a pleasing additional layer of historical continuity. Plutarch wrote about the education and conduct of eminent Athenians; the book was then handed to pupils in an establishment called Old Palace, presumably in the hope that some of the wisdom would transfer by proximity. Whether it produced a generation of miniature Pericleses, cautious Solons or alarmingly persuasive Alcibiadeses cannot now be established.

Its school origins also mean that this is not one of those Penguin Classics which has spent fifty years sitting untouched on the shelf of someone determined to appear well read. This copy has been used. It has passed through the educational system, endured timetables, schoolbags, desks, bells and perhaps the occasional reader privately wondering whether the fall of Athens could have been covered in fewer pages. It is consequently in Fair condition: complete and readable, but carrying the marks and general wear appropriate to a book that has already performed public service.

Inside, however, Plutarch remains entirely undiminished. Empires still rise, reputations still collapse, democracy continues to display its alarming dependence upon human beings, and Athens once again discovers that brilliance is no guarantee of sensible behaviour. Readers interested in ancient Greece will find a vivid introduction to the personalities behind the familiar events, while readers interested in modern politics may experience the uncomfortable sensation that very little has been invented since.

This is not a pristine collector’s copy, nor does it pretend to be. It is a seasoned working Penguin: intellectually distinguished, physically experienced and formerly entrusted to schoolchildren. Ideal for students of classics, history, politics, leadership, civic disaster or the timeless art of watching highly capable people ruin everything through vanity and overconfidence.

A Fair ex-school copy of a genuine classic, sold by Crappy Old Books—where the books may have risen and fallen a little themselves, but the civilisation inside remains remarkably intact.

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