Athens: A History From Ancient Ideal to Modern City

Contemporary Review, Nov, 2004

Athens: A History From Ancient Ideal to Modern City. Robin Waterfield. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]25.00. xx 411 pages. ISBN 0-333-98991-0. Ancient Athens as been as praised as modern Athens has been denounced. This book is intended to 'trace the life of the city ... from its earliest beginnings up to relatively recent times'.

The bulk of the text, twenty-two out of twenty-eight chapters, deal with ancient Athens while six trace the history from about AD 250 to the present. Mr Waterfield sees the city-state's history as a 'tragic drama' because 'the city looked after its own self-interest with single-minded ruthlessness, but sealed its doom by misjudging where its self-interest really lay'. The scale of Athens' history makes it more easily comprehended, and more easily described. For reasons best known to himself the author has adopted the American system of dates, with 'BCE' for BC and 'CE' for AD with no noticeably improvement to the quality of the story told. Also, Byron is incorrectly referred to as Lord George Byron. The correct form is Lord Byron. (T.B.)