The Rise And Fall of Athens

Plutarch traces the fortunes of Athens through nine lives - from Theseus, its founder, to Lysander, its Spartan conqueror - in this seminal workTheseus/Solon/Themistocles/Aristides/Cimon/Pericles/Nicias/Alcibiades/LysanderWhat makes a leader? For Plutarch the answer lay not in great victories, but in moral strengths. In these nine biographies, taken from his Parallel Lives, he traces the fortunes of classical Athens through its rulers, from the legendary Theseus, the city's founder, to its defeat at the hands of the Spartan conqueror Lysander - although Plutarch ultimately held the weaknesses of its leaders responsible for the fall. His work is invaluable for its imaginative reconstruction of the past, and profound insights into human life and achievement.

This fully revised edition of Ian Scott-Kilvert's seminal translation now also contains Plutarch's attack on the first historian, 'On the Malice of Herodotus'. Translated by Ian Scott-KilvertRevised with a new introduction by John Marincola