The Art of Manliness

The Rise and Fall of Athens

Jan 19, 2022

58:49

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Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

The Athens Democracy

02:07

Athens and the Peloponnesian War

02:40

The Athenians Are Your Ultimate Oligarchs, Your Ultimate Aristocrats

03:06

Introduction

6min

The Athens Democracy

2min

The Athenians Are Your Ultimate Oligarchs, Your Ultimate Aristocrats

3min

The Persians Invading Greece

4min

Persians and Athenians Are Just Holding Off

4min

Miltides and the Trireme

4min

E B Motors, 122 Million Parts

5min

Cimon and the Persians in Athens

4min

Is There Still That Aristocratic Discontent Within Athens?

2min

10.

Alcibiades, a Young Athenaean Hero

4min

11.

Alcibiades and Socrates - Part 2

6min

12.

What Alcibiades Offers the Spartans?

3min

13.

Alcibiades and the Persians, the Old Enemies of Greece

5min

14.

The End of Boch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid

1min

15.

Athens and the Peloponnesian War

3min

16.

The Pandemic and Its Impact on Humanity

3min

In a period of only about 100 years, Athens went from relative obscurity, to becoming an influential empire, to collapsing into ruin.

My guest today will guide us through the dramatic arc of this city-state and the larger-than-life characters that contributed to it. His name is David Stuttard, and he's a classicist and the author of Phoenix: A Father, a Son, and the Rise of Athens, and Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens.

We begin our conversation with the rise of Athens and why its aristocratic families decided to institute a radically democratic form of government. David then walks us through how the Persian invasion catapulted Athens to power in Greece. Along the way, David explains how a father and son named Miltiades and Cimon led Athens to power. We then shift our attention to the fall of Athens and how it was precipitated by the Peloppensian War with their one-time ally, Sparta. David introduces us to the made-for-Hollywood character that would play a pivotal role in Athens' fall — the handsome and charismatic aristocrat and serial traitor, Alcibiades. We end our conversation with the lessons we moderns can take from the rise and fall of Athens.