Pericles and the Conquest of History

'To his credit, Professor Samons resolutely refuses to view Pericles with rose-colored glasses. Instead, he shatters the illusions entertained by his predecessors, emphasizing the degree to which the radical democracy in Athens fostered and was fostered by a brutal, ruthless, exploitative imperialism and exhibited a suicidal ambition for further expansion that, thanks in part to the vision of undying glory and grandeur deliberately projected by Pericles, knew no bounds.' Paul A. Rahe, Hillsdale College, Michigan 'Samons, like Thucydides, asks uncomfortable questions and seeks uncompromising answers. His motive, like Thucydides', is an honest desire to reach a deeper and 'truer' understanding of what made Pericles the politician he was, what drove him to pursue the policies he did, and what consequences this had for Athens, the Greek world, and far beyond. We may not always agree with Samons but we should not refuse his challenge to rethink radically what we took for granted.' Kurt Raaflaub, Professor Emeritus, Brown University, Rhode Island 'The Pericles Samons offers the readers of this book - the figure usually hailed as Athens' greatest statesman - was rather the best-ever rodeo rider of the vast brutal conglomerate beast formed by the reeking mass of his cruel and hungry Athenian countrymen. I do not imagine that I will ever read another book about classical antiquity at once as elegant in its learning, as pleasing in its prose, as pregnant with ideas, and as shocking in its conclusions.' J. E. Lendon, University of Virginia