Athens

August 31, 1998
Meier gets his massive study of Athens off to a marvelous start. It is 480 B.C., and the entire population of the city, around 100,000 people, have left everything behind in their race for the harbor, hoping to escape the approaching Persians and board ships to the island of Salamis, and safety. Defeated by the Greeks in a brilliant naval maneuver, the Persians head home, allowing the uninterrupted evolution of the peculiar "Greek way" democracy. "There are very few instances in history when so much was at stake in a single battle," writes Meier, a professor of ancient history at the University of Munich. Without the Greek victory at Salamis, he asks, "would there have been the incentive for such amazing growth of rational thought?" His answer is yes, and his book explains why. Following the battle of Salamis, east and west were no longer points on a compass, but two different worlds. Although the Persians allowed Greek culture to thrive in Asia Minor, it was the Greek peninsula with its difficult terrain and patchwork of small city-states that gave birth to a people stubborn and independent enough to reinvent the rules of world history. This remarkable age lasted about four generations, and even though their achievements changed history, the Greeks had lost their grip on major political power by the turn of the next century. Meier's re-creation of this era is thorough, compelling and greatly aided by the Kimbers' scholarly yet accessible translation. He succeeds in his stated goal of writing history as if it were a literary endeavor, creating a clear, indelible picture of a fascinating era. Editor, Stephen Hubbell.

October 1, 1998
In his own estimation, Meier (ancient history, Univ. of Munich) has written a study of Athens in the fifth century B.C.E. that in as concrete and "as comprehensive a form as possible [represents] the complete scholarly research on the subject." Unfortunately, this does not explain why he did not include footnotes--an oversight that could eliminate potentially important audiences for the book. Students need strong indexing and extensive notes in such comprehensive works, and even many classicists will require an extra step to find and study the contexts of Meier's references. Chapter headings are no help; none refers, even obliquely, to the Peloponnesian War, one of the defining events of Athens in its golden age. Such potential snarls, along with a difficult prose style, distance Meier from his audience. Recommended for academic libraries with graduate programs in classics.--Claibourne G. Williams, Ferris State Univ., Big Rapids, MI

August 1, 1998
For those who lament the diminished attention devoted to our classical heritage, this brilliant survey of the rise and decline of the "school of Hellas" will provide an invigorating antidote. Meier, a professor of ancient history at the University of Munich, is a gifted writer and outstanding scholar; his narrative unfolds like a novel, and he treats his characters--the familiar pantheon of sixth-and fifth-century B.C. giants (i.e., Solon, Themistocles, and Pericles)--with reverence, while at the same time resisting the impulse to sanitize them. As Meier subtly reminds us, these were flesh-and-blood men making practical decisions amid the frequently cutthroat political milieu of a dynamic city-state. Still, the tale as told is one of majesty and heartbreak, and even specialists can thrill to Meier's recounting of seminal events like the Battle of Marathon or the closing days of the Peloponnesian War. For both specialists and well-informed general readers, this work will be a treasured experience. ((Reviewed August 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)