David M Pritchard: 3 books

In his On the Glory of Athens, Plutarch complained that the Athenian people spent more on the production of dramatic festivals and the misfortunes of Medeas and Electras than they did on maintaining their empire and fighting for their liberty against the Persians. This view of the Athenians misplaced...

Classical Athens perfected direct democracy. The plays of this ancient Greek state are still staged today. These achievements are rightly revered. Less well known is the other side of this success story. Democratic Athens completely transformed warfare and became a superpower. The Athenian armed forces...

Athenian democracy may have opened up politics to every citizen, but it had no impact on participation in sport. The city's sportsmen continued to be drawn from the elite, and so it comes as a surprise that sport was very popular with non-elite citizens of the classical period, who rewarded victorious...