To the athenians what was the most important thing

The writers of prose also flourished. Herodotus, regarded as the father of history, wrote several illuminating books on the Persian wars and is still a often consulted source on ancient Egypt. Another war historian, Thucydides, is still admired as a lucid and evocative writer. Plato, whose writings largely survive, is said to have penned the most poetical prose since the Bible. The golden age gave us Socrates who steered philosophy in the direction of morals, logic and ethics.

His life, and the manner of his death, had a massive impact on other major figures of that epoch such as Plato, Aristophanes and Xenophon. What brought the golden age to an end? The long and mutually murderous war between Athens and Sparta, with their conflicting values and aspirations?

Military misadventures? Dreams of imperialism? However, women, slaves, and Greeks not born to Athenian parents were excluded from voting. Throughout the city's history Athens was involved in numerous wars, including conflicts with the Persians and other Greeks, but it was also a great center of learning. The Agora was the central marketplace of ancient Athens. Athenian citizens gathered there to discuss politics and socialize as well as shop. Aristophanes, the satirist, credited the meager Athenian diet with keeping their bodies lean and their minds sharp.

And of course, no symposium was complete without wine, and lots of it. While the ancient Greeks enthusiastically endorsed moderation, they seldom practiced it. Moderation was considered an end, not a means; go to enough extremes, they figured, and eventually they cancel each other out.

Perhaps every place of genius is equally overzealous. Perhaps that is why they never last long. In , an anthropologist named Alfred Kroeber theorized that culture, not genetics, explained genius clusters like Athens. He also theorized why these golden ages invariably fizzle. Every culture, he said, is like a chef in the kitchen.

Eventually, though, even the best-stocked kitchen runs dry. That is what happened to Athens. Houses grew larger and more ostentatious. Streets grew wider, the city less intimate.

People developed gourmet taste. The gap between rich and poor, citizen and noncitizen, grew wider, while the sophists, hawking their verbal acrobatics, grew more influential. Academics became less about pursuing truth and more about parsing it. The once vibrant urban life degenerated. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe.