ATHENS, or, The Athenians. (Book One of Five).
Fifth Century BCE
 

In the golden age of Athens, as democracy takes its first uncertain steps, a remarkable cast of characters shapes the future of human thought and governance.

Young Perikles, scion of a noble family, dreams of a city ruled by wisdom rather than wealth, while the hero Themistokles, who once saved Greece from Persian invasion, finds his power and influence tested by changing times. In the streets below the Akropolis, a curious boy named Sokrates begins asking questions that will resonate through centuries, while young Euripides struggles to find his voice as a playwright in the shadow of theatrical giants.

Beyond Athens' walls, Sparta watches its rival's rise with growing unease. Within the warrior state's palace, the formidable queen-mother Gorgo maneuvers to maintain Spartan traditions against forces that threaten to tear her society apart. As these two vastly different Greek powers assess each other across the peninsula, the future of their civilizations hangs in the balance.

From the agora to the theater, from the heights of power to the margins of society, here is Athens in all its glory and contradiction - a city where justice and beauty compete with violence and ambition, where tradition clashes with progress, and where gods still walk the earth. Through the lives of politicians and philosophers, priests and playwrights, soldiers and slaves, experience the birth of democracy and the dawn of Western thought.
 

The first book of an epic series chronicling the Golden Age of Athens through the life of Sokrates, ATHENS weaves history and imagination into a tapestry as rich and complex as the city itself. In a world where politics, art, philosophy and religion are inseparable, every choice shapes not just a city, but the future of human thought.