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  Paul Cartledge’s new book is definitive: not just as a biography of Pericles but also as an analysis of the role he played in the Athenian democracy during its heyday.

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  Tom Holland, historian, novelist, broadcaster, and co-host of the podcast The Rest is History

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  Paul Cartledge brings his wealth of knowledge and depth of insight to this engrossing exploration of one of the most influential and controversial politicians of all time. He situates Pericles fully in Athens and gives scope to all the nuances that are identified – sometimes inaccurately – by the adjective 'Periclean'. This is a masterly investigation of the complex and troubling relationship between demagoguery and democracy that speaks to the current era as much it does to one that will forever be inseparable from Pericles’s name.

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  Robert Garland, author of Athens Burning

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  A wonderfully witty and learned biography, an ideal approach to the witty, learned, and pragmatic politician who built the awe-inspiring Athens we still visit to this day.

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  Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University, and author of Why Plato Wrote and Justice by Means of Democracy

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  Written with his trademark consideration, clarity and wit, Cartledge’s Pericles, complete with 25 illustrations, a timeline, end notes, a fine bibliography and index, is a valuable addition to the corpus, will engage the general historian, and deserves to find a useful place in school and university libraries.

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  Classics for All

Paul Cartledge is A. G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, University of Cambridge, and Emeritus A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge. His many books include Democracy: A Life (2018) and Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece (2020).