| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (55 min.) ; 293495697 bytes |
| Summary |
Historian Bettany Hughes explores the 'Golden Age' of ancient Athens at the dawn of democracy.In the sixth century BC, Athens was run by tyrants, rulers who governed with absolute power, but when one young aristocrat decided to use 'the power of the people' on his side to defeat a rival, the genie was out of the bottle. Democracy was born.Voting was restricted to male citizens born in Athens. Slaves and foreigners could not vote, and women not only could not vote, but also had to be veiled outside the home.The most famous of all the generals, Pericles, built the Parthenon to celebrate Athens power, but he also took the city into a disastrous conflict, the Peloponnesian War, which was to be their ultimate undoing.But against this background of conflict Athens attracted great thinkers and scientists. Art and culture thrived. At exactly the same time that democracy was emerging, new, more realistic style of sculpture flourished. The Athenians invented drama as an art and used it to debate problems on stage for citizens to see. The tensions within the fifth century Athenian society can be encapsulated in the trial and death of Socrates. He was a brilliant philosopher and original thinker, but when Athens was finally defeated in the Peloponnesian war, the citizens were looking for a scapegoat. He had ridiculed the idea of government by non-experts and had coached many of the arrogant aristocrats who had failed in battle. When Socrates was condemned for impiety and the corruption of youth, he refused to compromise in any way, and rejected an offer to go into exile. He stood trial and was condemned to death by drinking Hemlock.Democracy with its emphasis on free speech could not tolerate an attack on democracy itself.PRODUCTION DETAILS:Produced by Lion Television. Executive Producers: Richard Bradley and Bill Locke. Produced by Sophia Roberts and Rowan Deacon |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-05-30 at 14:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Democracy -- Historiography.
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Golden age (Mythology)
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Portrait sculpture, Greek.
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Women's rights.
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Greece -- Athens.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Blundell, Sue, contributor
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Camp, John, contributor
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Cartledge, Paul, contributor
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Copestake, Timothy, director
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Cosmopoulos, Michael, contributor
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Davidson, James, contributor
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Goldhill, Simon, contributor
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Harrison, Tony, contributor
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Hughes, Bettany, host
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Janko, Richard, contributor
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Konstam, Nigel, contributor
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Lucas, David, contributor
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Moreno, Alfonso, contributor
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Obbink, Dirk, contributor
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Strauss, Barry, contributor
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