Athens

Meier gets his massive study of Athens off to a marvelous start. It is 480 B.C., and the entire population of the city, around 100,000 people, have left everything behind in their race for the harbor, hoping to escape the approaching Persians and board ships to the island of Salamis, and safety. Defeated by the Greeks in a brilliant naval maneuver, the Persians head home, allowing the uninterrupted evolution of the peculiar ""Greek way"" democracy. ""There are very few instances in history when so much was at stake in a single battle,"" writes Meier, a professor of ancient history at the University of Munich. Without the Greek victory at Salamis, he asks, ""would there have been the incentive for such amazing growth of rational thought?"" His answer is yes, and his book explains why. Following the battle of Salamis, east and west were no longer points on a compass, but two different worlds. Although the Persians allowed Greek culture to thrive in Asia Minor, it was the Greek peninsula with its difficult terrain and patchwork of small city-states that gave birth to a people stubborn and independent enough to reinvent the rules of world history. This remarkable age lasted about four generations, and even though their achievements changed history, the Greeks had lost their grip on major political power by the turn of the next century. Meier's re-creation of this era is thorough, compelling and greatly aided by the Kimbers' scholarly yet accessible translation. He succeeds in his stated goal of writing history as if it were a literary endeavor, creating a clear, indelible picture of a fascinating era. Editor, Stephen Hubbell. (Sept.)