We chose to forget that in the name of democracy, Athens pursued a policy of aggressive expansion abroad and persecuted some of its leading intellectuals. Despite its recent popularity in the West, democracy in ancient Athens was not successful, but died quickly. Bettany Hughes looks for the truth about the golden age of ancient Athens, is investigating how a barren rock located between East and West became the first democracy 2,500 years ago.
Democracy, freedom and freedom of expression are advertised as the foundation of Western civilization, but what it really was Athens?
Bettany goes underground to explore a treasure trove of prehistoric bones and ancient artifacts. In the silver mines and the graves were discovered evidence of what this society was.
This was a democratic based on slave labor, manipulated by the aristocrats, where the women were veiled and men to conduct a foreign policy with blood, killing thousands of people in search of the first democratic rule in the world.
The program reveals the incredible systems, sophisticated voting, but also a society where ease of politicians use the word around, and where those who did not vote were known as idiots.
The film charts the epic story of the victory in one of the greatest sea battles of the ancient world, when the Athenian triremes defeat of Athens Xerxes Persian fleet at Salamis powerful and reveals the true story of the construction of the monument This first great democracy – the Parthenon – as a symbol of Athenian power.
