The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization

The story of the troubled birth of the world’s first democracy, Ancient Athens, through the life of an Athenian nobleman, Cleisthenes. In the brutal world of the fifth century, B.C., the Athenians struggle against a series of tyrants and their greatest rival, Sparta, to create a new “society of equals.” The program closes on the eve of the new society’s first great test: invasion by the mighty empire of Persia.

Recounts the Greeks’ heroic victory against the mighty Persian empire through the life of Themistocles, one of Athen’s greatest generals. Greece, now master of the Mediterranean, undergoes one of the most startling intellectual and physical transformations in history. Pericles, the elected leader of Athens, oversees the building of the Parthenon and an extraordinary flourishing of the arts and sciences, laying the foundation for what we now call “Western Culture.”

Athens, at the height of her glory, engaged in a suicidal conflict with her greatest rival, Sparta. Through the eyes of Socrates, Athen’s first philosopher, we see the tragic descent of Athenian democracy into mob rule. As defeat piles on defeat, the Athenians, shattered and stripped of their Empire, take revenge on their most vocal critic and condemn Socrates to death before a people’s court.