Ancient City

In the opening episode of the series, Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill takes us on a journey across stunning locations in Greece and Italy to find out how Athens gave birth to the idea of a city run by free citizens 2,500 years ago. Every aspect of daily life from defence to waste disposal was controlled not by a king, but by the Athenians themselves. Ultimately, this radical new system would define a way of life and the Athenians would give it a name. They called it people power, demo-kratia or democracy. On our journey we meet the people who still see ancient Athens as the model for running the great cities of today, including perhaps the ancient capital's greatest champion in our modern one - Boris Johnson.

This influential survey synthesizes ancient documents and physical evidence to build an account of religious, family, and civic life of Periclean Athens and Rome during the time of Cicero. In bypassing the body of often-glorified post-Classical histories, it builds an accurate and detailed depiction of Hellenic and Latin urban culture.