Robin Osborne is Professor of Ancient History and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He has written and edited numerous works on ancient history, including Greek History (2004); Rethinking Revolutions through Classical Greece (co-edited with Simon Goldhill, Cambridge, 2006); and Debating the Athenian Cultural Revolution: Art, Literature, Philosophy and Politics 430-380 BC (Cambridge, 2007).

Preface; 1. Changing visions of democracy; Part I. Making Athenian Democracy Work: 2. Athenian democracy: something to celebrate?; 3. The demos and its divisions in Classical Athens; 4. Inscribing performance; Part II. Athenian Democracy and the Athenian Economy: 5. The economics and politics of slavery at Athens; 6. Pride and prejudice, sense and subsistence: exchange and society in the Greek city; 7. 'Is it a farm?' The definition of agricultural sites and settlements in ancient Greece; 8. The potential mobility of human populations; Part III. Athenian Democracy and the Athenian Legal System: 9. Law in action in classical Athens; 10. Vexatious litigation in classical Athens: sykophancy and the sycophant; 11. Religion, imperial politics, and the offering of freedom to slaves; 12. Law, the democratic citizen, and the representation of women in classical Athens; 13. Changing the discourse; Part IV. Athenian Democracy on Display: 14. The viewing and obscuring of the Parthenon frieze; 15. Democracy and imperialism in the Panathenaic procession: the Parthenon frieze in its context; Part V. Athenian Democracy and the Gods: 16. Competitive festivals and the polis: a context for dramatic festivals at Athens; 17. The erection and mutilation of the hermai; 18. The ecstasy and the tragedy: varieties of religious experience in art, drama, and society; Coda: from ritual to politics, and back again.