"Fascinating... Azoulay has given us much to think about."
Peter Green,London Review of Books "Less a biography than a critical examination of the Pericles legend... Azoulay reminds us of how unclear the life of Pericles remains, but one learns much from his efforts to penetrate the fog."
James Romm, Wall Street Journal "Striking a balance between adulation and hypercriticism, the author depicts ... Read morePericles as a formidable strategos overseeing grandiose public works, including the Parthenon, Odeon, and Long Walls linking Athens to its port of Piraeus, while inwardly mastering the art of remaining silent and suffering 'outrageous assaults without striking back.'... Solid, well-researched ... a worthwhile addition for lovers of ancient history and classical Greece."
Publishers Weekly "[Azoulay] writes with great clarity, and with an impressive depth of interpretative sophistication."
From the foreword by Paul Cartledge "Remarkable in every way."
Roger-Pol Droit, Le Monde "Rigorous and finely argued."
Pascal Payen, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Should you read it? If you want to know more about the period of the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece or more about the strategos himself, despite Azoulay's comments about Pericles' lack of significance for our time, then, definitely. You might also want to read it for the survey of changing attitudes towards the Classics over the centuries."
N.S. Gill's Ancient Matters "Writing with precision and avoiding cliches and anachronisms, Azoulay carefully balances the credibility of classical sources. He presents a convincing account of the strategos in the Athens that emerged from the Persian Wars as a fragile democracy in which Pericles played a central role... Azoulay has provided us with a valuable new biography."
Benjamin Bilski, Standpoint "A masterfully crisp study... The tidiness Azoulay achieves is astonishing... An elegiac epilogue... Azoulay's marvellous study should revive [Pericles]."
Iona McLaren,The Telegraph "Azoulay [offers] a balanced tale of ancient Athens's most famous famous leader, complete with all his faults and attributes... Azoulay provides a fascinating study on the complexity of Pericles's personality... [He] has added a very sound, much needed biographical volume to the scholarship of classical Greece."
Choice "[F]ascinating...Azoulay is one of France's most coruscating classicists...With a pellucid foreword by the peerless British ancient historian Paul Cartledge, maps, illuminating figures...it is indispensable reading for historians. The elegant, pungent prose of the translation itself is exquisite... An intellectual feast awaits those interested in the problems of extracting truth about any particular historical figure from a maze of discordant voices."
Edith Hall, Literary Review Show Less