Fathers and Sons in Athens: Ideology and Society in the Era of the Peloponnesian War

In classical Athens, the relationship between fathers and sons carried expectations about authority, obedience, inheritance and succession that reached well beyond the household. Barry Strauss uses that relationship as a way into the political and social tensions of the Peloponnesian War era.

Drama, philosophy, political discourse and historical evidence reveal both ideals of family solidarity and anxieties about rebellion and the transfer of authority between generations. Strauss shows how these private relationships could reflect larger questions about citizenship and democratic order. The book is a specialist social history, but its central idea is immediately recognisable: family conflict can expose the pressures running through an entire political culture.