La nascita della politica : la Costituzione di Atene

The idea of democracy is born on a profound contradiction: putting together the terms “people” and “power” sounds, in 5th Century B.C. Greek, like an oxymoron. The author of La Costituzione di Atene describes the problem of the Athenian polis, a problem that arises from the origin of its same definition as a democratic constitution. The index of the volume includes: - A broad introduction: “Città impura. Lo stile tragico della democrazia ateniese” (“Impure city. The tragic style of Athenian democracy"), dedicated to the historical, social and cultural context of the Treaty and of its possible author (conventionally referred to as "pseudoXenophon" or "Old Oligarch"); - Athenaion Politeia text, translation, and commentary; - An appendix on the first documented evidence of the term and analysis of occurrences of the term δημοκρατία in the texts of the 5th Century BC.: “Demokratia: genesi e attestazioni della parola nel V secolo a.C.” (“Demokratia: genesis and attestations of the word in the 5th Century BC"); - An appendix on "politeiai", a specific genre of treatise compilation, about the “constitution” of the Greek cities: "Politeiai: le costituzioni delle poleis greche, da Crizia a Aristotele” (“Politeiai: the constitutions of the Greek poleis, from Critias to Aristotle”)