Athens is usually looked upon as a kind of paradise on Earth. I don't mean the city as it is today, struggling with economic ruin and the rise of far-right movements, but the city-state as it was in the fifth century, when that tiny, muddy corner of the world pretty much set the foundations for how most countries still function. It shone like a jewel in an area of darkness, its light cast centuries ago continuing to brighten our paths today.

Historians refer to it as the Golden Age, a term hard to dispute when one looks at the advancements made in art, philosophy, governance, medicine, and literature. A cursory look at what was accomplished by those who lived there during that period can boggle the mind, which is why a lot of people have spent years trying to make sense not only of why the place flourished when it did, but why it stopped being so special within less than a century.