6During the course of a day we meet 24 Athenians from all strata of society--from the slave to the politician, the fishmonger to the philosopher, the soldier to the vase painter--and get to know what the real Athens was like by spending an hour in their company. We encounter a different one of these characters--all from different walks of life--every chapter, with each chapter forming an hour in a day in the life of the ancient city. We also get to spy on the daily doings of notable Athenians through the eyes of regular people as the city hovers on the brink of the fateful war that will destroy its golden age.