At the end of the 5th century BC, immediately after the end of the Peloponnesian War and the defeat of Athens, a committee of thirty Athenians seized the opportunity to overthrow the democratic institutions that had governed the political life of their city for more than a century. It was the beginning of a bloody civil conflict that lasted almost a year. Democracy resisted the oligarchs with the help of a volunteer army led by Thrasybulus. After fierce battles, democracy was restored in the autumn of 403.

Starting from ten characters, the book at hand presents the events of that period from a different perspective. The authors are inspired by the model of the ancient chorus and propose a new reading of Athenian society, beyond the established distinctions between citizens, metics, and slaves. The atrocities of the civil war caused the emergence of multiple fluid collectives around central figures such as the unclassified Socrates, the oligarch Critias, the orator Lysias, but also the public secretary Nicomachus, the former slave Gerys, and the priestess Lysimache. In this way, the authors reveal the hierarchies and tensions, the practices and emotions of the inhabitants of Athens. Thus, a new mapping of Athenian society emerges, with central axes being multiplicity and contingency.

Through this narrative of history as a chorus, a reflection develops on how a society is formed: what processes lead a community to internal strife, or even disintegration, and then to re-establishment? A crucial contemplation that also concerns many open issues of our troubled times.