Classics

Includes textual and historical notes that supplement a segment of Plutarch's Lives which covers the rise of Macedonia.

"Alexander's behavior was conditioned along certain lines -- heroism, courage, strength, superstition, bisexuality, intoxication, cruelty. He bestrode Europe and Asia like a supernatural figure."

In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was -- a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments.

He describes Alexander's ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt.

More than a biography, Norman Cantor's Alexander the Great is a psychological rendering of a man of his time.

The contribution of the ancient Greeks to modern western culture is incalculable. In the worlds of art, architecture, myth, literature, and philosophy, the world we live in would be unrecognizable without the formative influence of ancient Greek models.
This highly original and stimulating introduction to ancient Greece takes the city as its starting point, revealing just how central the polis ("city-state" or "citizen-state") was to Hellenistic cultural achievements. In particular, Paul Cartledge uses the history of eleven major Greek cities--out of more than a thousand--to illuminate the most important and informative aspects of Greek history. The book spans a surprisingly long time period, ranging from the first examples of ancient Greek language from Cnossus in Crete around 1400 BC to the establishment of Constantinople (today's Istanbul) in 324 AD on the site of the Greek city of Byzantion. Cartledge highlights the role of such renowned cities as Athens (birthplace of democracy) and Sparta, but he also examines Argos, Thebes, Syracuse in Sicily, and Alexandria in Egypt, as well as lesser known locales such as Miletus (home of the West's first intellectual, Thales) and Massalia (Marseilles today), where the Greeks introduced the wine grape to the French. The author uses these cities to illuminate major themes, from economics, religion, and social relations, to gender and sexuality, slavery and freedom, and politics. And throughout, the book explores how these eleven cities differed both from each other and from modern society.
An innovative approach to ancient Greece and its legacy, both in terms of the time span covered and in its unique city-by-city organization, this superb volume provides the ideal concise introduction to the history and culture of this remarkable civilization.

After Sappho but before the great Latin poets, the most important short poems in the ancient world were Greek epigrams. Beginning with simple expressions engraved on stone, these poems eventually encompassed nearly every theme we now associate with lyric poetry in English. Many of the finest are on love and would later exert a profound influence on Latin love poets and, through them, on all the poetry of Europe and the West. This volume offers a representative selection of the best Greek epigrams in original verse translation. It showcases the poetry of nine poets (including one woman), with many epigrams from the recently discovered Milan papyrus. Gordon L. Fain provides an accessible general introduction describing the emergence of the epigram in Hellenistic Greece, together with short essays on the life and work of each poet and brief explanatory notes for the poems, making this collection an ideal anthology for a wide audience of readers.

In this thoroughly engaging book, Natalie Haynes brings her scholarship and wit to the most fascinating true stories of the ancient world. The Ancient Guide to Modern Life not only reveals the origins of our culture in areas including philosophy, politics, language, and art, it also draws illuminating connections between antiquity and our present time, to demonstrate that the Greeks and Romans were not so different from ourselves: is Bart Simpson the successor to Aristophanes? Do the Beckhams have parallel lives with The Satiricon's Trimalchio? Along the way Haynes debunks myths (gladiators didn't salute the emperor before their deaths, and the last words of Julius Caesar weren't "et tu, brute?") from Athens to Zeno's paradox, this irresistible guide shows how the history and wisdom of the ancient world can inform and enrich our lives today.

[series copy]
The Monuments Past and Present series explores the ancient regions of Rome, Greece, and Pompeii with an eye toward contrasting what they were with what they are today. Important monuments and districts are presented with overlays that clearly depict how these notable ancient sites look today and
how they may have appeared when first built. These titles are excellent resources for travelers, students, and anyone else interested in the fascinating histories of these ancient regions.
Beginning with the Colosseum, the symbol of "The Eternal City," this volume explores twenty-four significant ancient landmarks such as the Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, the Pantheon, and the Appain Way.

Not all readers in ancient Greece whiled away the hours with Homer, Plato, or Sophocles - at least, not always. Many enjoyed light reading, such as can be found in the pages of this lively anthology. Various types of popular writing - novels, short stories, books of jokes or fables, fortune-telling handbooks - trace their origins to the ancient Mediterranean. In fact, some of this literature was so successful that it remained in circulation for centuries, even into the Middle Ages. Translated into other languages, these works were the best sellers of their time and remain enjoyable reading today. They are also fascinating social documents that reveal much about the daily lives, humor, loves, anxieties, fantasies, values, and beliefs of ordinary men and women.

This book, the second volume in Donald Kagan's tetralogy about the Peloponnesian War, is a provocative and tightly argued history of the first ten years of the war. Taking a chronological approach that allows him to present at each stage the choices that were open to both sides in the conflict, Kagan focuses on political, economic, diplomatic, and military developments. He evaluates the strategies used by both sides and reconsiders the roles played by several key individuals.

From the informal games of Homer's time to the highly organized contests of the Roman world, Miller has compiled a trove of ancient sources: Plutarch on boxing, Aristotle on the pentathlon, Philostratos on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, and Xenophon on female body building. Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers, the ancients themselves, and demonstrates that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete are only part of the story from antiquity. This bestselling volume on the culture of Greek athletics is updated with a new preface by leading scholar Paul Christesen that discusses the book's continued importance for students of ancient athletics.

This collection contains:

Aristotle's The Constitution of Athens

Xenophon's The Politeia of the Spartans

The Constitution of the Athenians ascribed to Xenophon the Orator

The Boeotian Constitution from the Oxyrhynchus Historian

In bringing together, translating, and annotating these constitutional documents from ancient Greece thirty five years ago, J. M. Moore produced an authoritative work of the highest scholarship. An explanatory essay by classics scholar Kurt A. Raaflaub expands this indispensable collection.

"A provocative history" of intrigue and class struggle in Ancient Rome--"an important alternative to the usual views of Caesar and the Roman Empire" (Publishers Weekly).

Most historians, both ancient and modern, have viewed the Late Republic of Rome through the eyes of its rich nobility--the 1 percent of the population who controlled 99 percent of the empire's wealth. In The Assassination of Julius Caesar, Michael Parenti recounts this period, spanning the years 100 to 33 BC, from the perspective of the Roman people. In doing so, he presents a provocative, trenchantly researched narrative of popular resistance against a powerful elite.

As Parenti carefully weighs the evidence concerning the murder of Caesar, he adds essential context to the crime with fascinating details about Roman society as a whole. In these pages, we find reflections on the democratic struggle waged by Roman commoners, religious augury as an instrument of social control, the patriarchal oppression of women, and the political use of homophobic attacks. The Assassination of Julius Caesar offers a whole new perspective on an era thought to be well-known.

"A highly accessible and entertaining addition to history." --Book Marks

This book is designed to sharpen historical skills by a critical approach to the sources of information on ancient Athenian politics. It presents contemporary sources, later historical and biographical writings, archaeological evidence, inscriptions on stone, and papyri from Egypt. The reader has available in translation virtually all the documents on which scholars of this period base their conclusions.

The period covered embraces the reforms of Solon, the tyranny of Peisistratos and his sons, and the constitutional changes of Kleisthenes. When Athenian politics first become visible, the noble families are firmly in control. At the end of the period democracy is just beginning to emerge. Central to an understanding of the politics of the time are the conflict among aristocratic clans and the vertical ties between noble patrons and their supporters and dependants in the lower social strata. Paradoxically, democracy emerged from the actions of noble leaders who were certainly not of democratic disposition.

Who knew the ancient Greeks had it all figured out three thousand years ago? In The Beginning of All Wisdom, author Steve Stavropoulos has sifted through nearly every recorded ancient Greek text for the very best sayings, proverbs, and maxims by ancient Greek philosophers, tragedians, scientists, politicians, generals, and poets, from Plato and Pericles to Socrates and Sophocles. Here is practical advice on everyday problems as well as answers to deep moral questions: Getting to know yourself is extremely difficult (Thales). Ignorance is a tough evil to conquer (Sophocles). We must take care of our minds because we cannot benefit from beauty when our brains are missing. (Euripides). Organized into 100 topics that cover all human experience -- anger, fear, good and evil, truth, prayer and hope, aging and old age, friendship, gossip, pain and sorrow, self-deception, war and peace, public speaking, democracy -- The Beginning of All Wisdom inspires, advises, and satisfies the urge to learn the best the ancient Greeks have to teach -- without having to read through a whole shelf of Loeb classics.

A lively and accessible introduction to the Greek and Roman origins of our political ideas

In The Birth of Politics, Melissa Lane introduces the reader to the foundations of Western political thought, from the Greeks, who invented democracy, to the Romans, who created a republic and then transformed it into an empire. Tracing the origins of our political concepts from Socrates to Plutarch to Cicero, Lane reminds us that the birth of politics was a story as much of individuals as ideas. Scouring the speeches of lawyers alongside the speculations of philosophers, and the reflections of ex-slaves next to the popular comedies and tragedies of the Greek and Roman stages, this book brings ancient ideas to life in unexpected ways.

Lane shows how the Greeks and Romans defined politics with distinctive concepts, vocabulary, and practices--all of which continue to influence politics and political aspirations around the world today. She focuses on eight political ideas from the Greco-Roman world that are especially influential today: justice, virtue, constitution, democracy, citizenship, cosmopolitanism, republic, and sovereignty. Lane also describes how the ancient formulations of these ideas often challenge widely held modern assumptions--for example, that it is possible to have political equality despite great economic inequality, or that political regimes can be indifferent to the moral character of their citizens.

A stimulating introduction to the origins of our political ideas and ideals, The Birth of Politics demonstrates how much we still have to learn from the political genius of the Greeks and Romans.