| Description |
1 online resource (x, 375 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, maps |
| Contents |
Prologue : The wild and the tamed : ancient views of civilization -- Part I. The Greeks. 1. The dawn of Greek civilization -- 2. The rise of the Hellenes -- 3. New things : the first Greek city-states -- 4. As rich as Croesus : early Greek and the East -- 5. Great Greeks : the Greek settlement of the West -- 6. Meet the (western) neighbours -- 7. 'Lord of all men'? The threat of Persia -- 8. The same but different : Athens and Sparta -- 9. 'Unprecedented suffering'? The Pelponnesian War -- 10. Examined lives and golden mouths -- 11. 'A brilliant flash of lightning' : Alexander of Macedon -- 12. Game of thrones, or The world after Alexander -- Part II. The Romans. 13. 'Senatus populusque Romanus' -- 14. Boots on the ground : building the Roman empire -- 15. Hail Caesar! The advent of the autocrats -- 16. 'Fierce Rome, captive'? The lure of Greece -- 17. What did the Romans do for their empire? -- 18. 'Barbarians' at the gate -- 19. The 'Jesus movement' -- 20. United we stand : the final century -- 21. Divided we fall : a tale of two empires |
| Summary |
The magnificent civilization created by the ancient Greeks and Romans is the greatest legacy of the classical world. However, narratives about the "civilized" Greek and Roman empires resisting the barbarians at the gate are far from accurate. Tony Spawforth, an esteemed scholar, author, and media contributor, follows the thread of civilization through more than six millennia of history. His story reveals that Greek and Roman civilization, to varying degrees, was supremely and surprisingly receptive to external influences, particularly from the East. From the rise of the Mycenaean world of the sixteenth century B.C., Spawforth traces a path through the ancient Aegean to the zenith of the Hellenic state and the rise of the Roman empire, the coming of Christianity and the consequences of the first caliphate. Deeply informed, provocative, and entirely fresh, this is the first and only accessible work that tells the extraordinary story of the classical world in its entirety |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 340-353) and index |
| Notes |
In English |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
HISTORY -- Ancient -- Greece.
|
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Civilization
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| SUBJECT |
Greece -- Civilization -- To 146 B.C.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85057041
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Rome -- Civilization.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85115094
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Greece -- Civilization -- To 146 B.C
|
| Subject |
Greece
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Rome (Empire)
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
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| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780300241105 |
|
0300241100 |
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