Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World

The Aristotle Adventure answers that question by providing a guide to the individuals who published, studied, explained, taught, and extended Aristotle's greatest achievement--logic, a tool for understanding this world. This reader-friendly account covers 2,000 years, 10,000 miles, and four cultures (Greek-Pagan, Greek-Christian, Arabic-Islamic, and Latin-Christian).

The Aristotle Adventure is for:
*General readers seeking a clearly written intellectual adventure.
*Students of the history of ideas, philosophy, Western Civilization, or theology.
*Scholars who want an overview of this wide-ranging story.

The author explains each new philosophical concept as it appears in the story. (A combined index-glossary allows readers to easily review key concepts and individuals.) Secondary information, set into tables and charts, allows readers to focus on the main story in the main text, with little distraction. Extensive end-notes and bibliography open avenues to further reading.

Plutarch's biographies of Solon, Pericles, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Cicero, and others form a brilliant social history of the ancient world. This rich collection reveals the character and personalities of Greece and Rome's most influential figures. It is Plutarch's most enduring work and is an exceptional choice for biography lovers and readers of ancient history.

A wide-ranging survey of one of the greatest civilizations in history, Hazel's authoritative and hugely enjoyable guide introduces figures from all walks of Roman life, from Emperors to generals, from politicians to thieves.

However, there exists somewhat discordia in selection of the entries. For example, in the book we can find the emperor Hadrianus' favorite boy ANTINOUS , but not the emperor Nero's boy-wife SPORUS nor the emperor Elagabarus' husband HIEROCLES.

If you'd like to read more detailed accounts or articles , you should better to purchase the last version of "the Oxford Classical Dictionary".

Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World

Average customer rating:

Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World
Carl J. Richard
Manufacturer: Barnes and Noble Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

The lives of Alexander the Great, Socrates and Plato are opened up in this thorough and fascinating overview of life in ancient Greece.

Why ? The reason is evident. This book lacks a lot of interesting people and historical stories. E.G. ; You cannot find the entriy of PAMMENES the founder of the Sacred Band=Hieros Lokhos of Thebai. And in the article of PHILIPPOS 2nd of Macedonia , you cannot read the famous story of his murderer and beloved Pausanias who was raped by Attalos and his servants. Et aussi ,the compiler doesn't mention that Aristogeiton and Harmodios were lovers at all, as if we ,the readers are still live in the hypocritical Victorian age.

The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek: The Man Who Discovered Britain

Average customer rating:

a very dry piece about ancient seafaring
Fun, but a bit loose on the history.
The Discovery of Britain
Ordinary Voyage
Travels of an ancient mariner

The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek: The Man Who Discovered Britain
Barry Cunliffe
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Greece | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Expeditions & Discoveries | World | History | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0802713939

Around 330 B.C., a remarkable man named Pytheas set out from the Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseille) to explore the fabled, terrifying lands of northern Europe—a mysterious, largely conjectural zone that, according to Greek science, was too cold to sustain human life and yet was somehow, they knew, the source of precious commodities such as tin, amber, and gold.

Whether Pytheas headed an expedition or traveled alone, he was the first literate man to visit the British Isles and the coasts of France and Denmark, and there is convincing evidence that he traveled on to Iceland and the edge of the ice-pack—an astonishing voyage at the time. Pytheas’s own account of the journey, titled On the Ocean and published in about 320 B.C., has not survived, though it echoes in the works of ancient historians like Herodotus and Strabo. Their allusions to his voyage represent the beginnings of European history and underscore how much of a pioneer Pytheas was, for Britain remained without further explorers until Julius Caesar and his legions landed there almost 300 years later.

Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe knows perhaps more than anyone about the world through which Pytheas traveled, and he has sifted the archaeological and written records to re-create this staggering journey. Beginning with an invaluable pocket history of early Mediterranean civilization, Cunliffe illuminates what Pytheas would have seen and experienced—the route he likely took to reach first Brittany and then England; the tin-mining and, even then, evidence of ancient cultures he would have witnessed onshore; the challenge of sailing in a skin boat; the magic of amber and the trade routes by which it reached the Mediterranean. In telling this story, Cunliffe has chronicled an essential chapter in the history of civilization.

On the Ocean, written by the fourth century B.C. explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern day Marseille in France) is itself lost to modern day scholarship, but it does exist in short excerpts found in the works of later authors. Professor Cunliffe is both an archaeologist as well as an historian of the period and is able to use his understanding of the cultural remains of the period and of the region in which Pytheas traveled to verify many of the traditions surrounding the great adventurer's voyage. In essence, he uses both Pytheas and his travels to create the structure and theme of his own work on life and trade along the Atlantic coasts during the fourth century.

For those with a general knowledge of Greco-Roman history, this book adds detail to the image of the ancient world. Many of the more general texts of the period, while discussing the colonization period of ancient Greece, fail to really give more than a gloss-over of the cultural phenomenon that restructured the Mediterranean world and led to the more widely known events of the Roman Republic and Imperial periods, with its cast of characters made popular in literary form from Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar to Ridley Scott's Gladiator. The book takes the reader to the ends of the earth from the point of view of the contemporary Mediterranean world and provides a personality whose adventures match those of the great explorers of the fourteenth and fifteenth century A.D.

The book is brief and concise, and would be understandable to most readers from junior high level and beyond with an interest in history. The bibliography contains a number of references that would provide further reading sources. Most of these are a little old, 1893-1994, and some are in French or German, but several of the general sources are more recent and in English.

Average customer rating:

Great sequel

The Pig Who Saved the World
Paul Shipton
Manufacturer: Candlewick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0763634468
Release Date: 2007-08-28

Livi-Bacci is one of the great historians of human population of our age. His title suggests that this is a survey of previous studies of population. It is. But it is more than that. It is also a unique work of scholarship. Livi-Bacci presents new work which clarifies and extends our understanding of how population growth has affected past history and how it will continue to affect our lives in the future.

It is well written. The style is clear and concise. It is suitable for the generalist as well as the specialist. It is a joy to read.

There are only two faults that I feel mar this book. The first is that Livi-Bacci pays less attention to the effects of the Demographic Transition than it seems to merit. The second is that there is no summary bibliography. Yet if one wishes to look at one book which reveals how powerfully human population growth has affected human history, this would be the book to choose.