Ancient History Books

Enthralling, entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking, "The Symposium" is one of Plato's classics. A group of men gathered at a dinner party in ancient Greece discuss the topic of love. Each man offers his view or definition of love, and the results are all different, engaging, and full of symbolism. Although it is a short book, one must not read it once and put it away; it ought to be be read again and again just to compare to what is "picked up on" each time. One thing always puzzles me: I will never know why Plato included the doctor (his name escapes me at the moment) have a bout of hiccups during someone's speech. I have never come up with a satisfactory answer - nor has any one I know, either. Nevertheless, this is an excellent read that I highly recommend for anyone - student and nonstudent. Enjoy!

The Symposium of Plato is a profoundly thought-provoking, entertaining and inspiring piece of philosophical writing. It is very short, yet infinitely more substantial than many longer works.

We are in Athens, 416 B.C.E. The scene is a banquet at the house of Agathon, who had the day before celebrated the victory of his tragedy. By the end of the party, seven men - and one absent but central woman - will have presented their views on the nature and meaning of Eros, or love.

There is no difficulty in keeping the characters distinct in our minds. Plato has great fun contrasting the opinions - and verbal styles - of tragic poet, comic poet, politician, physician and the rest, allowing absurdities and profundities to mingle freely. Socrates is very appealing, saint-like, yet utterly down-to-earth, playing his usual role of a 'philosopher' - one who 'knows only that he does not know' - always in passionate search of the truth, but catching only revelatory glimpses of its perfection.

Phaedrus gives the first speech, praising lovers' (especially homosexual) passion and loyalty, which makes them perform mighty and heroic deeds. Pausanias differentiates between virtuous, or spiritual love, and common, or bodily love. Virtuous love between men should not be primarily about sex, but about improvement and education of the soul. Eryximachus, the doctor, makes a mostly irrelevant (and boring) speech, claiming nature's contrasting elements illustrate the need to balance the healthy and unhealthy aspects of love. Aristophanes then delivers a brilliantly memorable speech, hilarious and poignant by turns, telling of how humans were once two-in-one, back to back, with two heads, four arms and four legs, with three combinations of sexes, male/male, male/female, and female/female. Their strength and speed made them threaten the gods, so Zeus cut them in half, leaving them to search forever for their other halves, and through love attempt to regain their original oneness. Agathon then gives an over-the-top, ecstatic speech, praising love as the youngest, most graceful of the gods, saying he brought order to heaven itself, 'empties men of disaffection and fills them with affection', etc, climaxing with the suggestion we all follow in love's footsteps, 'sweetly singing in his honour'.

It is then Socrates' turn. He performs for all conversations that took place between himself when much younger and Diotima, a 'wise' woman from Mantineia, to whom he had gone for instruction in the highest truths of love. In sum, the lesson is that love is the desire for the everlasting possession of the good and beautiful, which brings happiness. We crave immortality, in order to be happy eternally. We love our offspring, artistic works, laws and institutions, because they are all attempts to achieve an immortal name. These, Diotima claims, are the 'lesser' mysteries of love.

The 'greater' proceed from the 'lesser' in ascending steps. From one beautiful body the lover creates 'fair notions', then he sees all bodies are similar and equally worthy of love. From bodies he proceeds to the beauty of the virtuous mind, then the beauties of institutions and laws, climbing from there to the beauty of the sciences, until, after much growth in wisdom, he reaches the vision of all creation as beautiful. The final step is to rise to the contemplation of unchanging, eternal, absolute beauty itself. To spend your life in union with perfect beauty allows you to bring forth 'real' things, not 'images' and 'be immortal, if mortal man may'.

A drunken Alcibiades bursts in at this point, and gives a rambling, often funny, speech about his love for Socrates and how he - a very beautiful man - was spurned sexually by him. He describes Socrates' near-supernatural control of himself, totally above the effects of pain and pleasure. The book ends with a description of Socrates' companions all falling asleep as dawn breaks (after all-night drinking) and his going about his usual day.

Throughout the Symposium, Plato makes it clear that sexual relations are not the best thing at all for 'lovers'; they who wish for the highest happiness must seek to grow in virtue and wisdom and become increasingly detached from earthly pleasures. This is the origin of the phrase 'Platonic love'. Women were not considered their intellectual and spiritual equals in Athens at the time, so men of sophistication had to look to each other for emotional sustenance.

What then, we may ask, can the Symposium offer human beings today who are not interested in purely mystical/intellectual living and prefer the sexual and emotional satisfactions found in personal relationships?

A great deal, I believe. In his introduction Benjamin Jowett states that Plato 'is conscious that the highest and noblest things in the world are not easily severed from the sensual desires, or may even be regarded as a spiritual form of them'. In other words, earthly pleasures and transcendent ones are inextricable. Plato used words such as 'good' and 'virtue' to describe freeing oneself from the world of the senses, by using our reason to choose correctly who - or what - to attach to as we move through life. If we choose correctly, be it friends, sexual or lifetime partners, we strengthen our sense of inner freedom, until finally we experience it at the deepest, mystical level - the profound shift in consciousness that Plato was pointing to as the highest good - which in and of itself is morally and values-neutral.

The genius of Plato is that he communicates the total commitment required to attain perfect freedom, and the moral obligation of all human beings to strive for the happiness it alone can deliver.

Plato's "Symposium" will always be read because there will always be people who question the nature of Love. Agathon's dinner party is the scene of a conversation between a small group of men, who go around the table offering their views on Love. What does Love mean to us to-day? Reading over the responses of the dinner-guests and their host, we find the same range of answers in Ancient Greece that we are likely to find now.

Phaedrus and Pausanias are utilitarians and materialists. Phaedrus looks at love between people and a proto-Burkean love for government and state. Pausanias complicates the argument, saying that there are two different kinds of love, one which is common and one which is heavenly - yet still oriented towards the real and the tangible. Eryximachus is a proto-Swedenborg, trying to reconcile or harmonize the two kinds of love.

The jewels of Plato's "Symposium" are Aristophanes and Socrates. Aristophanes gives us the profoundly moving depiction of Love as a fundamental human need, a desire for completion. For a writer of comedy, whose aim as an art form is forgiveness and acceptance, Aristophanes's explanation is no surprise, though its depth is amazing. While women are generally discounted throughout the "Symposium," not only does Socrates, as we might expect, completely astound his audience (both inside the book and out) with his progressively logical and ascendant view of Love, but he also does it through the voice of a woman, Diotima. When we realize that Socrates is a character in this fiction, and that his words originate in a woman, the egalitarianism and wisdom of Plato the author truly shines forth, like the absolute beauty he claims as the ultimate goal of Love.

Was Plato a feminist? I don't know. I do know that the "Symposium" is a tremendous book. I picked it up and did not stop reading it until I was finished. The style of the Penguin translation is smooth, with a lighthearted tone that can make you forget that you are reading philosophy. Plato's comedic masterpiece in the "Symposium" is the character of Alcibiades, who provides the work a fitting end. Get the "Symposium" and read it now. You cannot help but Love it...in a Platonic sort of way.

Perhaps the most "literary" of all Plato's works, "Symposium" is the story of a dinner party gathering of great (and a few not so great) minds, whom engage in a discussion in praise of eros, or passionate love. It is considered literary because it is highly metaphorical, it's characters are drawn well and in some cases unforgettably, and it succeeds on many levels. It is not uncommon for Socrates to elevate the subject of discussion in any given dialogue to that of our earthly existence, and how we should go about it. Perhaps shocking to readers unfamiliar with the Greeks is the prevalence of homosexual love, particularly with young boys. But, if nothing else, this is an insight into ancient culture. And the absolutely magnificent speeches given by Aristophanes and Socrates remain profound and beautiful to modern readers, regardless of whether or not the other speeches are unpalatable to some. Also, Alcibiades, drunken, hilarious rant is not to be missed. Read in a single sitting, this work is almost sublime.

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Plato's "Symposium" is the story of Agathon's dinner party where conversation takes place with a small group of men, who recline, eat and drink around a table offering their views on Love. This story is an amazing account of how intelligent and yet so different a culture the men from ancient Greece were compared to our society today. Each speaker has this most amazing ability to tell two stories at the very same time, an creative artistic movement of what love 'is' in each and every story. applying and , metaphorically. intertwining a cultural, mythological story of the gods, giving far deeper meaning. In addition to this, the love relationships and sexual nature of these men also permeate an entire cultural feel to the story, enveloping a radical differentiation from our de-mystified and de-enchanted world back into a once existing world of substantial meaning and profundity.

Phaedrus, speaks first and relates how love is the greatest good, the beautiful, is shameful of ugly things and how only lovers are willing to die for one another.

The second speaker, Pausanias, applies two types of love, one Aphrodite, a common base love working at random with men's feelings, for money, for loving physical bodies, boys, men and women. The other type of love, from a much younger goddess, being a higher type, the heavenly, who only loves other men and boy love, but this is not physical body love but from affection of the mind of virtue and wisdom..

Aristophanes has the hiccups, so it is Eryximachus, a doctor, who speaks third, applying the idea of love as a double love; "for bodily health and disease are by common consent different things and unlike, and what is unlike desires and loves things unlike." p.82 The god of art was said to implant love as a healing art, all such love guided by this god. "It is quite illogical to say that a harmony is at variance with itself or is made up of notes still at variance." "So love as a whole has great and mighty power, or in a word, omnipotence ."

Aristophanes, the comic writer, gives a moving account of Love as a absolute human need, a desire for completion to the point of each person once shaped differently being cut in half, taking our current shape, in need of the other to complete the whole of what we once were. "For first there were three sexes, not two as at present, male and female, but also a third having both together," and they were violent, strong and forceful and would even attack the gods. So Zeus and the other gods held a meeting and decided to cut them in halves and make them weaker. From then on, they were sexually drawn to one another, both heterosexual and homosexual, reasons all due to the way of the cutting of the halves.Lesbianism and boy to man love is freely spoken of and justified according to this story of the gods. His moving speech on the beauty and virtue of love however, is according to Socrates, true only in the sense of romanticism and fictional idolatrous admiration of what love should be. For Socrates found such a romantic explanation of love as untrue to what love really is and what love contains, as it does not contain all the beauty and good.

The fourth speaker, Agathon gives a moving speech on the beauty and virtue of love however, it is according to Socrates, true only in the sense of romanticism and fictional idolatrous admiration of what love should be. "For all the gods are happy . . and love is the happiest of them all being the most beautiful and best . . the youngest of gods." In his speech, love is every good, virtuosos and beautiful thing.

The last speaker, Socrates, found such a romantic explanation of love to be untrue, for what desires good, virtue and wisdom is only something that does not contain such, something lacking, and therefore lacking it desires such things. Love only desires what it lacks. Love is neither beautiful nor ugly. "To have right opinion without being able to give reason is neither to understand nor is it ignorance. Right opinion is no doubt something between knowledge and ignorance."

It is so interesting how common and free sexuality and homosexuality were, how each man present commented on the beauty of the young men in their glory of youth. Alcibiades, jealous of Agathon, also a young beautiful male, makes a moving speech how Socrates refused his love and how other like young men, also were moved with his amazing wisdom and prose.

While women are generally discounted, and the bonding of affection in male love was considered a higher love by Pausanias, Socrates explanation of love, by far the most profound, was one he received from a woman named Diotima. Here, as another reviewer has stated, shows Plato's the egalitarianism and wisdom, like that of the beauty and ultimate goal of Love.

Later a group of men crash the party and the drinking really gets started. Some leave, while Socrates stays all night, never loosing integrity from his drinking and leaves with all his integrity.

Janoda's retelling of a classic saga is unlikely to become a bestseller given its esoteric subject matter, but that is truly a great shame as evolved readers of any stripe will surely delight in the author's wonderful skills.

Saga is about a very small community in Iceland around 965 CE, and for an historical novel, comparatively little happens--there are no grand battles, epic journeys, allusions to well-known historical events, or famous personages. The cast is limited to a dozen or so main characters and the pace of events might fairly be considered glacial. Yet for all that, the story is oddly, almost paradoxically compelling. Somehow the sparseness of the material, the humble (even dreary) circumstances within which the story unfolds, and Janoda's supremely economical--even frugal--use of language are all superbly suited to the tale and imbue it with a veracity and vigor that mere research can never match.

Like one of his humble farmer characters, Janoda painstakingly tends the unpromising soil and climate of his setting and scratches out of it a miraculous harvest of which which we lucky readers are the beneficiaries--a quirky masterpiece that transcends the seeming limitations of its subject to yield a tale that is by turns suspenseful, moving, shocking, and utterly convincing.

Great way to bring life to this saga. Read this book more than a year ago (twice) and it still sticks. Great great stuff. Let's have more!

This is an awsome story and a very good read. It bounces around a bit but still worth every penny!

This is one of those books that you get so into while you're reading that you don't want it to end. Janoda has fleshed out a portion of the Eyrbyggja Saga, giving depth and dimension to the Snorri Gothi, Arnkel Gothi, and Thorbrand factions feuding, scheming, betraying and killing for possession of two farmsteads and a precious birch forest on a peninsula in 10th century western Iceland. The saga has everything a Norse and medieval history buff would want, including some really "creepy" stuff with a vengeful ghost and dark elves who live in the shadows and feed off the evil the Norse perpetrate.

Janoda's prose is fluid and effortless, and he writes as a master storyteller. I HOPE HE WRITES ANOTHER BOOK LIKE THIS ONE ON ANOTHER OF THE SAGAS!

Highest Recommendation

I bought this, based on the reviews here as I was looking for a good Midgard-themed book to read.

It's a great first novel and I hope the author dips into this setting again for the next one.

A fine tale of the harsh Icelandic life and of betrayal and passion. Any fans of this genre should indeed give this one a try.

Couldn't fault any of it. Good stuff.

I had to read this as a book club selection, and thought it looked like a sappy romance novel. Boy, was I wrong! It has it all... action, adventure, drama, and yes, romance. But not the sappy, harlequin kind.

It had me hooked and I couldn't put it down. It's the kind of book that makes you want to run out and grab the next one, so you can see how the story continues!

I highly recommend this book and as one earlier reviewer put it, "don't just a book by the cover."

The Sword of Truth is a well written historical noval. I had read many novals, but none that told the story of King Henry so well. This book is not only filled with adventure, romance, and pain. It also states historical facts about King Henry and his longing for a son. I read this book in less then a week. Gilbert Morris is a very skilled auther that grabs you from the first page.

A wonderfully captivating book about a young man and his struggle with the Truth. Myles Morgan begins his life as a sheltered serf under the care of his mother and a kind nobleman. The truth of his heritage is revealed as the heir to the Wakefield estate and through rather tragic circumstances Myles' life is turned upside down as he enters into the world of nobility. During the reign of King Henry VIII, Myles finds himself torn between the never ending pleasures of the Court and his childhood friend Hannah Kemp and her fascinating tutor, William Tyndale. When witnessing the troubles between King Henry and the Catholic Church firsthand, Myles realizes the importance of getting the Bible translated into English, making it available to everyone, rich or poor. The power of the Court draws Myles into its dangerous web and threatens to undo all the hopes of his strong Christian family.
Morris does a wonderful job of integrating the history and intrigue of the infamous King Henry VIII with the hidden struggles and hardships of his Court and Christians of the time. There are enough facts that you understand the historical context, but it is written so well that it doesn't feel like a history book. By introducing Myles to Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon, we see how easily even the most powerful can fall prey to the greed of this world. Even though the stories of both Henry VIII and Tyndale are widely known, Morris builds a personal connection with both men through his words and leaves readers with a better understanding of the conflict between the two. It's hard to imagine a time when just owning a Bible in English was punishable by death, but Morris is able to show the true sacrifices that were made so that the Word of God is available to all.
This has been my favorite book for many years and it seems like I've read it at least 10 times!! Gilbert Morris is one of the best Christian Fiction authors around and I would definitely recommend this book along with the next six in the series to anyone! This book has peaked my interest in this remarkable point in history and has given me a lot of appreciation for the freedoms we often take for granted today. It will defiantly have you thinking twice about leaving that family Bible gathering dust on the bookshelf.

I read the Wakefield Dynasty books as a young teenager, and they awakened not only an interest in Christian literature but an avid curiosity about Christian history. I never resented the history lessons involved, but rather felt the important historical characters were much more real and memorable for me when I studied them later on because I had first encountered them in an interesting, narrative context. I was wrapped up in nearly every character in this series, and I was sad when it ended.

At first glance of the cover, I was a bit turned off. But as the old adage goes. "One should not judge a book by it's cover".

I'm glad I didn't let the cover sway me. In my opinion the cover tends to yell "romance". This, however, is not the whole picture.

Sure there is romance in the book, as well as the series as a whole, but the action and historical events covered make this an enjoyable series for everyone (even us guys).

If you like historical fiction with substance this is a treat.

This purchase saved me a lot of money compared to the price in the campus bookstore.

Of the eight books I bought, it was the most expensive (cost per page) for all that I received. Although it was in great condition, so were some of the others.

I was totally pleased with the entire process. The book arrived surprisingly quickly and was in perfect condition.

This book was pleseant to read because Socrates was accused of corrupting of young Greek people's mind. Socrates made mockery of his trial. Eventually, he was convicted and was order to drink poison to die.

This is a must for anyone who is interested in the writings of Plato and what little we know about Socrates. The footnotes provide excellent refrences to phrases, gods and place names that the average reader may not be familiar with.

In UNEARTHING ATLANTIS (1991), Pellegrino, a professional paleontologist, offers his own theories about the legend of Atlantis in an approach designed to appeal to general readers as opposed to academic audiences. He concludes that the Atlantis of Plato and the ancient Egyptian texts that were his sources refers to the Minoan culture of the ancient Mediterranean, a civilization that was disrupted (though not destroyed) following a succession of volcanic events on the island of Thera that occurred about 1628 BC. Pellegrino shines in his attempts to prove this theory, as he places the destruction of Thera within the context of contemporary historical events (such as the Biblical Exodus and the rise and fall of the Minoan culture), modern knowledge of volcanology, modern science's ability to date events from the distant past, and modern underwater archaeology. In addition, he also details efforts by modern archaeologists to rediscover ancient Thera.

Pellegrino's study is interesting and genuinely informative, though there are some major issues that readers need to bear in mind. His narrative is presented out of chronological order (in fact, the text jumps around a lot), while his prose tends to ramble at times (often repeating himself, as other reviewers note) and includes long sections that tend to distract one from his argument (for example, a fifty-page odyssey into prehistoric times that ends at the Big Bang). Also, Pellegrino appears to have been deeply affected by his study of Thera and the Monoan civilization, and he tends to criticize most other periods of human history--the Middle Ages receives particularly harsh criticism.

This is simply the best book I have read about archaeology since Gods, Graves, and Scholars. And it is the first book about the scientists who search for the past (actually written by one of them) that teaches us how to actually think in terms of deep time. Read this book and you will emerge from the "Mediterranean Genesis" chapter never viewing your own town, or anyplace on Earth, quite the same, ever again. The story of Atlantis itself, following the Frost/Marinatos hypothesis about the Minoan catastrophe of 1628 B.C. (a date finally fixed in stone by the Pellegrino synthesis), fitering down through history as the "kernel of truth" behind Plato's cautionary tale, is really the first book ever to approach this unsinkable subject from a purely archaeological and geological perspective, with no particular ax to grind. One learns why not even a small island, much less a continent, could have plunged through the ocean floor without leaving a significant and very easily seen geologic trace. Either Plato's Atlantis was based on an (only marginally) embellished and poorly understood account of history's largest known volcanic explosion (Thera/Santorini), or, according to Pellegrino, Atlantis did not exist at all. And to top all: the whole archaeological adventure is wrapped in some of the most elegant prose I have ever read.

I'm a history buff with a better than average knowledge of the Eastern Mediterranean, but I was astounded by Pellegrino's extraordinary ability to integrate and analyze data from seemingly disparate sources and disciplines. His argument for Thera as Atlantis is totally convincing and captivating - you won't want to put it down. He skillfully recreates the advanced civilization that flourished there and truly moves the reader - this book will haunt you long after you finish it. I loaned my copy to a friend who was going there on vacation - all I got back was a postcard of the excavations! If anyone hears of a pending reprint please let me know.

YES: this book is about the real Atlantis. It really did exist, but not in the literal way that Plato described it, and certainly not in the way that New Age speculation "theorists" want it to.

I really wanted to give this book a perfect five-star rating, as the subject matter is immensely important, and the author's enthusiasm makes this book a truly exciting experience. The long story made short is that "Atlantis" was in reality a small island in the east Mediterranean way back around 1600 BC. Thera was a part of the Minoan Empire, and, being a group of islands between Egypt and Greece, had not only the world's first navy, but aquaducts (long before the famous Roman water systems) and a surprisingly highly-evolved culture. Then one day, the volcano at the center of Thera exploded with as least six times the power of Krakatoa (the 1883 eruption that was heard over 2000 miles away), and within seconds 2/3 of the island was in the stratosphere.

This was all before even the Greeks became the dominant force in the region, and so the sudden disappearance of the Minoans (who dominated trade between Europe and Africa) not surprisingly became various stories passed down through the generations, which is where Plato heard it. Plato's description of an entire continent all the way out in the Atlantic that sunk into the sea turned out to be an embellishment on what was, by then, just a myth. He was essentially trying to make a point about how quickly even the most powerful civilization can crumble, and what he said was passed down through the ages, in one form or another, to us. This is how and why these Art Bell "experts" have hijacked this subject and nailed it onto their "theories" of other subjects that have been blown completely out of proportion, such as the Bermuda Triangle, life on Mars, Bigfoot, etc. Case in point: just because Atlantis was advanced by ancient standards, NO: THEY DID NOT HAVE AIRPLANES OR LASERS. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but REAL history isn't "Spear of Destiny" garbage: it's how real people really lived, not whatever garbage you want it to be.

Of course, this book was an emotional one to read: an ancient culture creating such high technology (a millenium ahead of its time), only to be totally annihilated in just seconds. If the downfall of Rome and the unsuing loss of knowledge and the onset of the Dark Ages is considered to be historically tragic, this story is then the most epic catastrophe EVER. The author points out that if they were doing what took another 1000 years for the Romans to figure out (such as running water through pipes), who knows what these people might have managed to do? Maybe we would have been on the moon 2000 years ago. We'll never know.

The downfall of this book that I hinted at earlier is that 90% of everything important is said immediately: none of what I've said here is a "big mystery" that gets unravelled through the course of the book. It's like getting hit from all sides with amazing (and very enthusiastic) information about who the Therans might have been, how the world was at the time, and the excitement that Atlantis did exist after all. As great as all of that is, the book suddenly takes a left turn into endless archaeological stories and theories that simply don't have much of anything to do with the subject. At first, it's the author trying to put Theran history into perspective (he says that people have a hard time comprehending what happened over 2000 years ago, and he's right), but he just starts beating this idea to death. He'll occasionally get back to Thera and the ongoing excavations, and then he'll launch back into a whole list of other things that become more and more distracting. By the last 100 pages of the book, it becomes a chore to get through to the end, in the increasingly dismal hope that he'll say more than just one or two things about Thera itself.

This book isn't written as much badly as just way off target. The author's enthusiasm will make you picture him as a kid playing in a sandbox for the very first time (which is probably how he'd actually describe himself), but unfortunately, he runs out of steam when he runs out of things to really say. On the other hand, this subject is fascinating and important, and I would, of course, still highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to find a huge missing piece of history, or to anyone trying to scrape that layer of filth known as "New Age speculation" off of some really solid history: the real thing is far more interesting than the National Enquirer version.

This book makes me want to catch a plane to Thera and help with the excavation. Lots of history and PLENTY of concrete evidence to turn the hardened cynic into a believer. It's a complete journey through time back to the dinosaurs and more. Like the author stated, the brain is a 3-pound time machine. This book is only 1 pound.

Most books with really good illustrations are usually a little weak in the next. Not The Ancient City. The excellent text in this book is completmented by beautiful illustrations of what is being told.

The past is another country, and the farther back in time we try to go, the harder it is to get there. If it is difficult to understand daily life in Rome and Athens today, even if we are there in person, able to see the sights and walk the streets with a native guide, then imagine how much more difficult the task to go back several thousand years. The natives are long gone, and only the shattered remains of marble buildings and monuments remain to guide us.

"The Ancient City" shows us, with a wealth of pictures and artistic reproductions, what life may have been like when Rome and Athens were the centers of their respective empires. Illustrator Peter Connolly draws on the latest archaeological finds to recreate buildings that range from the well-known, such as the Parthenon and the Colosseum, to tenements, temples, public baths and latrines (of the one in Rome -- dedicated to topping any other city -- boasted of one that featured an open-air design and over 100 seats).

Connolly also recreates statues, reliefs, frienzes and pottery, sometimes adding the original color scheme, creating a startling effect to an eye used to seeing plain white marble. The text, co-written with Hazel Dodge, describes daily life, how the people dressed, wed, entertained, worshiped and died.

Short of building your own time machine, "The Ancient World" is a worthwhile passport to the past.

The Ancient City: LIfe in Classical Athens and Rome is a good book because it has a good description of the two civilizations. Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece are two different periods, and the book divides the two with clarity and nice colorfull pictures. It will give you good information that you can't find in a encyclopedia.

I teach Classical Studies from the junior school to the senior student and am always on the lookout for resource material which can make the subject more inherently interesting. This book has it all-a wealth .of information presented in a great format with brilliant illustrations. I have posters by the author hanging in my classroom but in this production he outdoes himself. I can now readily picture what the great Panathenaic procession might have looked like , what happened in bathing establishments and how the average citizen coped with the problems of everyday life.
If anyone ever thought the Classics were dull, I would encourage him or her to peruse this book. A new adventure awaits the reader.

I wanted a basic overview text on Greek and Roman civilizations. Luckily I stumbled upon this book by Connolly and Dodge. The book is terrific. The layout is excellent. The writing is succinct and the text moves along smoothly. I now have a basic knowledge of Greek and Roman eras. I got a lot more out of this book by also reading Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way. However, I must confess, this book is far more interesting and keeps one glued. A joy to read. Very highly recommended.

I must say this was an incredibly fun sourcebook to read. At times it had me laughing with humorous quotations such as; "I am amazed, o wall, that you have not collapsed and fallen, since you must bear the tedious stupidities of so many scrawlers" and at other times I would shudder; "Good God, what scrawny little slaves they were! Their skin was everywhere embroidered with purple welts from their many beatings. Their backs, scarred from floggings... their complexions were an ugly yellow..."

Using a slew of both primary and secondary sources, Jo-Ann Shelton takes us through the life of the Romans. Covering topics as varied as slavery, provincial administration, the family unit, the magistrates and occupations, we are brought directly into Roman life with all of its practices, norms, values and peculiarities. The key feature of this book is the focus on the common Roman and how they lived with a section devoted entirely to woman in Roman society, a much overlooked topic. From dinner parties to funeral clubs, all aspects of the common Romans life are discussed.

In all a very worthwhile book to own and use as both a source of reference and entertainment!

Although this book was recquired reading for a Roman History class I took, I found myself really enjoying the read. Shelton does a superb job in collecting sources to paint an engaging and colorful picture of Roman society. I've read a lot of books about Roman history(due to the sweetness of its action), but few make the Romans seem to come alive quite like this one. If you like Roman history like me, this would be an excellent choice for your collection.

Excellent. You will actually have a good time reading this if it is required for a class. There are plenty of funny antecdotes throughout. Many of the examples of people interacting seem like they could be happening now. The great thing about this book is that more than half of the material is ancient sources. Letters about marriage, politics, superstition, it is all taught by example, which takes you into the history much more. Wonder what the people actually thought about gladitorial combats? What happened when someone had to go travelling? If there's two sides to the story, both sides are presented in this book.

Definitive Work On Rome,

I read this book for a graduate course in Roman history. Jo-Ann Shelton's book is the definitive anthology pertaining to Roman social history!

Shelton opens each chapter with a brief synopsis of the subject and then she has a plethora of primary source documents, which are about the subject. I find this to be the genius of the book. The books appendix of primary sources and bibliography make this book an indispensable resource for anyone who studies Rome.

Following is an example of some of the subjects covered. According to Roman folklore, the first public day of entertainment soon after the founding of Rome by Romulus was a day of chariot racing. Thus, its importance culturally to Rome was paramount considering it became the oldest and longest lasting public sport in Rome--lasting over one thousand years. These chariot races first took place in the seventh century BCE in an area between the Palatine and Aventine hills. The racetrack was built in the "Circus Maximus" and was expanded over the years in order to seat 250,000 spectators. Originally, there were 17 game days or ludi a year in which 12 races a day would be run. Romans throughout the social strata were attracted to the blood and danger of this spectacle, as most races had at least one chariot crashing in a race. In general, the political importance of the races and games were not lost on ambitious men wanting to make a name for themselves. Admission was free to the races since it was the aedile or praetor's responsibility to organize public entertainment while they held office. Politicians seeking to ingratiate themselves with the people and wanting to further their political careers would spend their own money to supplement the public funds available so that they could increase the lavishness of the games. For example, Julius Caesar almost went bankrupt in 65 BCE during his aedileship. He put on some of the most lavish games that Romans had ever witnessed, which made him extremely popular with the people. Though this political ploy was expensive it paid off handsomely because his popularity rose among the plebeians.

When one thinks about public entertainment in Rome, it is hard to ignore the Roman penchant for gladiatorial combat and what it culturally meant to the Romans. During the republican period, it was common practice for gladiatorial matches to be financed by wealthy private individuals. Usually sponsored in honor of a dead relative these matches were not ludi but referred to as munera meaning "duties." As was the case for the ludi, wealthy politicians used the munera for the purpose of winning over the hearts and minds of the plebeians by staging lavish spectacles for their entertainment. The advantage for an ambitious politician was that these events could be staged at any time during the year. However, during the imperial period, gladiatorial combat became a part of the publicly financed entertainment for Romans. This was done because Rome's emperors did not want potential political rivals currying favor from the plebeians. The Romans seemed to have a blood lust in their entertainment. This may be due to using gladiatorial combat as a way of showing its citizens an ennobling contempt for death. It was also certainly used to serve as a reminder to citizens the authority that the state held over them. Like the chariot drivers, gladiators were slaves that were trained in their sport under rigorous conditions. Since it was expensive to train men, not every loser of a match was automatically killed. To feed the Roman blood lust, those condemned by the state to death and many war captives were sent to the arena to fight to the death--sometimes pitted against ferocious wild animals. "In the 100 days of spectacles, which accompanied the opening of the Colosseum in 80 CE, 9000 animals were killed. At Trajan's games of 108 CE, 10,000 gladiators fought and 11,000 animals were killed."

Private leisure activities, such as dinner parties, also fulfilled important Roman cultural needs. Once again, the wealthy Roman politician frequently hosted extravagant banquets with exotic foods and expensive entertainment to curry favor from his dinner guests. Sometimes a banquet would feature food grown on the estate farms of the host. This custom was an old and respected time honored Roman tradition. Many times the dinner parties were more austere in nature and conducted as part of the Roman patron-client relationship, or just out of friendship. It is interesting to note that when one reads about the Roman customs surrounding dinner parties, one quickly realizes that they have many similarities to modern customs. As an example, in Shelton's book there are ancient accounts showing how a man fishing for a dinner invitation ingratiated himself by drying off the back of a fellow bather at the public baths, or how people would use flattery to gain a dinner invitation. There are accounts of uncouth behavior that dinner guest display that hosts, both ancient and modern, always dread. These include the guest that perpetually shows up at your door early for a dinner requiring the host to drop everything they were doing to attend to them. Roman dinner guests often came with their own cloth napkins and would use them as doggy bags to bring food home. Of course, there are accounts of the rude dinner host as well. Some hosts would serve different quality and types of food to their guests based on their social standing. Shelton's book has an account of the "persistent poet" that bores their guests with poetry recitals that drone on and are quite boring. It reminds one of being invited to a friend's house for dinner and then having to suffer through a long slide show of their host's summer vacation. What Shelton proves with her section on dinner parties is that some customs never change.

Bathing was not just used for hygiene in the Roman Empire but was also a recreational pastime in its own right. Romans throughout the social strata and of both sexes partook of this activity. Except for the very wealthy who had bathing facilities at home, most Romans went to public bathhouses. Many of Rome's emperors had bathhouses built as part of their master building plan for the city, and once again to curry favor with the citizenry. Emperors Augustus, Nero, Trajan, and Commodus to name a few, had bathhouses built throughout Rome. The popularity of bathing was such that by the fourth century CE, Rome had over 1,000 public bathhouses that were operated by the state or as private businesses. Bathhouses had either separate sex facilities or different operating hours for the opposite sex. Shelton wrote that bathing was so popular throughout the Roman Empire that, "almost every town and every village had at least one public bath building." For example, one can still visit the Roman baths in the city of Bath in England where the Romans became enamored with the restorative powers they perceived the local water contained. Starting in the late republic period, bathhouses offered many different recreational activities similar to our present day fitness centers. Thus, bathhouses served many cultural needs of its citizens; one of which was a place were Romans could congregate to gossip and talk about issues of the day. Another need they served was that they were a place where Romans could engage in all types of physical exercises--such as, ball games, swimming, and jogging. Massages were a large part of the bathing ritual as well. The plan of the Stabian Baths at Pompeii, built in the second century BCE, show the enormity of bathhouse structures. The Stabian baths had separate bathing for the opposite sex, dressing and massage rooms, a swimming pool, an exercise yard, offices for meetings, as well as other amenities. In addition, shops and food vendors surrounded many of the bathhouses; thus, many Romans of the upper classes could spend long portions of the day at the baths.

Recommended reading for those interested in Roman history.

Because Roman civilization is so fundamental to our own, there is scarcely a cultural of political topic that isn't illuminated a bit or at least better illustrated by reference to Rome. This book is organized topically with translations of primary source materials and an excellent index. Whether your topic is government, medicine, dinner or working for a living, this is a valuable source book on that most modern of ancient civiizations.

Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and bang BANG: A Novel

I really enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, the engaging style that invites the reader into the world of Octavian and many of his contemporaries such as Herod the Great, Tiberius, Cleopatra, Cicero, Livey, and many others. You come away from this book feeling as though you experienced something of the past. It is though you were there and lived through it yourself. Second, this book is a history of religions in that it focuses on the world religions of the first century all over the world. You learn about the religions of Rome and how they were evolving, as well as Judaism, Christianity, Buddism, Mithraism, Hinduism and many more besides. The story of the Roman and Greek gods are told. Third, festivals and there meaning are focused on. This is particularly true of December 25th and how the various religions treated this date. Other festivals are taught about as well, like the Jewish passover. Fourth, the calendar and how it come into being is another great feature of this book. One learns about astronomy and astrology as well as how all of the months and days of the week that are currently used in the west were named. Fifth, the founding and history of various cities are told. Finally, one can not leave this book without sensing that he has taken a trip back in time. The one negative about the book was that the author takes a religious stand that "all roads lead to god". There is very little negative treatment of the various religions. Most people and religions are cast in a very positive light. Octavian was likely a little meaner and cold hearted than he comes off here. Of course, if Octavian was telling the story himself then he may have told it like this since we are all the hero of our own story.

One of the best all-ages history books. :) Gorgeous illustrations, useful family trees, all told in a friendly and familiar style; not dry and academic at all.

What a wonderful book and introduction for a young person to learn about the Romans, and the way they lived! I remember first being introduced to this book in the 9th grade, when I had a mild obsession with the Roman Empire. This book has stuck with me for a long time. It is written in an entertaining manner, and makes these people seem more real and human than some stale 3rd person account of how things were. Each historical figure is depicted as people with the same basic fears, hopes and desires as everyone else, in relation to the society in which they live. It of course being for children is toned down as far as some of the facts we know or speculate today about these people (ie I, Claudius) but it gives a great account of how an individual of the day might have lived, and it is not just about Octavian/Augustus himself, but the people around him and alive at the same time, sometimes even in another country. This was the world of that time, and was a fascinating period of history. This type of book can easily open up a historical interest for a young person for life. I myself searched 10 years ago to find a used copy of this gem, remembering it from high school over 10 years prior, and successfully found a copy in an old book shop. I was thrilled to death to read it again, even after reading several translated histories from the Roman Empire.

I cannot say enough good things about this book! I just finished reading it before using it for homeschooling, and am amazed at how much I learned! If only they used history books like this in when I was in school, I may have had an interest in history.

The books covers from Octavian at age 18 (when his uncle Julius Caesar is killed), through his death. The beauty of this books is that it covers world events during the time period as well as daily life in Ancient Rome. It's wonderfully well rounded and the illustrations are a nice bonus.

I will absolutely read her other historic fiction books and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this one!

One of the great bonuses of parenting is that you get to introduce books to your own kids that wowed you when you were a kid yourself. Sometimes your children love the books as much as you did; sometimes they don't. But in either case, you get to revisit with old friends and see how much you and they have changed and retained over the years.

Some of my best book friends when I was a kid were the wonderful illustrated histories of Genevieve Foster, and the one I loved most was *Augustus Caesar's World.* I recently introduced it (and a few others: *Washington's World*, *Lincoln's World*, *John Smith's World*, *Columbus's World*) to my 8 year old, and he's discovering the magic in them I did so many years ago.

There are three qualities to *Augustus Caesar's World* that make it so entertaining and educating. The first is that it's incredibly well written. Foster has the gift of breathing life into historical accounts. In reading about Cicero's execution or the life of Siddhartha, for example, one experiences all the dreadful waste of the one and the liberating wonder of the other. Second, the book is wonderfully illustrated by Foster herself. The illustrations are themselves instructive: along with individual scenarios, she provides time-lines, illustrated most fetchingly, that conveniently encapsulate events and persons. Finally, Foster's histories are really world histories. In *Augustus Caesar's World,* she focuses on the events leading up to the end of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Empire (roughly, 44BCE to 14 CE). But she doesn't limit herself to Roman history; she also examines events taking place across the world during the time frame in which she's working: the druids in Gaul, Hindus in India, Confucius in China, Mayans in the Americas, and so on. She even includes intellectual history: the origins of Christianity and Buddhism, the Upanishadic culture of the Hindus, etc. Her aim is to give the reader a wide angle of vision, and she succeeds wonderfully.

I'm grateful that Foster's histories are being republished. They don't patronize kids by resorting to silly gimmicks that supposedly make learning more palatable (or at least more marketable). Instead, they make history fascinating the old fashioned way: by showing that it's a great story in its own right. They're a great discovery for my son, and a great rediscovery for me.

This book is great! A marvelous example of how a little information can tell a lot. I recommend this to all my homeschool friends as a history of the world baseline. Very well written with just enough information to get at the real meat, and capture the essence of each period.

The Big Bang to Now: A Time Line is a penetrating but easy-to-understand overview of the current scientific history of the universe. Reading it along with more detailed books like Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything or Dawkins' The Ancestors Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life makes both books more rewarding.

But there is one question I have heard asked more often than any other. It is whether it is possible to live a life committed to religious values and at the same time to accept most of what science says today about the world. For anyone asking this question, I cannot recommend a better book to read alongside The Big Bang to Now than Edward O. Wilson's The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. It demonstrates that it is possible to embrace a scientific world view and be at the same time a deeply religious and committed believer. In fact, science can deepen one's awe of the world God has created, and make our guardianship of it more effective and caring.

Sissons' The Big Bang to Now and Wilson's The Creation each deserve five stars for what they tell us about the world and our place in it. Put together, they deserve six.

I have now read this book twice - small paperback, easily tucked in to one's bag with print that is easy on old eyes. Reminds me somewhat of Karl Rahner's "Prayers for Meditation" `62 and might be a rich jumping off point for self-centering. I read it first from the perspective of a person who believes in God and the second time as someone who believes that there is no God... I found the latter approach more terrifying. If God is not our parachute... She states that "whether you think our past can help us make better decisions for our future, or want to decide if the discoveries of science reflect a creative design that deepens or contradicts religious belief, it's a book that reveals a sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal, always amazing universe."
The book often brings one up short "Earth may be unique in the Universe. If there are other planets where we could survive, they are thousands of light years away, we haven't found them yet, and if they exist, we won't have the means of reaching them for a considerable time. IF we do manage the trip and somebody is there before us, we might not be welcome. So if we want to survive, we had better take care of our Earth. Living somewhere else that doesn't depend on support from Earth isn't going to be possible any time soon." (page 29). She ends by saying that "In about 4 billion years, our sun will run out of energy. Earth, our solar system, and some day our galaxy will burn out. Ultimately, even the entire Universe may end. Bleak as this may sound, neither science nor religion assume this is the end of the story. We live in mystery." (pg 211)
This treatise on time, on life, on relationships, on personal responsibility is thought-provoking, inspiring, and humbling. I found myself oscillating between determination and despair, and between anxiety and inspiration as to my role (infinitely small and seemingly inconsequential) for the survival of our universe. But it is profoundly important for my own life, my own development, my own sense of peace.

I recommend Terry Sissons' The Big Bang To Now: A Time Line as both an interesting read and a handy reference guide. When I first received a copy, I opened it randomly and learned that dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago; homo sapiens' migration from Africa took only 10,000 years to reach China and Australia; and Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. I settled down for an easy, informative read that gave a straightforward perspective on the basic cosmic and historic events of the last 13 billion years.

Though that first read would have been plenty to rationalize the cost of The Big Bang to Now, I continue to find it a valuable reference. My college bound daughter has absconded with my first copy because she wants it at school to answer a multitude of questions that come up from friendly discussions to writing papers. I have obtained copies for both home and the office because it is so easily helpful in answering "When was that?" whether the query is about astronomy, anthropology, science, or western civilization. I have a friend who carries a pocket atlas in her handbag. Now that I have a copy of The Big Bang to Now with me, an understanding of the world we live in and how we got here is always at our fingertips.

This exciting version of the whole of time divides time into about 100 eras and gives a one page, wrily factual account of each.
The opposite page of each section, has a thought-provoking commentary on the era.
It is an inviting, easy read suitable for anyone from early teens to ancient.
But, no, it is not trivial. The brief summaries of each era are soundly based on the up-to-date knowledge of 2006- with a clear reminder that science is what we know now and will surely change as time goes by. That is a good lesson for anyone to learn, and this book is an easy way to learn it.
A compulsive book for the dipper-in, there are plenty of pointers to further reading on any age that grabs.

The most amazing thing that about this book is that Arrian somehow managed to rescue the man from the legend, the god from the myth and the story from the soothsayers. He intended to write a factual history of the great leader but by necessity was forced to rely on word of mouth, old stories, past recollections and hardly any authoritative manuscripts.

Considering what he had to work with, the outcome is simply amazing. Like Thucydides, Herodotus and Livy, his goal was to write a factual work that was to have been definitive...and it was. The campaigns are given much attention as well as the character of Alexander. For a more scholarly and literary work I recommend Robin Lane Fox and his biography of Alexander - just stupendous.

This book is a PRIMARY SOURCE that is great for any student. An ancient work that has great deatails. It is actually interesting to read, even if you just use it for school. If you want more information on this book, feel free to e-mail me at Silvermouse51@aol.com. I will try to respond to your e-mail as soon as possible. Again, buy this book if you're doing a project on Alexander the Great! It's the absolute best you can ever buy!

Of all the books that I read of Alexander the Great, this book is my favourite in explaining the famous battles.It also explaines how he conquered the tribes from Persia up to Sogdiana.The battles of the Granicus,Issus,Gaugamela,and above all Tyre are incredibly narrated.The names are all there, who did what,and who did not.In the battle of Tyre, how much he had destroyed and how much he had to rebuild,never giving up.It explains all the problems that Alexander encountered with the Tyrians.
The death of Hephastion that made him lose his sanity,make you really feel what friendship meant to him. What this young man accomplished,and what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Conquer as long as there were places to conquer.
It also writes about the honest side of Alexander,and those who
were traitors how he treated them.All the spoils of war he gave away,only eternal fame was his.How he created cities,and how he was ahead of his time, in many ways.
Read it is a great book indeed.

The wierdest part of this history was the account in Indika of the island of cavemen that Nearchos ran into, and battled with his fleet...

"There was a lagoon at the mouths of the river, and the depressions near the bank were inhabited by natives in stifling cabins. These seeing the convoy sailing up were astounded, and lining along the shore stood ready to repel any who should attempt a landing. They carried thick spears, about six cubits long; these had no iron tip, but the same result was obtained by hardening the point with fire. They were in number about six hundred. Nearchus observed these evidently standing firm and drawn up in order, and ordered the ships to hold back within range, so that their missiles might reach the shore; for the natives' spears, which looked stalwart, were good for close fighting, but had no terrors against a volley. Then Nearchus took the lightest and lightest-armed troops, such as were also the best swimmers, and bade them swim off as soon as the word was given. Their orders were that, as soon as any swimmer found bottom, he should await his mate, and not attack the natives till they had their formation three deep; but then they were to raise their battle cry and charge at the double. On the word, those detailed for this service dived from the ships into the sea, and swam smartly, and took up their formation in orderly manner, and having made a phalanx, charged, raising, for their part, their battle cry to the God of War, and those on shipboard raised the cry along with them; and arrows and missiles from the engines were hurled against the natives. They, astounded at the flash of the armour, and the swiftness of the charge, and attacked by showers of arrows and missiles, half naked as they were, never stopped to resist but gave way. Some were killed in flight; others were captured; but some escaped into the hills. Those captured were hairy, not only their heads but the rest of their bodies; their nails were rather like beasts' claws; they used their nails (according to report) as if they were iron tools; with these they tore asunder their fishes, and even the less solid kinds of wood; everything else they cleft with sharp stones; for iron they did not possess. For clothing they wore skins of animals, some even the thick skins of the larger fishes."

Cavemen who dont at all use metal, but only stones and fingernails...they wear animal skins...but most importantly, bodies COVERED in hair? What?! I want to go search for this island.

I want to go look for this island, i know how wierd it is, but THIS paragraph caught my eye more than any other in this work.

PS:
Arrian's account of Alexander is the best ancient source, though he is a bit of an apologist for the actions of Alexander, so dont believe ALL that Arrian says. The guy though was an actual general, and he had fought and conquered, he was someone who had been through many of the same situations as Alexander as a governor and general, so he DOES know what he is talking about.
Great work...

Alexander the Great was already a historical figure and "larger than life" character by the time Arrian wrote his CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER. More than 400 years had passed since Alexander's death and, while there was doubtless plenty of popular lore about him, there also was a considerable mass of written source material in existence. Much of this material came from contemporaries who had campaigned with Alexander, but these accounts apparently often conflicted. Forced to pick and choose from all this information, Arrian appears to have relied largely on Ptolemy and Aristobulus. Ptolemy was experienced in military matters and, as one of Alexander's generals, had participated in many of the operations he described. Arrian brings his own knowledge and experience of military and administrative matters to bear on this information with generally good results. The rap on Arrian is that he displays a sound grasp of Alexander's military exploits and of his character, but is too forgiving when it comes to Alexander's faults and glosses over other issues.

Arrian brought a wealth of experience to his task. His own personal accomplishments were considerable. A Greek by descent, he was born in the city of Nicomedia, capital of the Roman province of Bithynia, sometime prior to A.D. 90. His family was prosperous and had attained Roman citizenship, giving young Arrian the possibility of a career in the imperial service. Before he was done, he attained the Roman consulship and was subsequently entrusted by Emperor Hadrian with the governorship of Cappadocia, a border province on the eastern frontier that entailed the command of two Roman legions plus auxiliary troops. During this period he led a successful campaign to drive an invading tribe out of Armenia, sailed all the way around the Black Sea, and wrote accounts of these events as well as manuals on military tactics. After Hadrian's death, Arrian retired to Athens, where he rose to become chief magistrate and, later, a Member of the Council of the city. He also continued to write until his death sometime between A.D. 173 and A.D. 180.

Besides THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER, Arrian authored many other works. A few survive, but most are now lost, as are the many sources available to Arrian from Ptolemy, Aristobulus, Nearchus and others. All that remains from those who actually knew Alexander is in the form of quotes and citations in the works of later historians like Arrian. It's a sad fact that, while a few histories written by ancient scholars such as Livy, Plutarch, Arrian and others have survived, the great bulk of ancient literature and source material is gone. In an age when scribes had to copy books by hand, there could never be more than a few dozen copies of any book in existence. Under such conditions, it is hard to exaggerate the magnitude of historical disasters ranging from the destruction of the great library at Alexandria to the sack of Constantinople. A survivor like this is a rare opportunity to share the observations of an intelligent and accomplished person from a very different age.

THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER is an important piece of the modern world's understanding of Alexander the Great. We're extremely fortunate it has survived. More than that, though, this is a lively and fascinating book that any reader can enjoy. If you have any interest in Alexander, or in ancient history in general, read this book.