Greece Books

One of the foremost books of true information on the Royal Family of Greece. I bought my copy years ago and to this day use it for references. This particulair publication has a "added value" as the contributor with the help of some remaining members of the Royal Family have an added an extra chapter, my book has this missing.... The new reader will receive some updates finalizing some of the subjects lives and more current developments within the Hellenic Dynasty. Great source for genealogical information as the charts/family trees are superb, second to none. I reccomend it highly.

This is the first book to chronicle the Greek royal family with incredible pictures as well as informative text. Even if you're not a fan of royalty, in terms of historical significance, the photographs in this book provide rare insight into a world gone forever.
This book is stunning and I am thrilled to have it. Each picture is so crystal clear it gives the reader a voyeuristic thrill at catching a glimpse of a familiar face here and there in totally different settings. Every Greek royal born after the invention of photography is depicted in this book and each photograph is given a full page, so there is no squinting at postage stamp size pictures in this book! Even those who may not be very interested in the Greek royal family will find that they overlapped all of the other royal families of Europe so that a rare photograph of Queen Alexandra of Great Britain will literally stop you in your tracks on one page, then a couple of pages later, a breathtaking picture of Marie of Romania or Minnie (Dagmar)of the Russian royal family will have you shaking your head in wonder. I have a few photographic books on the various royal families, and have surfed online for images but many of the pictures here are new to me. Definitely a book to add to the royal photo books, alongside Charlotte Zeepvat's amazing books on Queen Victoria's family as well as the Russian Imperial family.

If you have ever wondered what happened to transform the stupendous marble temples, palaces and baths of Imperial Rome into the fragmentary ruins we see today, read Lanciani. A famous archaeologist, he takes the reader on a learned tour of most of the great and some of the virtually unknown sites of the ancient city and lets us know how emperors, popes, renaissance architects and modern speculators reduced them to their present state . While some of his information is no longer completely accurate due to more recent discoveries and scholarship, nonetheless, his first hand experience of the excavations and his extraordinary knowledge of the history of the city and its monuments make this essential reading for the enthusiastic tourist as well as the student. His descriptions of the many imperial gardens are fascinating and unavailable elsewhere. The volume has murky plates and illustrations, although many readers will not mind this; there are plenty of photos available in other books. One thing that most readers will miss is a map of the city showing the sites the author describes. Highly recommended.

For decades Rodolfo Lanciani studied and excavated the ruins of ancient Rome during the 19th and early 20th Centuries. He wrote this book (he tells us) not as a book on archaeology but as a guidebook for the student of history and archaeology visiting the city. He walks you around from site to site in the city as it existed then. However, he is an archaeologist, and his knowledge of the city, its history and its remains is encyclopaedic. He discourses on everything from the many styles of bricks, and how they are laid, to the design of the systems of aquaducts, to excavation of Nero's golden house, other palaces of other Emperors, ordinary houses, places of worship, to the discovery of the remains of Raphael in the Pantheon, which gatekeepers must be bribed to allow entrance to certain sites, interesting historical anecdodes and on and on and on. There are over 200 illustrations, maps and plans. Lanciani also published a reconstruction of the ancient city map of Rome, known as the "Forma Urbis Romae", so he knew the city of 2000 years ago street by street and house by house.
Dr Lanciani is writing over a hundred years ago, and the power of his prose is staggering - crystal-clear technical discussions combined with 19th Century Romantic English are both enlightening and entertaining.
You will read of early excavations beginning in the Renaissance, beginning with the discovery of Nero's house and the rooms full of statuary that inspired artists of that time, to contemporary discoveries under the direction of Dr Lanciani.
One of my all-time favorites - I always keep it nearby and never tire of reading it.

Instead of trying to fit everything into the imaginary frame of nation-state based historical accounts, it is much better to focus on a place and observe the interaction of civilizations through time.
This book very successfully undermines any simplistic understanding of Balkans and the relationship between faith, state and society.
Essential book for anyone who is seriously interested in history

Today I got Mark Mazower's first book in Hebrew, a translation of this book I have in English.
Two Quotations from the Paperback copy.
p 12 "By 1950, when this book concludes, Salonica's Muslims had been resettled in Turkey, and the Jews had been deported by the Germans and most of them killed."
On the same page "Similar transformations occurred in cities across a wide swathe of the globe - Lviv Wroslaw Vilna Tiflis, Jerusalem, Jaffa and Lahore..."
(I know live with Arabs in Jaffa. S.C.)

p 460 "The Aftermath" : "For returning Jews the experience was a haunting one, Jacques Stroumsa was a young engineer who helped construct the Hirsch camp, and had survived Auschwitz, where his parents and his pregnant wife had been killed. After the war, unwilling to return home , he had left for good. When he eventually he came back for a brief visit, he spent hours sitting on his hotel balcony and looking out over the sea: 'I was smoking cigarette after cigarette for fear the tears would come. A Greek Orthodox friend found me alone around midnight and said: "I understand you, Jacques, you don't really know any more where to go in Salonica, the city where you once knew every stone." And that's how it was."
S.C.: Jacques was my fathers friend at school and Sorbonne in Paris. My father survived WW2 and saved most of the family by leaving Salonica for Athens and hiding there as Christians.
But the book is the History of Salonica from 1430-1950, not only WW2.
WW1 and the Fire in Salonica in 1916.
Very Good reading!

Although the book is said to have been printed from camera-ready copy that I supplied, the copy editor took it upon himself to alter the text without having the courtesy of consulting me. In so doing, the paragraphing of the opening chapter was altered from that of Fouque's original text, and several errors were introduced into my annotations. It is regrettable to see these defects in a book to which I devoted eight years of conscientious effort. Apart from this, I hope that the book does credit to Fouque and his long-neglected contributions to geology and archeology.

In 1866-1870, Georgios volcano on Santorini had a series of eruptions that attracted many visitors and scientists. Several eye-witness accounts of the spectacular events were written, but two of them were outstanding, one by Jules Verne and another by Ferdinand Fouque. While Verne described in his science fiction novel how Captain Nemo and his crew witnessed the spectacular eruptions in the middle of Santorini caldera, Fouque wrote a scientific book entitled "Santorini et ses eruptions". Both books became famous. While Verne's book turned out to be a best seller and was translated into many languages, Fouque's book was never such a success because only 800 copies were printed and the many illustrations made it expensive. As a result, many geologists and archeologists have cited the book, but only a few have read the text. Now after more than 120 years this classic has been translated into English. The translator, a leading scientist in volcanology himself, Alexander McBirney of the University of Oregon, has given us a readable text that preserves the style and spirit of the original. His annotations inform the reader about later work and things that have changed since 1879. He has also added a short biographical sketch of Fouque, a doctor of medicine who became interested in volcanoes and was a pioneer in many fields, including the analysis of volcanic minerals and gases. McBirney brings the reader an update on the geological development of Snatorini since the appearance of the original French text. The book comes with the modern geological map of Santorini by Pichler and Kussmaul. Altogether, the combination of Fouque's science, the translator's scholarship, and the publisher's craftsmanship make this one of the best books about volcanoes and the archeology of Santorini ever written.

Although long dead, Psappha, as Sappho called herself in her own soft Aeolian dialect is and has been the love of my life for over 40 years. In my heart and mind she lives, loves and laughs.

Writing her story has been my profound joy.

Thanks to the considerable writing talents of author Peggy Ullman Bell, Sappho truly sings again. She sings to the hearts of everyone, women and men of open minds, many centuries after her mortal end, with lyrical intimations of equality, love, and freedom of spirit. In a marvelous tribute to the wonders and depths of true femininity, with a star character that would champion the rights of women if alive today, Bell plucks Sappho out of a male-dominated political era long ago that tried to bury her glory, and brings her back to life for us in the twenty first century. I, for one, say "Brava! ... well done."

Deliciously written, with descriptive language that transports you wholly into another ancient world, author Bell's sensuous, often erotic, tale will grip you and tantalize you with an ever-thickening and twisting plot, staffed with an abundance of characters that come to vivid life in your mind's eye. A truly fine literary work, "Sappho Sings" has a spot reserved in my library for sure.

Robin Lane Fox considers Alexander the Great to be the world's first authentic hero. Having retraced Alexander's 10 year, 11,000-mile march in carving out his empire and written a prize-winning biography, "Alexander the Great," the author certainly has the credentials to back up this particular book. "The Search for Alexander" emphasizes the conqueror's personality, motivation, and incredible ambition that consistently overcame severe obstacles of geography, weather, morale, and food supply. Consequently, this book reads more like a detective story, sifting through the historical record to make his best case for what really happened and why. "The Search for Alexander" contains more than 220 photographs, 135 in full cover, including striking pictures of the royal tombs discovered at Vergina, Greece in 1977, which Lane Fox argues is the burial place of Alexander's father, Philip II. If you have even a passing interest in the subject, this is a fascinating book, whether you are content just to look at the pictures or are really interested in the historiography involved in this volume.

By his career, the frog pond of the Mediterranean was widened to India. The Greeks invented politics. By Alexander's march, the old Persian Empire of the East was broken. In 343 Aristotle was chosen as Alexander's tutor. In 336 Philip was murdered. In 334 Alexander crossed into Asia. He died in Babylon July 10, 323.

At the simplest level Alexander exerted the dominance of youth. He kept a dagger and Homer's ILIAD under his pillow. A huge Greek city in Afghanistan has been newly uncovered through French excavation. Alexander was born in July 356 B.C. His father was murdered when he was twenty. Alexander adorned an expensive tomb for his father. He was fascinated by Homer's poems. He was smallish, brisk, with bold and handsome features. Alexander cast his friendships and ambitions in light of Homer's ILIAD.

The competitive drinking of the Macedonian court was famous. The Macedonian king claimed descent from Argos. Thebes, the leading power among the city-states, was conquered by Alexander and sacked. He had set out in 335 with the full range of the standing army of his father and he showed he could control it. What Philip had established in southern Greece was brushed aside by Alexander in his pursuit of empire. Demosthenes had been aware of what Philip's ruse entailed. Athens lost its power over foreign policy, for example.

The Persian Empire was enormous. It ranged from the Aegean to the Punjab. The Persian king was heir to the nobles' consensus. He maintained rank. The satraps plotted against each other. In Persia Alexander moved from victory to victory on a well-stocked royal road. There were stores in caches as a protection from famine. Alexander set out for Asia in 334 B.C. First his destiny was Troy. He was given a gift of relics from Troy's temple to Athena. Alexander bettered Philip's poor record as a besieger. He had to take the Phoenician home cities before he could invade Babylon and Persia.

Alexander met Darius near the Syrian border. In Issus the truth was probably that no participant was sure he had won. At Sidon the Cypriot fleet of 120 ships surrendered to Alexander. The siege of Tyre is described interestingly. Earthworks were built at Gaza. Egypt had paradoxes, huge buildings. Alexander was later recognized by the pharoah's old titles. The city of Alexandria was established, the center of Egyptian life for centuries.

The battle of Gaugamela pitted Alexander's smaller forces against Darius's large army. The Macedonians made an angled advance. Darius and his retinue turned away from battle. Darius's palace was at Persepolis. The contents of the treasury were a wonder to Alexander. Persia was put under a satrap. Alexander wished to take revenge on the Persians for razing Athens. Persepolis was burned. Darius's body received royal burial at Persepolis.

Alexander was the new king of Asia. He sought to cross the Hind Kush, the eastern Alps of Iran. The troops were moving on the road through Kandahar to Kabul. As an invader Alexander's forces spilled easily from Kabul to the Punjab. Lahore proved to be the furthest diffusion of Greek art.

The horse of Alexander, Bucephalas, died on the field. Alexander was wounded by an arrow. There was a horrible coastal march from the Indus delta to Kirman. Losses of men in the desert cannot be computed. Alexander wished to establish common concord between Europe and Asia. Worship of Alexander occurred in his lifetime. He made plans. He was not in decline. No unbiased witness has revealed why Alexander died. He was age thirty two and ten months at the time of his death.

Any reader will love the beautiful pictures in Robin Lane Fox's splendid work.

A good selection of usually quite exciting stories - many of which are pure fiction rather than anything resembling modern history. Herodotos was a truly great storyteller.He is usually introduced in the curriculum only after Basic Greek and Attic Prose (Platon, Xenophon), but if your memory is slipping, like that of yours truly sure is, you will appreciate this Selection even more, for it comes with a very helpful Commentary, which details most syntactic phenomena, and even morphology, line for line, even such matter that is already taught in the Basic and Attic Greek Courses. So you get a good rehearsal of the basics as well as learning a new dialect of Classic Greek - i.e. Ionian.
Moreover, there is an very full alphabetical Vocabulary following the Commentary part, which includes not only words peculiar to Herodotos, but again, even basic Greek words you were supposed to remember from your Basic Course!
After having studied and learned Herodotos, you are equipped with a sufficient grasp of the Ionian Dialect to proceed to The Ultimate Experience - Homeros. His "epic dialect" is mostly Ionian in character.(and you will appreciate his simpler syntax...).
A small snag: the Greek text is printed in a very small font which is peculiar to British and American works on Greek, and may therefore be somewhat tiresome for the eye. The English text is more normal-sized, but, being a reprint of a much older original, is slightly faded. I would have loved it if the text had been reset anew with modern fonts.

Highly recommended both for the good choice of entertaining stories and for the excellent toolboxes provided as help for the eager learner of Classical Greek.

As a Classics major, I've seen my fair share of Greek texts. I've used many different editions. This edition of Herodotus' "Histories" is every helpful. The grammar guide, the notes and the dictionary are all well put together and make the translating process go much faster.

Catherine Johns begins her book by saying that there is a difference between the modern understanding of sex and the ancient one. Her thinking here is call into question our ideas of "obscene." After 150 pages Ms Johns has not developed her thinking beyond pointing out that sexual images were used in ancient times as symbols of fertility or symbols to ward off evil. It was not her intention to do so. She could have merely pointed out the difference in attitudes toward sex between a person who lived in a city and a person who lived on a farm.

Instead it was Ms Johns' intention to provide a pictorial survey of the variety of sexual symbols found in the Greco-Roman world and in this regard she makes her book outstanding. For example, on pages 72 and 73 she shows phallic symbols used as a pendant and as amulets. One amulet shows the combination of three symbols of luck: the phallus, the crescent, and the hand. Page 110 may show a political satire which pokes fun at Cleopatra. And page 82 shows a beautiful silver dish which depicts Pan dancing. There are 160 some odd illustrations in this book and it is the illustrations which make it worth reading.

My title is composed of the first four adjectives that came to my mind when I thought of this book. Not only is this a splendid resource about an until recently sadly neglected part of ancient studies, erotic artworks, but it is also a historical reference on Victorian scholarship, and a warning about the perils of putting modern culture and preconceptions ahead of the truth found in scientific and historical studies.

I could continue singing the praises of this book for several more screens of text. Instead, I will simply recommend that anyone reading this review go on to read this book.

In short, this book is a masterpiece of historical scholarship. Rostovtzeff describes every aspect of socioeconomic life throughout Roman civilization from the Julio-Claudians through Diocletian in a wonderful narrative. It is hard to imagine that a book primarily concerned with how people feed and clothe themselves can be an engrossing page-turner, but this book is. If you are at all interested in the history of real people, you must read this book.

Rostovtzeff's book covers the economy of the Roman Empire between the First Century B.C. and the reforms of Diocletian in 284. His main thesis is that the history of the Empire is essentially a three-way struggle between the Senatorial upper classes, the city bourgeoisie (knights) and the proletariate.

After a brief account of the Social War and of the end of the Republic, the first part of the book is a detailed description of the economic environment in each province of the Empire under the Principate. He shows how the Emperors tried to develop the economy by supporting the city bourgeoisie against the Senatorial class, which was slaughtered in the various civil wars, and had almost totally disappeared at the end of the Antonine dynasty.

The second part, the most interesting in my view, is an account of the Crisis of the Third Century. According to the author, the failure of the bourgeoisie to assume the military defense of the Empire led to the development of an army of peasants who hated the city elites, and who took advantage of the political instability to establish a military dictatorship. The Emperors were only tools in the hands of that proletarian army and were almost always assassinated after a few years. Ever heavier taxes were necessary to pay the soldiers. Taxes were levied inefficiently and arbitrarily on the city elites (when they were not massacred in civil wars), which killed individual enterprise and eventually led to a major economic decline, and more taxes. Rostovtzeff concludes that the crisis was in fact a proletarian revolution, and he makes an interesting parallel between a letter written in Egypt in the Third Century and letters he's receiving from the Soviet Union to illustrate the point (the book was written in 1926).

The history ends with Diocletian, who stabilized the military dictatorship in order to save the Empire politically, instead of returning to the earlier policy of supporting the cities. That merely postponed the end of the Empire for two centuries. For the later period, AHM Jones' Later Roman Empire is recommended.

The reasons for the economic decline of the Ancient World remain an historical puzzle (see for exampleThe End of the Past by Aldo Schiavone), and Rostovtzeff does not give any definitive answer, but his arguments are very interesting, and the process by which a sophisticated society became a system of generalized slavery in which everyone was worse off is rather disturbing.

We are so accustomed to saying love and hate in the same breath that we believe they are opposites or contraries, but this is not actually the case. The opposite of love is indifference. With love comes compassion and various forms of altruism. With indifference comes cruelty and unkindness. The German soldiers of the Second World War did not hate the Greek peasants whose country they occupied. They were mostly indifferent to them. That is one of the reasons they developed the tactic (or was it a strategy?) of wiping out entire villages and massaccring the inhabitants whenever one, just one, of their own was killed by the resistance. This book is about finding out, long after the fact, who was responsible for giving the order for one such massacre in 1944. It zeroes in on a well known Austrian politician, a "distinguished gentleman" running for a high office who just happened to be an intelligence chief in Greece at the time of the massacre. We all know how that story played out in real life, and even while this book has an incontestable historical background, it does not claim to be anything more than fiction. It is excellent fiction. Much of it is narrated by some of the protagonists in the form of a diary, a deposition, and written responses to a list of questions. The deadly power of human indifference flows from these documents. This is an excellent novel even if it is not quite so beautifully written as some of Edmund Keeley's other works. After all, it must be hard to squeak beauty out of a massacre in which 146 farmers are burnt to death in a bakery.

Keeley has written a novel of masterful suspense, baring the human emotions that tore apart Greece in WWII and afterwards. His cynical narrator is soon drawn into the maelstrom: finding a secret Nazi killer who massacred countless Greek Jews and organized atrocities that wiped out whole villages of simple farmers. Keeley calls this fiction, but he was there, the people are real, and the worst one of all is still with us! Read it and learn!