A Brief History Of Ancient Greece

The story of the ancient Greeks is one of the most improbable success stories in world history. A small group of people inhabiting a country poor in resources and divided into hundreds of quarreling states created one of the most remarkable civilizations ever. Comprehensive and balanced, A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture, Second Edition is a shorter version of the authors' highly successful Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, Second Edition (OUP, 2008). Four leading authorities on the classical world offer a lively and up-to-date account of Greek civilization and history in all its complexity and variety, covering the entire period from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Era, and integrating the most recent research in archaeology, comparative anthropology, and social history. They show how the early Greeks borrowed from their neighbors but eventually developed a distinctive culture all their own, one that was marked by astonishing creativity, versatility, and resilience. Using physical evidence from archaeology, the written testimony of literary texts and inscriptions, and anthropological models based on comparative studies, this compact volume provides an account of the Greek world that is thoughtful and sophisticated yet accessible to students and general readers with little or no knowledge of Greece.

A Brief History of Ancient Greek accessibly depicts the social history of this ancient language from its Indo-European roots to the present day. Explains key relationships between the language and literature of the Classical period (500 - 300 BC) Provides a social history of the language which transliterates and translates all Greek as appropriate, and is therefore accessible to readers who know little or no Greek Written in the framework of modern sociolinguistic theory, relating the development of Ancient Greek to its social and political context Reflects the latest thinking on subjects such as Koiné Greek and the relationship between literary and vernacular Greek

Revised and updated throughout, the fourth edition of Brief History of Ancient Greece presents the political, social, cultural, and economic history and civilization of ancient Greece in all its complexity and variety. Written by leading authorities on the classical world, this captivatingstudy covers the entire period from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Era, while integrating the most recent research in archaeology, comparative anthropology, and social history.

Publisher description

A Political, Social, and Cultural History is a comprehensive and balanced history, covering the political, military, social, cultural, and economic history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Era.

Classical Greece and its legacy have long inspired a powerful and passionate fascination. The civilization that bequeathed to later ages drama and democracy, Homer and heroism, myth and Mycenae and the Delphic Oracle and the Olympic Games has, perhaps more than any other, helped shape the intellectual contours of the modern world. P J Rhodes is among the most distinguished historians of antiquity. In this elegant, zesty new survey he explores the archaic (8th–early 5th centuries BCE), classical (5th and 4th centuries BCE) and Hellenistic (late 4th–mid-2nd centuries BCE) periods up to the beginning of Roman hegemony. His scope is that of the peoples who originated on the Greek mainland and Aegean islands who later migrated to the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and then (following the conquests of Alexander) to the Near East and beyond. Exploring topics such as the epic struggle with Persia; the bitter rivalry of Athens and Sparta; slaves and ethnicity; religion and philosophy; and literature and the visual arts, this authoritative book will attract students and non-specialists in equal measure.

A fascinating, accessible, and up-to-date history of the Ancient Greeks. Covering the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, and centred around the disunity of the Greeks, their underlying cultural unity, and their eventual political unification.