Publisher's Synopsis
The ancient Greeks established the very blueprint of Western civilization-our societies, institutions, art, and culture-and thanks to remarkable new findings, we know more about them than ever, and it's all here in this up-to-date introductory volume.
Ancient Greece chronicles the rise, decline, resurgence, and ultimate collapse of the Greek empire from its earliest stirrings in the Bronze Age, through the Dark Ages and Classical period, to the death of Cleopatra and the conquests by Macedon and Rome (roughly 3000 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E.).
Drawing on the latest interpretations of artifacts, texts, and other evidence, this handbook takes both newcomers and long-time Hellenophiles inside the process of discovery, revealing not only what we know about ancient Greece but how we know it and how these cultures continue to influence us. There is no more authoritative or accessible introduction to the culture that gave us the Acropolis, Iliad and Odyssey, Herodotus and Thucydides, Sophocles and Aeschylus, Plato and Aristotle, and so much more.
- Includes excerpts from a full range of primary sources, including the Linear B tablets of Mycenae, included to show readers how to understand the process of studying historical documents
- Provides a rich collection of illustrations, drawings, maps, and photographs, including detailed renderings of the Acropolis, Knossos, Akritiri, and other major archaeological sites then and now
