The Children of Athena
Greek writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome, 150 BC-AD 400
Published on 7. November 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-80328-196-4 (ISBN)
Description
The remarkable story of how Greek-speaking writers and thinkers sustained and developed the intellectual legacy of Classical Greece under the rule of Rome.
In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; some sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied.
However, the traditions of Greek cultural life would continue to flourish - across the eastern Mediterranean world and beyond - during the centuries of Roman rule that followed, in the lives and work of a distinguished array of philosophers, rhetoricians, historians, doctors, scientists, geographers and theologians.
Charles Freeman's accounts of such luminaries as the polymathic physician Galen, the soldier-botanist Dioscorides, the Alexandrian geographer and astronomer Ptolemy and the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus are interwoven with 'interludes' that counterpoint and contextualise a sequence of unjustly neglected and richly influential lives.
This is the story of a vibrant, constantly evolving tradition of intellectual inquiry across a period of more than five hundred years, from the second century BC to the start of the fifth century ad - one that would help shape the intellectual landscape of the Middle Ages and long after. The Children of Athena is a cultural history on an epic scale.
In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; some sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied.
However, the traditions of Greek cultural life would continue to flourish - across the eastern Mediterranean world and beyond - during the centuries of Roman rule that followed, in the lives and work of a distinguished array of philosophers, rhetoricians, historians, doctors, scientists, geographers and theologians.
Charles Freeman's accounts of such luminaries as the polymathic physician Galen, the soldier-botanist Dioscorides, the Alexandrian geographer and astronomer Ptolemy and the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus are interwoven with 'interludes' that counterpoint and contextualise a sequence of unjustly neglected and richly influential lives.
This is the story of a vibrant, constantly evolving tradition of intellectual inquiry across a period of more than five hundred years, from the second century BC to the start of the fifth century ad - one that would help shape the intellectual landscape of the Middle Ages and long after. The Children of Athena is a cultural history on an epic scale.
Reviews / Votes
An enlightening survey of the Greek intellectual tradition during the Roman Empire. * Publishers Weekly * Well-informed, rewarding analysis of an unjustly overlooked period and its intellectual legacy. * Kirkus * Ambitious and readable...I know of no other survey of intellectual life in the imperial Greek world accessible to the non-specialist reader. * The Wall Street Journal * Too often we ask what the Romans did for us - but this important and beautifully written book reminds us to ask what the Greeks did for the Romans - and for us in turn! This is a banquet of delightful insight, important ideas and colourful characters. * Michael Scott * Charles Freeman's latest effusion of cultural history is a paean of tributes to ancient Hellenic intellection, philosophical in both a technical and a more general sense... Freeman sportingly and illuminatingly engages with a wide variety of styles of thought and expression, from epideictic oratory and satire via historiography and mathematics to philosophy proper. Sophisticated Greek culture did not only take firm hold of the Greeks' Roman conquerors' imaginations: thanks to Byzantium and the Renaissance (other specialisms of our exceptionally broadminded author), it engages us still to this day. * Paul Cartledge * This is a much-needed book. The astounding brilliance of Greek writers of the Classical period, the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, is well known. But Greek learning did not end with the end of the Classical period. Freeman demonstrates the extraordinary richness and the variety of the work being done by the Greek intellectuals of the Roman empire... We meet orators, philosophers, historians, geographers, astronomers, a travel writer, a medical botanist, physicians, a satirist, polymaths with various interests and Christian scholars. Gradually a picture emerges of the magnificence - and the lasting importance - of work being done by the Greek intellectuals of the Roman empire. * Robin Waterfield, author of Plato of Athens: A Life in Philosophy * This book brings together a gallery of fascinating personalities, a group of Greek intellectuals - controversialists, scientists, and scholars - to elucidate the role they each played in the discourse and intellectual life of the Roman Empire and beyond. The varied contribution of these famous individuals places them, without doubt, in the centre of Roman intellectual life and explains the long-lasting influence they have had on European literature, science, and scholarship. Freeman brings them to life so they can resonate amongst us and show off the height of their achievements once more. A much needed reminder of the wonders of late antiquity and the birth of European scholarship. * Christos Nifadopoulos, PhD, Cambridge University * An absorbing romp through Greek (and Roman) history, full of learning and interest, which is just what the book's manifold subjects deserve * The Critic * Ambitious and readable... offers a kaleidoscopic survey of Greek intellectual life * Wall Street Journal * PRAISE FOR THE AWAKENING:'Charles Freeman has done it again - amassed a vast body of knowledge on a major subject and infused it with historical understanding and humane wit' Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge.
'The Awakening is a remarkable work of scholarship by esteemed historian Charles Freeman... The book is a fine production, adorned with coloured images of frescos and ancient manuscripts' Irish Times.
'Freeman is a good host, a superb narrator and tells his story with aplomb... His elegant prose is a treat for the mind and the accompanying illuminations a treat for the eye' International Times.
'My favourite book of the year... The wonderful images of the art, architecture and books bring to life the detailed argument of Awakening... Freeman makes the subject matter alive and relevant in a way that few historians of ideas can... A book to read slowly, to ponder and enjoy leisurely' * Goodreads *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Illustrations
2 x 8pp col
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
300 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80328-196-4 (9781803281964)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Charles Freeman is a specialist on the ancient world and its legacy. He has worked on archaeological digs on the continents surrounding the Mediterranean and develops study tour programs in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Freeman is Historical Consultant to the Blue Guides series and the author of numerous books, including the bestseller The Closing of the Western Mind, Holy Bones, Holy Dust and, most recently, The Awakening. He lives in the UK.