The Birth of Classical Europe
A History from Troy to Augustine
1st Edition
Published on 29. April 2010
416 pages
978-0-14-194686-3 (ISBN)
Description
To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a 'classical Europe', using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures.
As this consistently fresh and surprising new book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past filled with great leaders and writers, emigrations and battles. Indeed, much of the reason we know so much about the classical past is the obsessive importance it held for so many generations of Greeks and Romans, who interpreted and reinterpreted their changing casts of heroes and villains. Figures such as Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar loom large in our imaginations today, but they were themselves fascinated by what had preceded them.
The Birth of Classical Europe is therefore both an authoritative history, and also a fascinating attempt to show how our own changing values and interests have shaped our feelings about an era which is by some measures very remote but by others startlingly close.
As this consistently fresh and surprising new book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past filled with great leaders and writers, emigrations and battles. Indeed, much of the reason we know so much about the classical past is the obsessive importance it held for so many generations of Greeks and Romans, who interpreted and reinterpreted their changing casts of heroes and villains. Figures such as Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar loom large in our imaginations today, but they were themselves fascinated by what had preceded them.
The Birth of Classical Europe is therefore both an authoritative history, and also a fascinating attempt to show how our own changing values and interests have shaped our feelings about an era which is by some measures very remote but by others startlingly close.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
File size
37,00 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-14-194686-3 (9780141946863)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2011
Penguin Books Ltd
€25.50
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Persons
From 1981 to 2008 Simon Price was a Lecturer at the University of Oxford, where he taught Greek and Roman history for Lady Margaret Hall and St Hugh's College. He has written, co-written, or co-edited books on ancient religions and rituals (Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor; Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies; Religions of Rome; Apologetics in the Roman Empire; Religions of the Ancient Greeks), and also co-edited The Greek City from Homer to Alexander. As part of his work on an archaeological field survey of Sphakia in south-west Crete, he jointly created a website and a film about the survey, and is now co-editing the final print publication.
Peter Thonemann has taught Greek and Roman history at Wadham College, Oxford, since 2007. He has published widely on the history of Asia Minor, and is director of the Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua XI project (http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk). His first book, The Maeander, will be published shortly.
Peter Thonemann has taught Greek and Roman history at Wadham College, Oxford, since 2007. He has published widely on the history of Asia Minor, and is director of the Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua XI project (http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk). His first book, The Maeander, will be published shortly.
