Mary Beard is one of the world's best-known classicists - a brilliant academic, with a rare gift for communicating with a wide audience both though her TV presenting and her books. In a series of sparkling essays, she explores our rich classical heritage - from Greek drama to Roman jokes, introducing some larger-than-life characters of classical history, such as Alexander the Great, Nero and Boudicca. She invites you into the places where Greeks and Romans lived and died, from the palace at Knossos to Cleopatra's Alexandria - and reveals the often hidden world of slaves. She takes a fresh look at both scholarly controversies and popular interpretations of the ancient world, from The Golden Bough to Asterix. The fruit of over thirty years in the world of classical scholarship, Confronting the Classics captures the world of antiquity and its modern significance with wit, verve and scholarly expertise.

A masterly investigation into the Classical roots of Western civilization, taking the reader on an illuminating journey from Troy, Athens, and Sparta to Utopia, Alexandria, and Rome. An authoritative and accessible study of the foundations, development, and enduring legacy of the cultures of Greece and Rome, centered on ten locations of seminal importance in the development of Classical civilization. Starting with Troy, where history, myth and cosmology fuse to form the origins of Classical civilization, Nigel Spivey explores the contrasting politics of Athens and Sparta, the diffusion of classical ideals across the Mediterranean world, Classical science and philosophy, the eastward export of Greek culture with the conquests of Alexander the Great, the power and spread of the Roman imperium, and the long Byzantine twilight of Antiquity.

Reproduction of the original: The Grandeur That Was Rome by J.C. Stobart

'The Grandeur That Was Rome by J.C. Stobart' is a history book that examines Roman culture and civilization from the point of view of humanity and the progress of civilization. The author makes a deliberate attempt to adjust the historical balance by emphasizing the value of Rome's contribution to the lasting welfare of mankind. This book presents a new interpretation of Rome's history, where the author believes that the Empire without the Republic is almost as incomplete as the Republic without the Empire. It is a derivative history intended for readers who are not specialists, and its point of view is derived from the author's own. The pictures in the book have been chosen to convey an impression of grand building, vast, solid, and utilitarian, rather than of finished sculpture by Greek hands. This book will greatly appeal to readers who are interested in ancient history and want to gain a fresh perspective on the Roman Empire.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1825 Edition.

Documents the award-winning writer's experiences of living, working, and raising twin sons in Rome during the year following his receipt of a prestigious Rome Prize stipend, a period during which he attended the vigil of the dying John Paul II, brought his children on a snowy visit to the Pantheon, and befriended numerous locals. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.