City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek

.The Bacchae and Other Plays (Penguin Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Euripides

January 26, 2006

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.The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Charles Freeman

May 01, 2003
In the current climate, Charles Freeman is to be greatly applauded for providing what is possibly one of the most shocking and thought-provoking books around today. At a time when a later rational, progressive and tolerant civilisation is again confronted by the self-righteous, ugly, irrational and vicious face of faith it is indeed cautionary to read this account of how the open enquiring Classical mind of Greece and Rome was converted into the closed, aggressive and crass certitudes of early Christianity. It begs perhaps the most despairing question that any society can ask: is history repeating itself?

For a society like ours that has passed through the infernal, infantile and bestial beatitudes of Christianity into the tolerant ... Read More:
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.The Tale of Troy (Junior Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Benedict Flynn

July 31, 1996
In the current climate, Charles Freeman is to be greatly applauded for providing what is possibly one of the most shocking and thought-provoking books around today. At a time when a later rational, progressive and tolerant civilisation is again confronted by the self-righteous, ugly, irrational and vicious face of faith it is indeed cautionary to read this account of how the open enquiring Classical mind of Greece and Rome was converted into the closed, aggressive and crass certitudes of early Christianity. It begs perhaps the most despairing question that any society can ask: is history repeating itself?

For a society like ours that has passed through the infernal, infantile and bestial beatitudes of Christianity into the tolerant ... Read More:
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.Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Helen Morales

August 23, 2007
I was originally looking for book on myths but this book takes a different approach and discusses myths in general. I have used several other books instead to read up on various myths. This book was still an interesting read, however, even though it wasn't what I had expected.
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.Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome (Chronicle)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Christopher Scarre

1995-10
For anyone with even a passing interest in Roman history this book is an invaluable source of knowledge about the Roman Emperor's. Personally it helps to set the scene for me even if the book is a work of fiction if I can pin point the period of Roman history that is being written about and knowing what emperor was reigning in Rome and in what years is a sure fire way of pin-pointing the period in which the book is written.

Of course the book is so much more than a time scale of Roman history, there is also information regarding what wars if any were fought during a particular emperor's reign and what Roman building were attributable to any given emperor. The book covers the succession of 80 emperors, with biographical portraits of the 56 most notable ... Read More:
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.The Campaigns of Alexander (Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Arrian

July 31, 2003
Simply the best! A must for every fan, admirer and ... of Alexander the Great.

Accounts from contemporary historians like Callistenes, Onesicritus, Nearchus and Aristobulus did exist but only bits and pieces have come to us. Arrian was lucky enough to have access to the biography of Alexander written by Ptolemy, one of Alexanders' generals and maybe his half-brother, who became pharaoh of Egypt. What we know today has been recorded by a handful ancient writers (Diodorus of Sicily, Curitus Rufus and Plutarch mainly) who still could consult those old records, and Arrian is one of them.

Lucius Flavius Arrianus, better known as Arrian was a Greek historian from the 2nd century AD, who served as a military commander in the Roman Empire. He had widespread ... Read More:
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.Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra (Oxford World's Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Sophocles

June 18, 1998
Following the ending of "Oedipus the King," Oedipus was exiled from Thebes, blind and a beggar. We learn from "Oedipus at Colonus" that his sons, Eteocles and Polyneices engaged in a civil war for the throne of Thebes (covered in "Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus). The two brothers kill each other and Creon, brother of Jocasta, becomes king. He orders that Eteocles, who nobly defended his city, shall receive an honorable burial, but that Polyneices, for leading the Argive invaders, shall be left unburied. This leads Antigone, sister to both of the slain brothers, to have to choose between obeying the rule of the state, the dictates of familial binds, and the will of the gods. This, of course, is the matter at the heart of this classic tragedy by Sophocles.

It is too ... Read More:
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.Ancient Philosophy: 1 (New History of Western Philosophy)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Anthony Kenny

July 20, 2006
At the time of writing, this series of books had no reviews. I bought the first three in paperback (the fourth wasn't available) after hearing an interview with Anthony Kelly on Philosophy Bites. He said he aimed to be a better read than Father Copleston and more accurate than Bertrand Russell, and admitted that, perhaps, that wasn't aiming too highly. Maybe better to have been more accurate than Copleston and more entertaining than Russell. Whatever. This is a good read. I'm only 50 pages into the first book but it's already a winner. The book's divided into two tracks - historical and philosophical. You could go for either or (as I expect most readers will do) both tracks. The intro says it's aimed at second and third year undergraduates but anyone with a brain will enjoy it. In ... Read More:
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.Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary (Reading Greek): Text and Vocabulary (Reading Greek)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Joint Association of Classical Teachers

October 04, 2007
I have been studying this book with the Open University and found the almost vertical learning curve it presents very difficult to endure. Though the book is lovely looking - nice clear font, well illustrated - and the facing vocabulary is in the right place - generally oposite the Greek - wading through these texts is just too difficult for a beginner distance learner. The vocabulary becomes unnecessarily complicated very quickly and quite a few new words are not glossed, adding to the frustration. Despite really dogged determination and two attempts I could not get past 7c and abandoned this book entirely at that point, though I did complete the grammar and vocabulary learning to the end of section 9, using the companion grammar book and OU materials. This really is not a beginners ... Read More:
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.Hellenica: History of My Times (Penguin Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Ancient Greek
by: Xenophon

April 29, 2004
This is by all means a heavily underrated book.
Xenophon lays bare the essential characteristics of his (and our) time and its crucial kernel, independence.

Inside the Greek cities, independence meant democracy, which was the political regime in Athens. The latter's arch-rival, Sparta, had an oligarchic rule, a government controlled by a king and the aristocracy.
When Sparta defeated Athens, it put immediately a lackey oligarchic government (the Thirty) in place. The oligarchs could `do exactly what they liked with the state.' They went on a killing spree, murdering all democratic opponents, in casu, `more Athenians than all the Peloponnesians did in ten years of war.' They confiscated illegally the property of resident aliens and when people could vote, it was in full ... Read More:
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