The Story of Greece and Rome

by Tony Spawforth

The extraordinary story of the intermingled civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome, spanning more than six millennia from the late Bronze Age to the seventh century

The magnificent civilization created by the ancient Greeks and Romans is the greatest legacy of the classical world. However, narratives about the “civilized” Greek and Roman empires resisting the barbarians at the gate are far from accurate. Tony Spawforth, an esteemed scholar, author, and media contributor, follows the thread of civilization through more than six millennia of history. His story reveals that Greek and Roman civilization, to varying degrees, was supremely and surprisingly receptive to external influences, particularly from the East.
 
From the rise of the Mycenaean world of the sixteenth century B.C., Spawforth traces a path through the ancient Aegean to the zenith of the Hellenic state and the rise of the Roman empire, the coming of Christianity and the consequences of the first caliphate. Deeply informed, provocative, and entirely fresh, this is the first and only accessible work that tells the extraordinary story of the classical world in its entirety.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Greece, Ancient History, Classics, Mythology, Audiobook

375 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2018

Reviews

[Don Gerstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a title as general as this, you can imagine that there is going to be a boatload of history offered in this book. Just choosing either Greece or Rome could fill volumes, so it is easy to appreciate the task author Tony Spawforth set for himself.

I chose to read this book because my knowledge in this area of history was limited to a few of the main stories – The Trojan Horse, King Leonidas and the 300, etc. – and I wished to fill in all the blanks. Mr. Spawforth’s book was more than sufficient to fulfill this goal. The history moved back and forth between Greece and Rome, first telling of Greece until a certain point in history before switching to what Rome was doing during that same time period. At times the focus switched to another country and the effect that country had on Greece or Rome.

The pace was quick, slow enough for me to grasp the essentials but fast enough to keep the book moving at a steady pace. The author did not overfill the book with every tedious detail. He gave me enough facts to understand without inflicting sensory overload. I also appreciated that Mr. Spawforth did not insist on pushing his own historic agenda. If historians were not in agreement about a moment in history, the author explained both sides without interjecting his personal feelings. Thus, I felt I received a fair and balanced account.

Mr. Spawforth told the story in a conversational style, as if we were sitting around and he was relating this incredible tale of what had gone before. Rather than place footnotes at the bottom of each page, much of the supporting background was mentioned in the text. This enabled me to learn while receiving verification at the same time. This method certainly made the retelling livelier, warding off the feeling of reading some stuffy college textbook.

Those who are not interested in history may find this a difficult book to read. Although there are tales of action and intrigue, there are also descriptions of the art, engineering, education, methods of government, and all those things that can cause history to be a fascinating subject, which is more than enough for those of us who seek knowledge and enlightenment about the people and countries that came before. Five stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Yale University Press for an advance complimentary ebook of this title.

[Elentarri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a semi-fast paced, spotty, overview of the the history of Ancient Greece and Rome, interspersed with anecdotes or travel notes from the author. The organisation of the information in the book is a bit erratic. For example, the author will mention/quote Cicero but won't tell you who he is or why he is important until the end of the chapter or possible the next chapter. I'm not sure that anyone new to Ancient Greece and Rome will be able to follow, or perhaps they won't know enough to know what is being left out? This book does however have a nice collection of maps throughout.

I prefer Ancient Greece by Thomas R. Martin and Ancient Rome by Thomas R. Martin, or Persian Fire by Tom Holland (for the Greeks and Persians) or even The Classical World by Robin Lane Fox.

[Lady Alexandrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. I have adored Greek and Roman culture and mythology since I was a little girl. I even preferred reading myths than fairy-tales. Later, I become fascinated by stories of real people that lived in ancient Greece and Rome. So, I was looking forward to reading "The Story of Greece and Rome" by Tony Spawforth.

The author manages to write about history of Greece and Rome juggling many elements, facts, historical figures, cultural influences at the same time. It is impossible not to be impressed by the author's erudition. He writes about so many different aspects of Greek and Roman universe and he does it with such ease! Because of that the story really flows, there is continuity that the most of the books on history sadly lack. The drawback of this attitude is that the author cannot really stop to examine anything in depth. He simply glides through time and places, pointing out interesting facts.

I really think that you need a previous knowledge of Greek and Roman history to enjoy this book, because of few explanations and many references to people and places. If you know a lot about Greek and Roman history, then you will be able to enjoy this book in full.

I enjoyed revisiting the ancient world with the author. Sometimes, I got the impression that "The Story of Greece and Rome" is also a list of author's visit to the most impressive antiquities collections and archaeological sites. He constantly makes references to places, where he has been and people that he knows. It adds a very personal aspect to the book and I found it truly endearing. Maybe the author is boasting a little, but he has reasons to be proud of his erudition, knowledge and passion for the antiquity.

I recommend this book to historians and readers passionate about Greek and Roman history.

I received "The Story of Greece and Rome" from the publisher via NetGalley. I would like to thank the author and the publisher for providing me with the advance reader copy of the book.

[Pam Cipkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been more than 30 years since I sat in (or slept through) Fr. Donnelly's Western Civilization class in the Varsity Theatre at Marquette University. So I felt a need to refresh myself in that area with this well-reviewed and accessible history of these two great empires. I won't say it was easy to get through, but Spawforth has an approachable style and keeps the narrative interesting and fresh. Give yourself a mental workout with this one and then a pat on the back when you finish. You'll feel a whole lot smarter--even if you do fall asleep on the couch a few times while reading it.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony Spaworth's overview of the Graeco-Roman world and its interaction with the surrounding cultures manages to be both informed and informal. We get the archaeological evidence and the views of writers like Herodotus and Thucydides, Tacitus and Polybius, but we also get the author's personal observations and insights, the fruits of a professional life spent studying, and teaching about, the classical world.

Accessible to those with very little knowledge of the subject, but also enjoyable for those already deeply immersed, this is not a book in which the author seeks to impose a controversial thesis upon the historical record. Rather, it simply presents a clear and engaging account of those critical historical developments that began to appear in the Mediterranean over two and a half thousand years ago but that still underpin a vast amount of our cultural framework today.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be focused on the interactions between the two civilizations. Instead Spawforth tries to cover the entirety of both, which simply doesn't work for a text this short. I've read much better books on both civilizations.

[Carm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is as dense as a Christmas fruitcake. Come to think of it, like a fruitcake, I was also soaked in booze throughout most of my reading experience. Maybe that’s why I saved it for December?

It occurs to me, that where ancient Greece and Rome are concerned, I prefer mythology to history. Unless it’s about sex or religion… you can keep the politics and wars. 😉

[Andrew Bysterveldt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me place this complex historical relationship into perspective. I had always been confused about the timeline of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Who preceded who? Why are there two names for the God of the Sea? What is the relationship between the Mediterranean and the Levant in this time? This book answered these questions and more. An exceptional way to crack open the Ancient World

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lively telling of ancient Greek and Roman history. Frequent digressions to make comparisons to later events and the author's experiences in museums and archaeological digs sometimes distracted from the narrative.

[Martinez Claudio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Virtudes del libro: actualizado a los últimos descubrimientos arqueológicos.

Defectos: es caótico a veces. No analiza de forma estructurada los hechos esenciales de Grecia y Roma

[Juanra González · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un auténtico caos. Terminarlo ha sido una tortura.

Soy un apasionado del mundo antiguo y, sin embargo, qué horror de libro. El autor no tiene un discurso claro y el libro resulta muy caótico. A ello se suma una muy pobre traducción que adolece de expresiones poco fluidas, cuando no errores garrafales.

Por otro lado, Tony tiene una costumbre que me genera mucho rechazo. Escribe "un autor reflejó...", emplea varios párrafos o incluso una página completa a parafrasear o citar a dicho autor, y solo después anuncia el nombre. Ya sea un Tácito, Plinio, Eusebio o Procopio de Cesarea, el truco retórico se hace pesado. Es una suerte de suspense por castigo, impuesto una y otra vez. Utilizar ese recurso una o dos veces tiene gracia; que sea una constante, cansa.

Se trata de un libro extraordinariamente superficial, que tiene algunas pinceladas interesantes (de ahí mi nota de 2 en lugar de 1), pero articulado de una forma tan confusa y agotadora que desaconsejo su lectura. Si quieres aprender sobre Roma, lee a Mary Beard. Y si quieres conocer la antigua Grecia, recurre a los clásicos.

[Andres Felipe Contreras Buitrago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente libro, para una persona que ya ha conocido algo de la historia de Roma y Grecia este libro le ofrecerá una nueva visión, pues no es un relato muy ceñido a la descripción de susesos, sino al análisis de los mismos.

La lectura se hace fácil; no obstante, hay ciertos capítulos o apartados donde fácilmente se pierde el hilo conductor de lo que el autor está hablando. El uso de la arqueología y anécdotas contemporáneas, hace que el mundo antiguo, no sé sienta tan lejano.

Ahora bien, el libro se divide en dos partes, la primera trata de Grecia, desde su orígenes con los primeros Pueblos que se asentaron en la Edad de piedra, pasando por la Grecia minoica y micenica de la Edad de los Metales, dando paso así, a la Grecia de las ciudades estados que tuvo que enfrentar a Persia, para luego los que alguna vez fuesen aliado se enfrentarán, ayudando así que los macedonios se hagan del poder de estas provincias.

Estos acontecimiento son nombrados, pero es más interesante el análisis. por ejemplo, como las guerras contra Persia figuraron la imagen de un Oriente "bárbaro" y "malo" pese a que ese gran imperio era muy superior al griego, estos últimos aprendieron de los babilónicos las matemáticas y la astronomía. Incluso muchas costumbres y objetos persas llegarían a Grecia como algo exótico y muy consumido por clases altas, ese aprecio a lo Oriental seguiría incluso con Alejandro Magno, que demostraba el respeto hacia esta civilización.

En la segunda parte, el foco de atención es Roma, aquí se hace énfasis en como este lugar llegó hacerse un vasto imperio, para ello se mira como era la Roma de antes, la que luchó contra los púnicos, como se mantenía el poder dentro del imperio, y como era en parte la vida cotidiana en ese lugar. El fin de este apartado es con el último emperador romano, Rómulo.

De esta parte se destaca como los romanos fueron los que recuperaron la cultura griega, al punto de apropiarse de ella, la arquitectura y el conocimiento científico fue algo que los romanos aprendieron de los griegos. Incluso su relato de orígen tiene conexión con la misma mitología griega. Otro aspecto importante es el cristianismo, este movimiento que empezó siendo perseguido, pronto sería una religión la cuál estaría en todos los romanos; que Constantino se convierta al cristianismo es un acontecimiento importante para este dogma. Por último, el análisis a los bárbaros, y como los romanos continuaron esa idea de un "otro" malo dan cuenta del legado griego.

El libro cierra de manera interesante, mostrando como gracias a los árabes muchos textos antiguos pudieron ser traducidos para el disfrute actual. No somos tan lejanos al mundo antiguo, muchas cosas actuales se explican desde aquellos años remotos.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a quick refresher on the classical world to start the year. But what I get out of this book is more anecdotal, rather rambling, heavily based in archeology, and full of personal digressions. There is much to enjoy here, but I would have preferred something far more straightforward.

[Priya · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was cool and interesting but i struggled so much with reading it. it always felt like a chore to read and i can’t remember much of what i read about but i managed to finish it so yay!

[José Ozorio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent summary, interspersed with archaeology and personal anecdotes.

[Slavisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is how history for the general reader should be written. The author does not obsess with timelines and facts, but looks to make a story instead. And by reading it one has a clear sense of continuity from the earliest Greeks, through the Romans, Christianity and onto the Middle Ages. I found his comments on historiography itself interesting too (e.g. just how we know these things, or how Thucydides or Tacitus got to know them).

Sometimes he meanders, making the book longer than it needs to me. Maybe he tells one too many anecdote from his youth. And like so many intellectuals today, he apparently had to find a way to take a dig at Donald Trump and his voters, even if the context had to be tortured to accommodate the dig. But maybe this sort of stuff makes the book as engaging as it is. I would take these flaws any day over the dry, factual, "one damn thing after another" kind of history book.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a thorough history of the Greek and Roman empires, but it read more like a textbook than a story of the rise and fall of two eminent civilizations. I thought the two were more sequential but there was actually a lot of overlap with the Romans borrowing and adapting Greek intellectualism and culture. What was surprising was how with the growth of the Muslim religion how the Arab nations preserved so much of the Greek influence that survived into the later Renaissance and Ottoman empires and into the present day. In summary, the Greeks created things/ the Romans adapted and sometimes improved them and the Arab world preserved them. Both Greek and Roman civilizations eventually imploded and died out as key rulers moved from more democratic models to more autocratic ones. There are lessons for today from the Donald Trump presidency as to how the US could go down the same path if we let democracy die today.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is at the same time amusing, enlightening, and entertaining. A very enjoyable read.

[John Cairns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony Spawforth starts with reference to a poet, though he amends that later with leaving to experts ‘whether a Homer ever actually existed,’ and makes no reference to Gilgamesh as an influence on the poet or oral poets before the Iliad was written down, though he amends that later too: Gilgamesh mourns like a distressed lioness while Achilles grieves like a lion. I like the stringing of his story of Greece and Rome on his personal experience. He cites seagulls as urban wild life because he lives in Brighton where they wonderfully prevail. His criticism of the discoverer of ancient Crete matches mine in ‘the book’ when my guardian spirit snags my interest with a Minoan mention as precursor to having me lead Mum through the maze of a timestop by following the connecting thread of his unconscious devising. I was pleased the Minoan wasn’t omitted.

The Greeks took their alphabet from the Phoenician which, like Hebrew, hadn’t signs for vowels. Behind the story of Thales’ predicting an eclipse was Greek encounters with Babylonian analysis and astronomical reasoning which may have given rise to philosophy in Thales’ person. A Greek mercenary graffitied his service under Psammetichus on the leg of Ramesses II. Sappho’s brother, trading in Naucratis, bought the freedom of a slave, Rhodopis, who spent a tenth of her fortune from prostitution on an offering to Apollo at Delphi. Greek sculptors learned from Egyptians to lay out a grid on the surface before releasing the intended figure from the stone. Croesus funded columns of the temple to Artemis at Ephesus where one shoogly column stood as all that remained of that wonder of the world. The Corinthians paved a way across their isthmus for the toll merchants would pay to avoid dangerous winds rounding the capes of the Peloponnese.

Some think Herodotus deliberately invented stories he passed off as true, including stories whose purpose is to give a group social identity, like Moses’ was for the Jews, but this historian vindicates Herodotus as one who can’t be proved wrong and provides acute observation and analysis - and he’s all we've got on the Persian Wars. Themistocles persuaded the Athenians the wooden walls the Delphic oracle advised them to put their trust in were ships. Lottery was used a lot in the Athenian democracy that all citizens might have an equal chance to serve the city whereas apparent merit might be the result of privilege derived from wealth, private education or social connections, a gloss to mediocrity like Fettes’ or Eton’s. Young Spartans killed helots, picking off the fittest, to preclude slave revolts. Thucydides noticed the epidemic in Athens was contagious, like a Babylonian king of Mari thought his wife had been infected, and that it could reinfect but less severely. Aristophanes has a Socrates character use dialectic to make a pupil character reverse his opinion and pray to clouds. Plato’s totalitarian utopia wasn’t achieved by Dionysius who condemned him to hard labour in the Syracusan quarries.

The editor was American; he misspelled ‘dependants’.

The Gracchi’s mother, Cornelia bore twelve children, as Grandma did. Julius Caesar’s crown had a congenital dip, a slope, clinocephaly. Excluding women, Roman democracy wasn’t one in the modern sense, which isn’t a democracy either, since representative of the people who do not directly decide except in a referendum when the meritocracy does its best to thwart their decision if it’s not the one it wants. The Social War between Italians and Romans ‘carried off three hundred thousand of the youth of Italy,’ writes Velleius Paterculus. Under Augustus, Rome was a city of four million. Augustus could afford to dole out bread and circuses because he was as rich as Croesus, richer, the richest man ever, from the booty of Egypt. The only ancient library to survive is that of the Villa Papyri, thanks to the pyroclastic flow of an erupting Vesuvius. Tacitus writes Agricola seduced the Britons with lounge, bath and banquet, ‘All this they called civilisation when it was part of their servitude.’ Zenobia of Palmyra captured Alexandria in 270. New Testament authors wrote to snag the interest of educated Greek-speakers when I’d thought the new testament singularly demotic, appealing not to the elite but to women and slaves. You can walk like Paul of Tarsus the well-preserved thoroughfares of Roman Ephesus, the historian says. Been there, done that, not wearing the T-shirt. It’s not known why the state recruited barbarians. Manpower shortage? To keep labourers generating the tax base? Subjects unwilling to fight from inurement to civilian life or for an increasingly authoritarian state? I go for this last, that Xianity focussed more minds on a postulated afterlife to the detriment of living life in the here and now or then and there. By the start of the fifth century Rome had a population in the hundreds of thousands, quite a falling off. The ancient world was played out. I visited Delphi, a stage with props empty of action; the gods had gone, and might as well live in Britain.

[Yani G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn' read all of it - just picked certain sections for study.

[Adam Kincaid · Rating 2 out of 5]

The summary pitch for this book described a tale of interweaving cultures and societies that remained influenced by each other and their surrounding neighbors for millenia. From that, you'd think from the title that you'd glean a better understanding of the impact that Ancient Greece had on Rome, which carries on with us into modern times. Sadly, this book is little more than a tired re-summarizing of a well known part of history and offers little new information or revelatory takes or insights into already deeply discussed topics.

There are thousands of books written about these two massively influential cultures. Dr. Spawforth tried to cram their complete, well documented, dozen-century+ histories into just under 400 pages which is simultaneously whirling and exhausting while remaining completely unsatisfying. Instead of well thought out and presented examples of the intent (influence from surrounding neighboring empires and polities) we're instead taken on a strange highlight reel of random well documented trials and tribulations of these two groups that offer little in details or exciting prose. If one is not already familiar with the plotline, you're left scratching your head.

History is the story of PEOPLE. And in this book there are hardly any stories and hardly anything to do with people. Indeed, there is more composition on pottery shards than individuals. This isn't surprising, given Dr. Spatworth's field (archaeology) but it belabors the point - his fascination with historical objects fails to translate into a captivating story worthy of 400 pages. It's as if one were to study my entire life and infer the influences from my travels and experiences, from a broken pottery shard discarded in my wastebin. It's one dimensional and difficult to care about.

My recommendation would be to focus on a few key examples taken throughout the periods and make the point. As one easy example: perhaps draw a line between Socrates to Zeno of Citium, and the founding of stoicism, through it's morphology and evolution into the primary philosophical school of Roman elites. Instead, there is a brief encounter with Socrates and Plato, some vague references to Greek philosophers being in Rome and Roman elites being in Athens, and then.... nothing. What was even the point of mentioning it?

There is no doubt that the author is a well regarded archaeologist and familiar with the societies discussed within, but the book does not contain his enthusiasm for the ancients and is quite a difficult slog. One is also beset on nearly every other page with his vague recollections of sitting in university studies with other boring historians and doctors, which seems pretentious and unrelatable to the masses. You're left wondering, who was this book written for?

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book as a refresher before an upcoming trip to Rome and Greece. I thought it would be good to brush up on my old knowledge from my AP European History/AP Art History courses as well as college classes.
This book is a lot. Considering these civilizations lasted for about a thousand years, this book doesn't skimp out on the history.
I was hoping for more of a here are some highlights that you should have a basic understanding of when knowing about these places, but this goes over a lot of history. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I won't lie, there were times that I could not follow along.

I think if you have a real passion for ancient Greece and Rome history, you will find this book filling in the gaps of what you didn't know. This book is not the best for those that want a basic understanding of the histories of these civilizations. It is a scholarly history book that covers a lot of ground.

Was it for me? No, but there were portions that helped me understand these incredibly interesting ancient civilizations.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my school we were not taught world history, until the English Civil War in seventeenth century. So imagine someone like me without a drop of the knowledge of Greece and Rome, trying to understand and appreciate this book - I've really tried my best. What I like most about the book are those familiar names starting to stage: Phoenicians, Etruscans, Spartans, Socrates, the Wars with Persia, Thucydides, Alexander, Octavian, Constantinople. So many names that you must have heard of despite which culture you are from, and this clearly indicates how Greece and Rome culture has influenced us and is continuing to attract new blood to come to appreciate it. In the epilogue, what I found most touching, the author states: it seems dubious to me to shun the pleasures bequeathed by the contemplation of a great civilization, just because this civilization was founded on human weaknesses as well as strengths. It was as fascinating and challenging as the greek and roman culture, that this book has brought me so much joy and learning.

[Barak · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good things:
The book provided a lot of information to give one a chance of patching some huge gaps in their knowledge about these two extremely impressive and important civilizations, as well as other "satellite" ones during the same periods discussed.
The bad things:
It is unclear if this is a historical, anthropological, sociological or just some deeper comments about archeological findings. Since it is not necessarily any of the above in any dedicated or focused manner, it keeps jumping between periods, artifacts and episodes to the point that one may be forgiven to think that the "story" in the title has some postmodern elements to it. There is some "timely progress" of course along the chapters and also some half-hearted effort to come up with a last paragraph (at the end of) each chapter to connect it to the next one, but generally I found the story to be hard to follow, and I doubt if at the end of the reading I have retained more than about 20% of it.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spawforth's writing is superb, immersing the reader in the long and storied history of ancient Greece and Rome without miring himself in the details that would require a 10 volume set of books. The central idea here is to connect the reader in the "now" with the degree to which we owe these two great cultures for the "how we got here", and he does it in a way that even-handedly views those worlds neither with dis-passion nor with the criticizing eye of so many modern writers. He acknowledges the faults of those societies every bit as much as he elevates the great things to which we still owe them a debt of gratitude.

This is, truly, a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to anyone who seeks to connect with those far-off times and peoples without having to dedicate the rest of their lives to the kind of PhD work that supports a book of this quality.

[Ruby Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I read this book before going back to Greece. It was such a great cultural overview of basically everything ancient. I would say it got a bit technical and wordy with all the names and contained a tad too much military stuff for me, but it’s opened my eyes to a lot, like how I’ve never really given the Romans a fair chance up until now - I think I might be an ancient Rome girly?? It’s also given me a lot to think about regarding further research and personal statement type stuff like:
- how important cultural identity is to basically every part of the story, an obsession with being ‘greek’ etc.
- the impact of classical literature on German culture now?
- the interaction of Germanic people with late Roman empire.
I feel a lot more secure in my understanding and hopefully this will help with uni application prep :).

[Clifford Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, though a bit too pedantic

I suspect this book is worth reading again, because I had trouble understanding what the point of all these little vignettes was in the beginning. The author clearly knows his stuff, and he has written a very detailed description of a very selected group of details, which impressed him at various stages in his career. It is a highly competent summary of a long historical period, one which continues to influence us to this day — which seems to be his main point. There are many fascinating details included in the book which make me not regret having spent the time to read it. I will let it percolate for a while and will probably try to read it again.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

Spawforth did what I was waiting for someone to do: to tell the history of the Greeks and Romans, chronologically, examining the relationship between the two. That he did this through the lens of a historian with a deep interest in anthropology, archaeology and language is what made it really work for me. I think I finally grasp just how many books were created and lost over the centuries. I like how he tied in recent archaeological finds into the timeline.

I commend this book for well organized and labelled chapters. While a PDF accompaniment would have made it better, I simply screenshotted the chapter list in the audiobook, and checked them off as I listened, also giving me the ability to go back and relisten to sections, if I wish. Well done.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the sweep of Graeco-Roman history. I found Spawforth's judicious use of archaeological details and the socioeconomic background added significantly to some of the standard stories about Greece and Rome. For example, the importance of Sicily to Greek (and later Carthaginian and Roman) ambitions is clearer when you see its economic role as a highly productive agricultural region. While the personal anecdotes and experience the author shares to introduce the chapters are sometimes effective, sometimes they felt excessive or unnecessary.

[Wiktor Jewula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tony Spawforth's book about the ancient Greece and Rome is an interesting, but also flawed read.
It is interesting because it tackles two vast periods of history in one book and is able to somehow do it in less than 400 pages.

The only problem that I had with the book was just that it was kind of boring at times. I hate having to force myself to read something and that was sometimes the case with "The Story of Greece and Rome. Therefore, I don't really see myself rereading it anytime soon, at least not the whole book.