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A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization
From Gladiator to 300 , the true history of the classical world is revealed here and will include everything you need to know Why was Julius Caesar assassinated? Who were the Spartans? Where does democracy come from? Despite centuries of history, the ancient world still has a powerful hold upon the modern imagination.
448 pages, Paperback
First published August 26, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 29, 2016
History as fast as in Monty Python but without the sense of humor. 30 pages (more or less) for all of Greek history and the same for Roman. The chapters on drama are longer with excruciatingly detailed plot synopsis. The chapters on culture weren't bad. I'm just not sure who the book is for. Someone who doesn't already know the history would be lost.
May 30, 2012
Its a good straight forward run through classical Greece and Rome. Less idiosyncratic than Robin Lane Fox and some what briefer too. Its accessible and informative with a good list of further reading suggestions
July 15, 2023
Grécia e Roma são os dois grandes pólos do eixo cultural que estrutura a civilização ocidental. O que somos, hoje, devemos em grande medida à herança cultural, política e social destes dois pólos. Seria injusto considerá-los exclusivos, as nossas identidades culturais europeias e ocidentais construíram-se também com outras influências. Mas a segurar tudo isso, estão os ideários culturais que herdámos da Grécia, as ideias de beleza, democracia, apreço à cultuea, filosofia, e, em essência, questionar o mundo; bem como o peso da estrutura romana, das leis, da infraestrutura, e no nosso caso, da própria língua que falamos.
São os dois grandes faróis do ocidente, mas seria incorreto considerá-los modelos de virtude absoluta (mas há quem o faça, geralmente moralistas modernos que se incomodam com o facto de outros não partilharem das suas formas de ver o mundo). É algo irónico ler sobre estas civilizações e perceber que as olharmos com as lentes que a sua herança cultural nos legou, ficaríamos chocados com as suas imperfeições. Violência institucional, dogmatismo religioso, corrupção e populismos, economias assentes no esclavagismo, xenofobias, inexistência de direitos das mulheres, tudo isso caracterizou estas sociedades. É sempre bom observar que a democracia grega era, do nosso ponto de vista, uma plutocracia, ou que a romanização que faz parte do ADN foi em essência um processo de colonização violenta. E, no entanto, conseguiram legar-nos o lado elevado dos seus valores.
Este livro tenta o complexo, transmitir-nos a evolução destes dois mundos. Inicia na civilização minóica, o ponto inicial da antiguidade clássica, e leva-nos ao auge cultural da Grécia clássica. Curiosamente, passa ao lado de Alexandre, o foco do livro é a Europa e não o oriente. Mostra-nos em seguida a mais hegemónica Roma, com as suas caracteristicas próprias bem vincadas, apesar de serem seduzidos pela influência cultural grega.
O final do livro ressoa. A páginas tantas, Kershaw fala-nos da Eneida, o poema épico de puro nacionalismo romano, onde Vergílio se apropria da Ilíada para mostrar que os romanos são os herdeiros da idade heróica grega. O poema termina com linhas que nos falam da eternidade romana, de um poder que nunca se desvanece. Vivemos quase dois milénios após a queda do império. O povo e a entidade política extinguiram-se. Mas a sua herança subsiste na nossa identidade cultural. Sob esse ponto de vista, somos todos romanos, e a luz do império nunca se extinguiu.
São os dois grandes faróis do ocidente, mas seria incorreto considerá-los modelos de virtude absoluta (mas há quem o faça, geralmente moralistas modernos que se incomodam com o facto de outros não partilharem das suas formas de ver o mundo). É algo irónico ler sobre estas civilizações e perceber que as olharmos com as lentes que a sua herança cultural nos legou, ficaríamos chocados com as suas imperfeições. Violência institucional, dogmatismo religioso, corrupção e populismos, economias assentes no esclavagismo, xenofobias, inexistência de direitos das mulheres, tudo isso caracterizou estas sociedades. É sempre bom observar que a democracia grega era, do nosso ponto de vista, uma plutocracia, ou que a romanização que faz parte do ADN foi em essência um processo de colonização violenta. E, no entanto, conseguiram legar-nos o lado elevado dos seus valores.
Este livro tenta o complexo, transmitir-nos a evolução destes dois mundos. Inicia na civilização minóica, o ponto inicial da antiguidade clássica, e leva-nos ao auge cultural da Grécia clássica. Curiosamente, passa ao lado de Alexandre, o foco do livro é a Europa e não o oriente. Mostra-nos em seguida a mais hegemónica Roma, com as suas caracteristicas próprias bem vincadas, apesar de serem seduzidos pela influência cultural grega.
O final do livro ressoa. A páginas tantas, Kershaw fala-nos da Eneida, o poema épico de puro nacionalismo romano, onde Vergílio se apropria da Ilíada para mostrar que os romanos são os herdeiros da idade heróica grega. O poema termina com linhas que nos falam da eternidade romana, de um poder que nunca se desvanece. Vivemos quase dois milénios após a queda do império. O povo e a entidade política extinguiram-se. Mas a sua herança subsiste na nossa identidade cultural. Sob esse ponto de vista, somos todos romanos, e a luz do império nunca se extinguiu.
March 31, 2019
This book should be called a brief history of Greece and Rome with a subtitle called Greek and Roman theater. Over 100 pages were dedicated to greek and Roman theater with the writer describing entire plays. Added to that the nearly 100 pages explaining greek and Roman architect it did not leave much in a 378 page book to explain the actual history of these people and thier day to day life.on top of that it leaves out any focus on other civilizations at the time like the Persian empire makes this whole book a laboured read.
December 15, 2015
I only read the chapters on Greece for class.
I liked this book because it offered a lot of new information. The writing wasn't the most exciting, but it also didn't read like a textbook.
If you're interested in Ancient Greece this book covers a smattering of everything. I'd recommend it.
I liked this book because it offered a lot of new information. The writing wasn't the most exciting, but it also didn't read like a textbook.
If you're interested in Ancient Greece this book covers a smattering of everything. I'd recommend it.
August 9, 2015
A nice brief overview but a bit mixed - some very good parts and some somewhat tedious and rather rambling sections. I might be able to answer a few more of the questions on University Challenge now though...
February 14, 2024
A brief good recommendation for beginners who are new to Greek civilization.
July 7, 2026
It took me over a month to read this well-researched book by Stephen Kershaw, and my sentiments remain ambivalent. It covers too much ground, and ends up foisting generally uneven, unsatisfying, and pointless information on the reader. If it were not for the thought-provoking quotes and fragments of poetry repeated here, some chapters read like a grad student’s dissertation: bookish, technical, and unappetizingly statistical, such as a table on Athenian currency and its equivalent in drachma, talents, and mina. This monotone approach extends to some of his discussions on Greek mythology, as Kershaw give us the most sobering, humdrum narrative on one of literature’s most popular, enigmatic heroes, Odysseus, whose story James Joyce thought “the most beautiful, all-embracing theme—greater, more human, than that of Hamlet, Don Quixote, Dante, Faust.”
That said, the book is not devoid of some intriguing factoids, trivia, and backstories other books I’ve read on Roman history may have missed, such as these snippets on the subject of slaves:
“It was common to stereotype the tasks of a slave by nationality: Gauls or Spaniards would make good herdsmen; Greeks would make good doctors; and so on…An ex-slave of Augustus’ time left more than 4,000 slaves in his legacy, and the fictional Trimalchio, a nouveau-riche ex-slave with taste inversely proportional to his staggering wealth, also owned a vast number of slaves, including one boy with a carefully grown mop of hair on which he would wipe his hands.”
This brief guide also served in enlightening me of Virgil’s Aeneas, as I learned more of this Trojan prince’s epic story and its significance in literature. And the chapter on Greek plays, especially on the tragedies, has spurred me to read the Greek Plays on my bookshelves.
The last chapter, The End of Rome, reads like a concise, abridged fragment from Edward Gibbon’s opus, and as I see it, one of the highlights of the book. Kershaw sums it up quite well:
“In the first book of Virgil’s Aeneid, Jupiter had prophesied the future of the Roman race: ‘For the empire of these people I impose neither limits of space nor time: I have given them power without end…’ to which T.S. Eliot pertinently wrote:
‘We are all, so far as we inherit the civilization of Europe, still citizens of the Roman Empire, and time has not yet proved Virgil wrong.’
Rome’s history, in a sense, is our present; the foundations of modern Western civilization lie there; the saying goes that all roads lead to Rome, but it might be better to say that they lead from Rome.”
Despite its delivery, there is substance here. Thus my ambivalence.
Two and a half stars.
That said, the book is not devoid of some intriguing factoids, trivia, and backstories other books I’ve read on Roman history may have missed, such as these snippets on the subject of slaves:
“It was common to stereotype the tasks of a slave by nationality: Gauls or Spaniards would make good herdsmen; Greeks would make good doctors; and so on…An ex-slave of Augustus’ time left more than 4,000 slaves in his legacy, and the fictional Trimalchio, a nouveau-riche ex-slave with taste inversely proportional to his staggering wealth, also owned a vast number of slaves, including one boy with a carefully grown mop of hair on which he would wipe his hands.”
This brief guide also served in enlightening me of Virgil’s Aeneas, as I learned more of this Trojan prince’s epic story and its significance in literature. And the chapter on Greek plays, especially on the tragedies, has spurred me to read the Greek Plays on my bookshelves.
The last chapter, The End of Rome, reads like a concise, abridged fragment from Edward Gibbon’s opus, and as I see it, one of the highlights of the book. Kershaw sums it up quite well:
“In the first book of Virgil’s Aeneid, Jupiter had prophesied the future of the Roman race: ‘For the empire of these people I impose neither limits of space nor time: I have given them power without end…’ to which T.S. Eliot pertinently wrote:
‘We are all, so far as we inherit the civilization of Europe, still citizens of the Roman Empire, and time has not yet proved Virgil wrong.’
Rome’s history, in a sense, is our present; the foundations of modern Western civilization lie there; the saying goes that all roads lead to Rome, but it might be better to say that they lead from Rome.”
Despite its delivery, there is substance here. Thus my ambivalence.
Two and a half stars.
July 19, 2026
Very nice overview of the birth of Greek civilization, and a brief rundown of Roman as well. Especially good was the summarizations of Ilias and Odyssey and Aeneid.
March 14, 2011
Did not read from cover to cover because it is quite a specialized book but some chapters are very informative and fun to read
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews