Ancient History category: 8298 books

If we were asked to name the most interesting country in the world, I suppose that most people would say Palestine--not because there is anything so very wonderful in the land itself, but because of all the great things that have happened there, and above all because of its having been the home of our Lord.

The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy presents a series of essays that trace the Greeks’ path to democracy and examine the connection between the Greek polis as a citizen state and democracy as well as the interaction between democracy and various forms of cultural expression from a comparative...

The riveting story of the Germania and its incarnations and exploitations through the ages. The pope wanted it, Montesquieu used it, and the Nazis pilfered an Italian noble's villa to get it: the Germania, by the Roman historian Tacitus, took on a life of its own as both an object and an ideology....

The Roman army was one of the most astounding organizations in the ancient world, and much of the success of the Roman empire can be attributed to its soldiers. Archaeological remains and ancient texts provide detailed testimonies that have allowed scholars to understand and reconstruct the army’s...

Rome was a huge city. Running it required not only public works and services but also specialised law. This innovative work traces the development of that law and system in the main areas of administration. The book incorporates and develops previous historical and topographical works by relating...

We accept that, at some point in the history of our universe, living creatures emerged from nonliving matter. Yet from the time of Aristotle until the late nineteenth century, many people believed in spontaneous generation, that living creatures sprang into existence from rotting material. As Daryn...

Discusses the Egyptian pyramids, Greek temples, Roman buildings, and megalithic monuments in Britain, the book includes chapters on architecture in Mesoamerica, the early Middle East, and ancient China and Japan.

Along with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) is one of the triumvirate of philosophers responsible for the establishment of Western philosophy as it exists today. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were among the first to refine philosophical thought, and Socrates is credited with devising the...

Along with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) is one of the triumvirate of philosophers responsible for the establishment of Western philosophy as it exists today. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were among the first to refine philosophical thought, and Socrates is credited with devising the...

Along with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) is one of the triumvirate of philosophers responsible for the establishment of Western philosophy as it exists today. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were among the first to refine philosophical thought, and Socrates is credited with devising the...

The aesthetic changes in late Roman literature speak to the foundations of modern Western culture. The dawn of a modern way of being in the world, one that most Europeans and Americans would recognize as closely ancestral to their own, is to be found not in the distant antiquity of Greece nor in the...

Restless Youth in Ancient Rome presents an inclusive portrayal of the perceptions the Romans had of youth and of the role of this age group in a wide variety of domains - philosphy, literature, education, the law, the army, politics, leisure, amorous pursuits and family life. Emiel Eyben considers...

Ancient Roman authors are firmly established in the Western canon, and yet the birth of Latin literature was far from inevitable. The cultural flourishing that eventually produced the Latin classics was one of the strangest events in history, as Denis Feeney demonstrates in this bold revision.

Historical examples played a key role in ancient Roman culture, and Matthew Roller's book presents a coherent model for understanding the rhetorical, moral, and historiographical operations of Roman exemplarity. It examines the process of observing, evaluating, and commemorating noteworthy actors,...