This volume provides a challenging answer to the question: "Who were the Classical Greeks?", Paul Cartledge here examines the Greeks and their achievements in terms of their own self-image, mainly as it was presented by the supposedly objective historians: Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon.[...]

The Battle of Plataea in 479 BCE is one of world history's unjustly neglected events. It decisively ended the threat of a Persian conquest of Greece. It involved tens of thousands of combatants, including the largest number of Greeks ever brought together in a common cause. For the Spartans, the d[...]

At eighteen Alexander had conquered mainland Greece, was crowned King of Macedonia at twenty and by twenty-six he had made himself master of the once mighty Persian Empire. By the time of his death, aged only thirty-three, in 323BCE he was ruler of the known world and was being worshipped as a god b[...]

One of Western history's greatest books springs to life in Tom Holland's vibrant new translation
Herodotus of Halicarnassus--who was hailed by Cicero as "the father of history"--wrote his histories around 440 BC. It is the earliest surviving work of nonfiction and a thrilling narrative account [...]

Paul Cartledge, one of the world's foremost scholars of ancient Greece, illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356-323 BC), king of Macedon, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and founder of a new world order.
Alexander's legacy has had a major impact on military tacticians, scholars,[...]

The Spartan legend has inspired and captivated subsequent generations with evidence of its legacy found in both the Roman and British Empires. The Spartans are our ancestors, every bit as much as the Athenians. But while Athens promoted democracy, individualism, culture and society, their great riva[...]

Ordet Sparta väcker någonting inom oss. Trots att det har gått mer än tvåtusen år lever detta mytiska namn kvar. Det har också gett upphov till två ord som ofta används, spartansk och lakonisk.

Det som mer än något annat odödliggjort Sparta var slaget vid Thermopyle. Efter att[...]

The contribution of the ancient Greeks to modern western culture is incalculable. In the worlds of art, architecture, myth, literature, and philosophy, the world we live in would be unrecognizable without the formative influence of ancient Greek models.
This highly original and stimulating intro[...]