Product Description

The Greek World 479-323 BC has been an indispensable guide to classical Greek history since its first publication. Now Simon Hornblower has comprehensively rewritten and revised his original text, bringing it up to date for a new generation of readers. The extensive changes made include the addition of two important new chapters - on Argos, and the Peloponnesian War - and the incorporation of further primary sources. Also new are more than thirty illustrations, the insertion of user-friendly subheadings, and a completely updated bibliography. With valuable coverage of the broader Mediterranean world in which Greek culture flourished, as well as close examination of Athens, Sparta, and the other great city-states of Greece itself, this third edition of a classic work is a more essential read than ever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #395096 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
`To write a standard history which contains the essential material and yet is interesting and says things which have not been said before is one of the hardest tasks. Hornblower has performed it excellently. - Times Literary Supplement

`Packed with worthwhile ideas and impressive erudition. It will stimulate thought. - David Whitehead, Classical Review

`An undergraduate text book which neither the professional ancient historian can afford to ignore nor the interested non specialist fail to read with profit and pleasure - History Today

About the Author
Simon Hornblower is Professor of Ancient History at University College London. He was previously a Fellow of Oriel College and Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Oxford. His many publications in Greek history and classical civilization include Greek Historiography (2000), A commentary on Thucydides (1997), The Oxford Classical Dictionary\i0 (edited with Antony Spawforth, 1996), and \i The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. VI: The Fourth Century BC\i0 (edited with D. M. Lewis, John Boardman and Martin Ostwald, 1994).

Customer Reviews

Can't see the forest for the trees
I read Thucydides as an undergraduate, and had some knowledge of ancient Greece, and came to this book hoping to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge, thinking it was aimed at a general reader. If it is, it does a terrible job. It assumes the reader already has a fairly advanced knowledge and doesn't bother clarifying this for the general reader. An example is Chapter 7 when he speaks of "an appalling outbreak of stasis," using a Greek term he does not explain. In English "stasis" means state of inactivity or equilibrium. Why "appalling"? I happen to have a Greek lexicon and the Greek term has the meaning of "faction." How many general readers can dust off their Greek lexicon to clarify that confusing detail, without which the whole following discussion will leave the general reader scratching their heads. As well, Hornblower has the specialists penchant for going off on scholarly tangents that may be important for the specialist but merely frustrate the general reader. For example, the chapter on the run up to the war does very little to inform the general reader about the events leading up to the war, which is what I was primarily interested in reading about. Instead we get an in-depth analysis of the reliability of Thucydides and what he did and did not say. Important, maybe... but when the chapter concludes by saying "We have seen in this chapter that Corinthian unease at Athenian e3xpansion... was important in bringing about the Pelopnnesian war, I am left wondering. Somehow I didn't get that at all, the point being entirely sidelined by other issues. In general I got the feeling that I could not see the forest for the trees, that is, that Hornblower's concern for scholarly detail distracted him from the real story. There is, in fact, a complete lack of any narrative sense. We hop from place to place, from Italy, to Egypt, to Persia, to ARgos, to Corinth, to Sparta, to Athens, looking at each in detail. But there is little sense of the big picture. All in all, a disappointing book despite its obvious scholarly merits.