The Birth of Classical Europe by Peter Thonemann

The Birth of Classical Europe by Peter Thonemann

To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a 'classical Europe', using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past filled with great leaders and writers, emigrations and battles. Indeed, much of the reason we know so much about the classical past is the obsessive importance it held for so many generations of Greeks and Romans, who interpreted and reinterpreted their changing casts of heroes and villains. Figures such as Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar loom large in our imaginations today, but they were themselves fascinated by what had preceded them. The Birth of Classical Europe is therefore both an authoritative history, and also a fascinating attempt to show how our own changing values and interests have shaped our feelings about an era which is by some measures very remote but by others startlingly close.

An elegant and readable attempt to undertake the impossible and confine [Europe's classical] history within fewer than 400 pages-- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *
The Birth of Classical Europe combines a strong narrative with sophisticated thematic analysis and reflection ... Despite the immense ground covered, there is no impression of the breathlessness and superficiality which one might have thought unavoidable. -- Simon Hornblower * TLS *
They have presented a wide variety of both interpretative and expository material in accessible form. -- Paul Cartledge * History Today *
Simon Price and Peter Thonemann's attractive new book offers a seamless history across more than two millennia ... [and] by insisting on the unifying relationship between the present and what has gone on before, [they] place themselves in the same intellectual tradition as Augustine. -- Christopher Kelly * BBC History Magazine *

From 1981 to 2008 Simon Price was a Lecturer at the University of Oxford, where he taught Greek and Roman history for Lady Margaret Hall and St Hugh's College. He has written, co-written, or co-edited books on ancient religions and rituals (Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor; Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies; Religions of Rome; Apologetics in the Roman Empire; Religions of the Ancient Greeks), and also co-edited The Greek City from Homer to Alexander. As part of his work on an archaeological field survey of Sphakia in south-west Crete, he jointly created a website and a film about the survey, and is now co-editing the final print publication. Peter Thonemann has taught Greek and Roman history at Wadham College, Oxford, since 2007. He has published widely on the history of Asia Minor, and is director of the Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua XI project (http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk). His first book, The Maeander, will be published shortly.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780713992427
ISBN 10	0713992425
Titel	The Birth of Classical Europe
Autor	Peter Thonemann
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	Penguin Books Ltd
Erscheinungsjahr	2010-04-29
Seitenanzahl	398
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.