a decent attempt at a childrens' account of classical empire, but the chapters on parthia, india, and china somehow manage to prioritize the viewpoint of greece and rome. also they neglect the lesser known archaeology of classical empires of central, NW, and SE asia. indeed, there is not even an explanation given for why a history of classical empire might exclude extended discussion of subsaharan africa, mesoamerica, or polynesia ( )

Examines the different cultures that were emerging between 400 BC and AD 200

Examines the different cultures that were emerging between 400 BC and AD 200

This volume covers what is known as the Empire "time frame", or classical period. A thirst for "glory" attended the soul of the lords of the world in the 4th century BC, as the verses of Homer attest. {11}

The book continues presenting beautifully illustrated history.

1. The Odyssey of Alexander the Great.

What moved the Aegeans to unite? There was a shift in two sensibilities. A shift of loyalties, from tribal/clan city state to regional "confederation", and a shift from universal man to specialist:

TYRANTS AND THE ATHENIAN LEAGUE.

The Aegean was in disarray from the Peloponnesian War which ended in 404 BC with the victory of Sparta. The walls of Athens were torn down, its colonies stripped away, and its mighty navy was rotting on the sea floor. But the overbearing oligarchs of Sparta embarked on their first foreign expedition--to Ionia to liberate the Greek cities from Persian rule. With Spartan forces fighting in Asia Minor, the adjacent Greeks banded together -- Corinth, Thebes, Argos, and of course Athens. A new Athenian league-- a confederacy rather than vassalized states-- emerged. And Thebes, with its "Sacred Band", an elite {and homosexual} corp fighting in a deepened phalanx which could wheel at an oblique angle and pierce the hoplite line attack, emerged as a great "champion of liberty".{12} But eventually it was exhaustion which ended decades of hostilities.

SPECIALIZATION

And a new ideal of narrow professionalism emerged. The universal man gave way to "star" performers and narrow proficiency. The gap between rich and poor widened, amateurs stopped performing and competing in games, lawsuits increased, and bribes were common. The arts shifted from ideal to realistic images -- all foreshadowed in the plays of the earlier dramatists: Euripides (probing the human psyche), Aristophanes (unflattering to his contemporaries).{13} Civic obligations were supplanted by self-interest and the emergency of Tyrants. Small landowners, the heart of Athenian society, were supplanted by slaves.

In 399 BC "an event occurred that seemed certain to stifle free expression".{13} Socrates, a critic of democracy, was formally accused of corrupting the youth. The Athenian democracy had just been restored, after a period of oppressive tyranny. One of Socrates' pupils had been one of the worst tyrants, so the charges were understandable. By relentlessly questioning and challenging the most fundamental ideas, the Socratics eroded civic ideals.

Plato was so horrified by Socrates' death, he quit public life to travel and reflect. He only returned to Athens in 387 BC to found the Academy, where he employed the questioning method to open the minds of a new generation of wealthy young men. Distrusting democracy, and understanding that chaos would reign in the absence of Government, Plato proposed in The Republic a classless citizenry ruled by benevolent but authoritarian philosopher-kings.{15}

A youth from Macedonia was one of Plato's students. Aristotle did not adopt the idealized or intuitive views of his teacher, but arrived with cool, objective eyes of a scientist looking at the real world. Aristotle compiled data. He made a minute study of 150 Greek regimes, and in the end supported the Republican form.{15}

A contemporary rival of Plato, Isocrates taught the virtues of unity and cooperation between polities. He could find no example, and realized that it needed a powerful leader to bring about such cooperation. This concept, and the exhaustion of the city-states, set the stage for conquest by Philip in Macedonia, followed by his son, Alexander.

We have a long letter written by Isocrates in his 90th year to King Philip. He urges the Macedonian to assume command of a united Greece, and to lead its armies into Asia. The crusade would free captive Ionian cities from Persian overlords, and take vengeance (and booty) upon Persia for the destruction wreaked in Greece more than a century earlier.{18} In fact, Greeks had been praying for such a liberator. {26}

TEMPLES OF HEALING

The book includes numerous topical inserts. For example, one on "healing" {25}. Photographs of sculpted figures from a Temple of Asklepios, the god of medicine, very clearly show the importance of MASSAGE as a medical procedure, practiced by both men and women. Dogs and snakes were sacred to the god. "Temple physicians were credited with a high rate of cure", and the treatment was free. Recovered patients would make votive offerings (of course).

ALEXANDER - AND BRINGING A STAGNANT ECONOMY TO LIFE

"Few men changed the world so profoundly." In 13 years of reign, Alexander conquered more territory than any warrior before or since.{31} He pulled a vast tide of humanity in his wake, and broadened the horizons of the ancient world. Races and cultures mixed, became cosmopolitan.{31} The wealth of the Persian nobility was distributed widely, a program of steady public works was instituted, and a stagnant economy was brought to life.{31}

JERUSALEM

The Seleucid successors to Alexander continued to found Greek cities in Semitic areas of Mesopotamia, and a cultural renaissance among the Semites was the result.{36} However, when Antiochus IV sought to brighten Jerusalem with "a gloss of Hellenistic culture" {statuary, i.e. "graven images"}, his efforts scandalized the Jews. The tiny nation rebelled, "igniting a spark that would burn in Jewish memory for two millennia".{36}

COLLAPSE OF THE HELLENISTIC KINGDOMS : Ptolemy, Antigonus, Seleucus Nicator.

The Hellenistic kingdoms survived for well over a century, tied together by a common language (Koine), culture, and trade. Gradually their holdings weakened and fell away exhausted by dynastic struggles. "Deep economic divisions cut across society, splitting the world horizontally: An educated Hellenized upper class presided over a restive and impoverished mass of native peasants, laborers, and slaves." By 200 BC there was little left of the empire, and virtually no public works or infrastructure.

2. GRANDEUR OF IMPERIAL ROME.

Rome at its height housed a million people. 400,000 were slaves, naked, chained, and marked on the feet. Many slaves were educated Greeks who served as potters, craftsmen, sculptors, and bureaucrats for administering the government.{47} No other society had ever been so dependent upon slaves.

Most citizens lived in the "insulae" -- brick or frame tenements up to five stories high. They slept in warrens 4-5 in a small room. The street floors were lined with noisy shops and craft factories. Wheeled traffic was forbidden during the day because of congestion, and at night the supply carts would clamor in. Water only came to the lowest floor, and there was no plumbing for wastes. Urine was collected in urns for the treatmen of wool, and pots of excrement were dumped into the street. People used public toilets with seats often arranged in semicircles to facilitate conversation.{47}

Rome was a city of gardens. Flower pots brightened the windowsills.There were parks and shady picnic areas. Fresh water poured into fountains from eight great aquaducts.

In the center of the the seven hills of the city, a marshy plain was drained and a spacious public plaza tiled. Around it, the public buildings of the Forum, with the Rostra at its center. Yielding a "tapestry of glory and grime". {50}

The Romans built a Pantheon which is still in use today, with its huge and heavenly dome and oculus.{93}

3. The Quest for Power in the East.

PERSIS

INDIA

4. The Flowering of CHINA. ( )