The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome by Robin Lane Fox (PDF)

Description

The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome dominated the world for centuries and continue to intrigue and enlighten us with their inventions, whether philosophy, politics, theatre, athletics, celebrity, science or the pleasures of horse racing. Robin Lane Fox’s spellbinding history spans almost a thousand years of change, from the foundation of the world’s first democracy in Athens to the Roman Republic and the Empire under Hadrian. Bringing great figures such as Homer, Socrates, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Augustus and the first Christian martyrs to life, exploring freedom, justice and luxury, this wonderfully exciting tour brings the turbulent histories of Greece and Rome together in a masterly study.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book was suggested to me by Amazon based on my browsing and purchasing history, and the good rating helped to further recommend it, so I gave it a try. The book does as described, encompassing a history of the classical world from Homer to Hadrian, covering archaic and classical Greece, the Hellenistic world of Alexander the Great, the turmoil caused by his death, the rise of the Roman republic, and the transition to empire.Some of Lane’s stylistic choices were puzzling and took time to get use to. For a classicist affiliated with Oxford, he surprisingly does not use the Oxford comma (though that’s arguably a house style choice of Oxford Universtiy Press), and at times the clarity of the writing suffers for it. His unusual use of prepositions and articles, or lack thereof, was also confusing at times. Not the least of these, there are numerous occurrences of “the Lebanon”, and I’ve never before seen Lebanon preceded by the definite article, which left me wondering if the writer instead mean “the Levant” despite “Levant” and “Lebanon” having no etymological connection. Another odd turn of phrase was where Lane writes “knots an hour” in regard to the speed of ships — knots are already a measurement of nautical miles per hour (not “sea miles” as Lane also writes), and thus “knots an hour” would technically mean “nautical miles an hour an hour” and thus represent acceleration and not speed.However, the text is full of interesting quotations from ancient works which shed a great deal of light on the personalities of the historical figures named within the book, and shows how people, and slang, aren’t so different now compared to 2000+ years ago. And Lane himself is able to create memorable text, including, “Antony wounded himself almost fatally and the greatest death scene in history began.”Overall, the book is accessible for someone interested in learning more about the “core” of the history of the classical world, and covers the topic with adequate depth without getting bogged down. It also serves as a good jumping off point for further investigation into periods or people named in the book, as well as sources both classical and modern.

⭐Robin Lane Fox has gathered the ancient world, from Homer to Hadrian, and parlayed it into 600 pages of perfection. It is the story of ancient Greece and beyond forward to about 200 AD, the time of the greatest expansion of the Roman Empire. Within that timeframe are perfectly lucid, commonsense, descriptions of the wars of Alexander, the eruption of Vesuvius, gladiatorial games, the rise of Christianity, the fall of the Judio-Claudians and their mad emperors, and…well you get the picture.What sets this book apart from the rest (aside from the most fantastic bibliography) is the completely accessible writing style which allows the reader to view the development of Western Civilization as a story that actually can be grasped as a whole. Each topic of each chapter can, and has, spawned a thousand books but the good professor never seems in a hurry when writing and never seems out to impress, but rather seems to want to make sure that he has patiently explained some rather convoluted ideas. If you have been a fan of Greek or Roman history or just like to real historical novels of this time period, you will find this book essential.What could easily have been a book too complicated to enjoy becomes a dependable reference into the lives of the ancients. Refreshingly, Mr. Fox seems rather dispassionate about the subject matter. He leaves the joy of discovery to the reader and does not seem to insist on any particular interpretation of the historical facts. He lets the history speak for itself. Great read…couldn’t put it down…and I’m much more educated for encountering it. Three thumbs up.

⭐In his wonderful book about Alexander the Great, Lane Fox writes: “I am bored by institutions and I do not believe in structures.” As a motto for historical writing, this is excellent advice. I only wish he had taken it here.Instead, we are presented with dry academical style writing, where “classes” pursue abstract goals (as if there were such a thing in real life) and “forces” determine events. If this technique is applied to the case at hand, we’d have to conclude that the privileged classes at Oxford try to further enrich themselves by exploiting the defenseless common book lover.Unfortunately, this isn’t the only or even the main fault of this book. Lane Fox operates with an inflexible set of moral prejudices (Greeks good, Romans bad, Spartans worse) and demands full submission to this scheme from historical facts. Unsurprisingly, this leads to huge distortions; for example, what Thucydides says about Athenians and Spartans has to be turned upside down. On the other hand, when a detail is to the author’s liking, caution is completely thrown to the wind, and the most absurd anecdotes from ancient writers are presented as if they were well-established historical facts (so the obviously highly unlikely claim that Claudius was made emperor by Caligula’s bodyguards on a whim when they found him hiding behind a curtain).In summary, this was a big let-down. The book manages to be dull and annoying at the same time.

⭐I’ve read a lot of history books from this era. DEFINITELY the best book available for the “average” reader curious about the Ancient Greek or Roman histories. Informative, thorough, but not boring. Love it.

⭐This book by Robin Lane Fox is probably the best all round history of the classical world that I have come across. Scholarly, yet readable, it is hugely informative and a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.I hope my find my review helpful.

⭐In many ways this book deserves 5 stars – extremely readable, highly informative and well illustrated with colour photos. So what is there not to like? The fact that on about 4 occasions Alexander’s disabled son is referred to as a “half-wit” or “half-witted”. Surely an Oxford academic writing in the 21st century can do better than this?

⭐It reads as if the most important fact about Ancient Greece was homosexuality.

⭐I greatly enjoyed this. It is a very decent narrative history book. It covers a great deal of ground and does so in a comprehensive and rigorous way. Some subjects are covered in a lot more detail than others but I didn’t find anything to complain about it. Probably the best relatively short single volume history of the Classical world that I have read.

⭐Good product

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