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Who’s Who in the Classical World edited by Simon Hornblower and Tony Spawforth A quick and concise, authoritative and direct way to understand the principle people of the age. From Lucius Accius to Zosimus the historian, this reference work covers the general milieu of Greco-Roman civilization. |
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The History: Herodotus translated by David Grene David Grene, one of the best known translators of the Greek classics, splendidly captures the peculiar quality of Herodotus, the father of history. |
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The Histories of Herodotus translated by Aubrey De Selincourt with an Introduction and Notes by John M. Marincola
A Greek historian, Herodotus (c.485-425 BCE) left his native town of Halicarnassus, a Greek colony, to travel extensively. He collected historical, geographical, ethnological, mytholgical and archaeological material for his histories. |
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Herodotus I: Books 1-2 translated by A. D. Godley Part one of the worlds first true book of history. Mainly centered on the Greco-Persian wars, this book is full of delightful absurdities and insightful historical drama. (Loeb Classical Library Volume 117) |
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Herodotus II: Books 3-4 translated by A. D. Godley Part two of the worlds first true book of history. Mainly centered on the Greco-Persian wars, this book is full of delightful absurdities and insightful historical drama. (Loeb Classical Library Volume 118) |
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Herodotus III: Books 5-7 translated by A. D. Godley Part three of the worlds first true book of history. Mainly centered on the Greco-Persian wars, this book is full of delightful absurdities and insightful historical drama. (Loeb Classical Library Volume 119) |
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Herodotus IV: Books 8-9 translated by A. D. Godley Part four of the worlds first true book of history. Mainly centered on the Greco-Persian wars, this book is full of delightful absurdities and insightful historical drama. (Loeb Classical Library Volume 120) |
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The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories translated by Andrea L. Purvis In The Histories, Herodotus chronicles the rise of the Persian Empire and its dramatic war with the Greek city-states. Within that story he includes rich veins of anthropology, ethnography, geology, and geography, pioneering these fields of study, and explores such universal themes as the nature of freedom, the role of religion, the human costs of war, and the dangers of absolute power. |
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Art and Myth in Ancient Greece: A Handbook by Thomas H. Carpenter Mr. Carpenter seems to have the right combination of education and articulation to make history and it’s artifacts come alive in his hands. This book is full of facts, insights and truly compelling versions of the ancient Greek myths. Examples of the artwork from this book can be seen at the Rhode Island School of Design web site which can be accessed from the Links Page on this site. Order Art and Myth in Ancient Greece: A Handbook from Amazon.com |
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The Art and Culture of Ancient Greece, 1100-480 B.C. by Jeffrey M. Hurwit This book is a treasure trove of information about pre-historic Greece. Mr. Hurwit presents an organized and compelling picture of the early Greeks and maps their evolution from simple nomads into the founders of Western culture. This book is informative, entertaining and full of excellent photos. |
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Thucydides: Narrative and Explanation by T. C. B. Rood This book analyzes the narrative technique of Thucydides, relating his shifting uses of various techniques to his explanatory aims, and showing how he narrates the progression of one war and at the same time exposes various truths about the human condition. |
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Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War translated by Rex Warner with an introduction by M. I. Finley
This detailed contemporary account of the struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling the author’s ambitious claim that the work “was done to last forever.” The conflicts between the two empires over shipping, trade, and colonial expansion came to a head in 431 BCE in Northern Greece, and the entire Greek world was plunged into 27 years of war. Thucydides applied a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this exhaustively factual record of the disastrous conflict that eventually ended the Athenian empire. Order Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War from Amazon.com |
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The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War translated by Richard Crawley A remarkable presentation of the Peloponnesian War. |
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Thucydides I: History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 1-2 translated by C. F. Smith Thucydides began his History of the Peloponnesian War thinking that it would be over within a few years but the war lasted twenty seven years and he died two years before the Spartans finally won; he tried to faithfully recount all the major events of the war and his History is a definitive description of that long and bloody conflict between Athens and Sparta. Loeb Classical Library No. 108 |
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Thucydides II: History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 3-4 translated by C. F. Smith Loeb Classical Library |
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Thucydides III: History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 5-6 translated by C. F. Smith Loeb Classical Library |
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Thucydides IV: History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 7-8 translated by C. F. Smith Loeb Classical Library No. 169 |
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Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander translated by Aubrey De Selincourt with a revised with a new Introduction and Notes by J. R. Hamilton Although written over four hundred years after Alexander’s death, Arrian’s account of the man and his achievements is the most reliable we have. Arrian’s own experience as a military commander gave him unique insights into the life of the world’s greatest conqueror. He tells of Alexander’s violent suppression of the Theban rebellion, his defeat of Persia and campaigns through Egypt and Babylon - establishing new cities and destroying others in his path. While Alexander emerges as a charismatic leader, Arrian succeeds brilliantly in creating an objective portrait of a man of boundless ambition, who was exposed to the temptations of power. |
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The Ancient Greeks by Moses I. Finley Contents: 1) Who Were the Greeks?; 2) The Dark Age and the Homeric Poems; 3) Archaic Greece; 4) The Classical City-State; 5) Literature; 6) Science, Philosophy and Popular Morals; 7) The Visual Arts; 8) The Hellenistic Age; Chronological Table; Notes on the Plates; Bibliography; Index and Maps |
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The Penguin History of Greece by A. R. Burn A fascinating introduction to one of the world’s greatest civilizations, THE PENGUIN HISTORY OF GREECE offers a one-volume history of Hellas, and is principally written for the reader who is not a student or expert in classical literature. This volume was originally published in paperback as THE PELICAN HISTORY OF GREECE. |
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The Persian Expedition by Xenophon translated by Rex Warner and George Cawkwell The incredible story of the Greek mercenaries who were forced to fight their way from the center of the Persian Empire to the safety of Greek territory. Well written and compelling. The story was originally called Anabasis. |
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Xenophon: Anabasis translated by Carleton L. Brownson The remarkable first-hand account of how ten thousand Greek mercenaries fought their way from the heart of the Persian Empire back to Greek held territory. (Loeb Classical Library Volume 90) |
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The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan For almost three decades at the end of the fifth century BCE, Athens and Sparta fought a war that changed the Greek world and its civilization forever. A conflict unprecedented in its brutality, the Peloponnesian War brought a collapse in the institutions, beliefs, and customs that were the foundations of society. |
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The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale specializing in ancient Greece and formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. |
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The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale specializing in ancient Greece and formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. |
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The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale specializing in ancient Greece and formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. Order The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition from Amazon.com |
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The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale specializing in ancient Greece and formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. |
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Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times by Thomas R. Martin Paperback: 276 pages - Yale University Press; Updated edition (August 11, 2000); Also available for Amazon Kindle - Amazon’s new wireless reading device. |
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Greek Lives: A Selection of Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch translated by Robin A. Waterfield and edited by Philip A. Stadter
Plutarch introduces the major figures and periods of classical Greece, detailing the lives of nine personages, including Lycurgus, Solon, Themistocles, Cimon, Alexander, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, and Agesilaus. Order Greek Lives: A Selection of Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch from Amazon.com |
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The Age of Alexander Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert and G. T. Griffith
This book includes textual and historical notes that supplement a segment of Plutarch’s “Lives” which covers the rise of Macedonia. Order The Age of Alexander Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch from Amazon.com |
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The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert
Including biographies on: Theseus, Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades and Lysander. Order The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch from Amazon.com |
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Plutarch on Sparta: Lycurgus, Agis and Cleomenes translated by Richard J. A. Talbert
Plutarch’s vivid and engaging portraits of the Spartans and their customs are a major source of our knowledge about the rise and fall of their remarkable Greek city-state between the sixth and third centuries BCE. |
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Guide to Greece, Vol. 1: Central Greece by Pausanias translated by Peter Levi This “Guide to Greece” is an extremely comprehensive guidebook for tourists, concentrating on buildings, tombs and statues and including a lot of information on mythological, religious and historical background to the monuments described. Volume 1 describes central Greece including Athens, Delphi and Mycenae. |
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Guide to Greece, Vol. 2: Southern Greece by Pausanias translated by Peter Levi Written by a Greek traveller in the second century AD for a principally Roman audience, “Pausanias’ Guide to Greece” is a comprehensive, extraordinarily literate and well-informed guidebook for tourists of the age. |
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A History of Sparta, 950-192 B.C. by William George Grieve Forrest A concise and well written account of one of the most fascinating cultures of ancient Greece. |
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Troy C. 1700-1250 BC by Nic Fields; illustrated by Donato Spedaliere and S. Sulemsohn Spedaliere A detailed and brilliantly illustrated book detailing the history of Troy from its founding to its fall at the hands of the Achaeans circa 1250 BCE. |
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Women in Ancient Greece by Susan Blundell To read the history of ancient Greece as it has been written for centuries is to enter a thoroughly male world. This book, a comprehensive history of women in the Archaic and Classical Ages, completes our picture of ancient Greek society. |
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Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece by Joan Breton Connelly Hardcover: 456 pages - Princeton University Press (February 5, 2007) |
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The Complete Greek Temples by Tony Spawforth This book is the first to tell the complete story, with hundreds of accompanying illustrations, from their debated origins in the Greek dark ages to their transformation at the end of antiquity. It also includes for the first time in English a gazetteer of all the known colonnaded temples of the ancient Greeks. |
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Sanctuaries and the Sacred in the Ancient Greek by John Pedley Paperback: 290 pages - Cambridge University Press (October 17, 2005) Order Sanctuaries and the Sacred in the Ancient Greek from Amazon.com |
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Mathematics in Ancient Greece by Tobias Dantzig A study of the problems, principles, and procedures that mathematics has inherited from antiquity, this book both instructs and delights. Written by a specialist in interpreting science for lay readers, it recounts the human story behind mathematics, focusing on the insights of such thinkers as Euclid and Hippocrates. (1955 edition) |
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The Works of Archimedes translated by Sir Thomas Heath Complete works of ancient geometer in highly accessible translation by distinguished scholar. Topics include the famous problems of the ratio of the areas of a cylinder and an inscribed sphere; the measurement of a circle; the properties of conoids, spheroids, and spirals; and the quadrature of the parabola. Informative introduction and 52-page supplement. |
