Exploring the World of the Ancient Greeks

by Camp, John M.

• ISBN13: 9780500051122
• ISBN10: 0500051127
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

The ancient Greeks set out from their mountainous land at the end of the Balkan peninsula to colonize and settle almost all the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts. These remarkable people have left their imprint on virtually every aspect of modern politics, theater, art, philosophy, medicine, architecture, and athletics.

Here is their story, told within its historical and cultural framework. The eastern Mediterranean has always been a point of contact and conflict between East and West, and the book relates how the Greeks interacted, both peaceably and otherwise, with the surrounding cultures -- Minoans, Phoenicians, Lydians, Persians, and Romans. Herodotus began his account of the Persian Wars in the fifth century B.C. by saying that the trouble started 700 years earlier, with the events leading up to the Trojan War. Over time the struggle surged back and forth across the Aegean: Greece against Troy, Greek migration and settlement in Asia Minor, Persian invasions of Greece, Alexander's conquest of Asia, Roman intervention in the Greek world.

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Table of Contents

Who Were the Greeks?
The Ancient Greeks Defined	8	(6)
Historical Outline	14	(6)
Written Sources and Archaeological Discoveries	20	(6)
The First Greeks
Palaeolithic and Neolithic Greece	26	(4)
The Early Bronze Age	30	(4)
The Arrival of the Greeks	34	(4)
The Heroic Age
The Mycenaean Palace	38	(8)
The Mycenaean World	46	(2)
Crete	48	(4)
History or Myth?	52	(4)
The End of the Palaces	56	(4)
The Age of Expanding Horizons
After the Palaces: The Dark Ages	60	(6)
Colonization	66	(2)
Panhellenism	68	(2)
Eastern Influence	70	(4)
The Beginnings of Greek Literature	74	(4)
Polis: The Early Greek City
The Greek City	78	(10)
Regional Diversity	88
Cities of the Mainland	84	(10)
East Greek Cities	94	(8)
Western Greek Cities	102	(8)
The Fight for Survival	110	(8)
Classical Athens
The Rise of Athens	118	(2)
Government and Law	120	(4)
Commerce and Business	124	(2)
Religious Life	126	(8)
The Dionysia and Greek Theatre	134	(4)
Intellectual Life: Education and Philosophy	138	(2)
Private Life	140	(4)
Gods and Heroes
Sanctuaries, Festivals and Sacrifices	144	(2)
The Twelve Olympian Gods	146	(6)
Heroes	152	(2)
The Panhellenic Festivals	154	(6)
Medicine and Healing Cults	160	(2)
Oracular Shrines	162	(4)
Greek Art and Architecture
Architecture	166	(8)
Sculpture	174	(8)
Pottery	182	(2)
Painting	184	(2)
Metalwork	186	(4)
Alexander and the Hellenistic World
Historical Background	190	(4)
The Conquest of Asia	194	(2)
The Hellenistic Kingdoms	196	(6)
Romans and Christians
Roman Philhellenism	202	(4)
Hadrian and the Greek World	206	(2)
The Rise of Christianity	208	(4)
Epilogue: Byzantines, Franks and Ottomans	212	(2)
Gazetteer	214	(3)
Further Reading	217	(2)
Illustration Credits	219	(1)
Index	220