Ancient

Eclectic essays on ethics, education, and much else besides.Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. AD 45-120, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece, studied philosophy at Athens, and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given...

A landmark study of ancient Greek and Roman cults, from the nocturnal mysteries at Eleusis to the cults of Dionysus and Mithras. Mystery cults are one of the most intriguing areas of Greek and Roman religion. In the nocturnal mysteries at Eleusis,...

The story of the most famous revolt of the ancient world, and its legendary leader, Spartacus the Gladiator.Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who started a prison breakout with 74 men, armed with kitchen knives. It grew into a full scale rebellion...

A rip-roaring Roman adventure from the acclaimed author of Princess BMX, Marie Basting! 'Perfect funny escapism with added Roman mythology ... Charming and mischievous!' LOUIE STOWELL, author of LOKI 'Full of fun...

An invigorating journey through Britain's prehistoric landscape, and an insight into the lives of its inhabitants. 'Highly compelling' Spectator, Books of the Year 'An evocative foray into the prehistoric past' BBC Countryfile Magazine 'Vividly...

"Superbly acute and unashamedly complex."-The Telegraph "Rich and provocative."-Times Literary Supplement "An engaging exploration."-The New Yorker"The phenomenal Ms. Beard has written another cracking book, one of her best."-The Independent What made...

"A magical and hugely captivating journey - filled with such beauty, wonder and surprise. A simply marvellous read, hugely recommended" - Stephen Fry A real-life journey through the fantastical world of The OdysseyIt started with a boy, of course...

Focussing on how the Romans made Europe work as a homogenous civilisation and looking at why we are failing to make the EU work in modern times, this is an authoritative and amusing study from bestselling author Boris Johnson. In addition to...

Philosopher, dramatist, rhetorician, Stoic and pragmatist, Seneca was one of the most contradictory figures in ancient Rome, embracing a stern ascetic morality while amassing a fortune under Nero and eventually committing suicide. This definitive...

This is the story of Messalina - third wife of Emperor Claudius and one of the most notorious women to have inhabited the Roman world. The scandalous image of the Empress Messalina as a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer, derived from the work...

The home of trusted Latin dictionaries for everyday language learning. A handy and affordable Latin to English and English to Latin dictionary for everyday use, including guidance on Latin grammar and insights into Roman culture. The clear...

A beautifully produced account of the history and importance of Hadrian's Wall, by a bestselling author and expert on Ancient Rome. Located at the far-flung and wild edge of the Roman Empire, Hadrian's Wall was constructed by Emperor Hadrian in the...

The Greek statesman Polybius (c.200-118 BC) wrote his account of the relentless growth of the Roman Empire in order to help his fellow countrymen understand how their world came to be dominated by Rome. Opening with the Punic War in 264 BC, he vividly...

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 CE) was the sixteenth emperor of Rome-and the most powerful man in the world. Yet he was also an intensely private person, with a rich interior life and one of the wisest minds of his generation. He collected his...

This is the OCR-endorsed edition covering the Greek GCSE set text prescriptions examined from 2025 to 2026. The texts covered are: Homer Iliad VI, lines 370-413 and 429-502 Herodotus Sections XIa (First Capture of Babylon), XII (Rebuff to...

Professor Ernst Badian (1925-2011) was one of the most influential Alexander historians of the twentieth century. His first articles on the subject appeared in 1958, and he continued for a full fifty years to reshape scholarly perception of the reign of...

This new historical atlas - richly illustrated with photographs, artwork recreations and full-colour maps - explores the world's earliest civilisations from the first farming settlements of Mesopotamia, via Egypt, Greece and Rome, to the civilisations of...

Presenting modern devotional perspectives that are rarely covered in other works, this premium hardcover offers comprehensive profiles of more than one hundred Egyptian gods, goddesses, and other divine beings. This thoroughly researched, full-color tome...

Mystery surrounds the parentage of Alexander, the prince born to Queen Olympias. Is his father Philip, King of Macedonia, or Nectanebo, the mysterious sorcerer who seduced the queen by trickery? One thing is certain: the boy is destined to conquer the...

145BC - CALABRIA, ANCIENT ROME. After many years of spilling blood for Rome, Gaius Furius Paullus has returned home to spend his remaining days working quietly on the family farm.But it seems death has followed Paullus from the battlefield. Just days...

This textbook is endorsed by OCR and supports the specification for GCSE Ancient History (first teaching September 2017). It covers the whole of Component 2, both the compulsory longer Period Study and the three optional Depth Studies: Longer Period...

Gabriele Esposito presents an overview of the history, organization and equipment of the military forces deployed by the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes during the period from the appearance of the Huns in Eastern Europe to the death of Genghis...

As a creative medium, ancient Greek tragedy has had an extraordinarily wide influence: many of the surviving plays are still part of the theatrical repertoire, and texts like Agamemnon, Antigone, and Medea have had a profound effect on Western culture...

Classicists have long wondered what everyday life was like in ancient Greece and Rome. How, for example, did the slaves, visitors, inhabitants or owners experience the same home differently? And how did owners manipulate the spaces of their homes to...

Longlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (now the Bailie Gifford) 'A thrilling and complex book, enlarges our view of Homer ... There's something that hits the mark on every page'...

Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published between 1776 and 1788, is the undisputed masterpiece of English historical writing which can only perish with the language itself. Its length alone is a measure of its monumental quality:...

The Roman Remains of Southern France is the only specialist guidebook to this region available. It is the result of the most up-to-date research. Comprehensive in coverage, it provides depth and context while evoking the distinctive atmosphere of the...

The tragic life of Julian, the last non-Christian emperor of Rome, by award-winning author Philip Freeman "When we think of ancient Rome, it's impossible not to think of Christianity, one of its most notable exports-but what if it hadn't been? This is...

Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have conspiracy theories? How did they prove their identity? And how much of the modern gold supply comes from the Romans?In a series of short and humorous essays, Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines...

The Cambridge Companion to Homer is a guide to the essential aspects of Homeric criticism and scholarship, including the reception of the poems in ancient and modern times. Written by an international team of scholars, it is intended to be the first port...

The bestselling phenomenon - a 6,000-year adventure through the history of books and readingA FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEARSHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE 2023'Outstanding, universal and unique' NEW YORK...

This is the second volume of the projected four-volume history of the Second Temple period. It is axiomatic that there are large gaps in the history of the Persian period, but the early Greek period is possibly even less known. This volume brings...

Dr Rob Collins and the curators of the remarkable collections from Hadrian's Wall present a striking new contribution to understanding the archaeology of a Roman frontier. This highly-illustrated volume showcases the artefacts recovered from...

The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world's earliest civilization on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BC. They have been credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing and the wheel, and...

Herodotus' Histories is the first major surviving prose work from antiquity. Its range of interests is immense, covering the whole of the known world and much beyond, and it culminates in a detailed account of the Persian Wars of the early fifth century...

Starting with the dawn of what we would recognise as modern human thought, this book journeys through 35,000 years of our human past. It shows how our earliest ancestors learnt to enter trance states and the revolutionary effect this had on the way they...

Ammianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. The Later Roman Empire chronicles a period of twenty-five years during Marcellinus' own lifetime, covering the reigns of Constantius,...

'the glory of wealth and physical beauty is fluid and fragile; but virtue is held brilliant and eternal' The Roman historian Sallust lived through troubled times. He deplored the moral and political decline of the Republic, and in his two monographs...

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Horace was one of the greatest poets during the reign of Augustus and is seen as a mark of cultural sophistication since this time. This Very Short Introduction examines how Horace's poetry has...

Written in AD 731, Bede's work opens with a background sketch of Roman Britain's geography and history. It goes on to tell of the kings and bishops, monks and nuns who helped to develop Anglo-Saxon government and religion during the crucial formative...