I'd read this book some years ago, but found it difficult going at the time. I decided to re-read it recently, as it was on the wish list of a friend which reminded me I still had the volume. This time around I found it much more interesting and more understandable. There definitely seems to be a time for everything, and apparently this was the time for Greek Science for me. What I found of particular interest was a new perspective that I acheived in a novel way. I recently attended a Minneapolis Childrens' Theater production featuring events from the life of Galileo. It was pointed out in the playbill that what seems to us in retrospect a patent persecution of a new concept by jealous intellectuals and religious authorities was not quite so clear cut at the time. In fact the scientific thinkers of Galileo's time, as those of the Hellanistic Greek and Roman times, labored with the technological inability to test the validity of scientific observations. Much that passed for science during those times might be considered philosophy or metaphysics in our own. Without the means of externally testing opposing explanations of natural phenomenon little of definitive worth could be said about any given observation. It then became a matter of philosophical orientation, of reputation and of religious sanction. It was in fact anybody's guess. We who are used to measuring equipment as simple as a thermometer and as complex as an earth orbiting satelite often forget that these devices were not yet available to the researchers of ancient or even medieaval times. Some of the simpler devices were only just being introduced in Galileo's time and were considered untested and highly suspect themselves. Given that a number of ingeneous inventions of early times were engineered with the specific intent to mislead or impress the public, the scepticism with which something like the telescope or the microscope were greeted is not surprising. To the early critic, one could not necessarily believe ones eyes; it was better to believe what the Holy Book or a learned philosopher had to say with respect to nature than what a "conjurer" might say. Greek Science After Aristotle makes this point apparent, explaning that only in the area of mathematics and in applied physics (engineering, especially military engineering) could anything like trustworthy precision be achieved. It also points out that though modern science values observation and experiment, the neglect of these was not necessarily due to a laziness or disregard for precision, but due to a lack of technological means. In fact, much was done and some very ingeneous devices to accomplish it were invented to perform it. The researchers of the times had to be very innovative and original in their approach to problem solving; something which we with our computerized devices are rarely called upon to do a such basic levels. Rereading the book from this perspective definitely gave me a greater appreciation for the achievments of our intellectual predecessors.

This short history of Greek science is recommended for readers without specialized scientific backgrounds who want a general survey of the origins and development of Greek science. Greek Science In Antiquity reprints a 1955 classic study which covers all branches of ancient Greek science, from philosophy and medicine to biology and astronomy.

The Greek word, polis, "city" has become an integral part of our culture and appears in words such as polity and political. Scholars never tire of tracing the development of the first polities among the Greeks. From there one usually goes on to talk about the ideal, heavenly, or imaginary state. Ehrenberg's work, however, is another masterpiece of scholarship, detailing exactly how the individual states arose, began to confederate and then to unite, and what, because of it, our cultural expectations came to be regarding some such institution called "a polity." It would be helpful in reading this book if you knew the Greek alphabet.

Absolutely the best book on Greek theatre I've ever read, even better than Peter Arnott's works. This is the book that made me learn Ancient Greek! Aylen really brings that society and theatre to life, discussing the culture of the times and finding modern parallels for certain production styles (i.e., Monty Python insanity as a parallel of Aristophanes) and shows that the plays are not boring, slow, hidebound snorefests, but vibrant, colorful shows filled with dancing, singing, and wild theatricality. A must for anyone interested in theatre.

It is impossible to study Greek tragedy without encountering this book in everyone's footnotes. Taplin's landmark study not only opened up new (very modern) ways of looking at his subject; it also is very readable!

This is a wonderful book, very nicely illustrated with large, full colour photographs (and lots of them). The prose is highly readable and fluid, too. The price tag is a bit hefty, but worth it if you have more than a passing interest in the subject.

Textbooks on the history of philosophy tend to be remotely dry. They just summarize the text in arid words, and then skip to the next philosopher in the chronicle order. Writers of those textbook seem to think that we should rever the philopophers, do not understand them. Reading through them only gives us the superficial impression and worse, the knowledge we¡¯ve got is likely to be evaporated to the oblivion. We can¡¯t imagine that those philosophers lived their own life and breathed the air just like us. But the texts they left to us have what to say. And it¡¯s closely related to its own time. To understand those texts, we need to know their worlds, for the text says about the world it¡¯s written. Greek philosophy and literature also should be apprehended with such background knowledge. For example, there were no professional philosophers isolated from the rest of the society in Archaic Greek world, like professors of philosophy we could see in our Universities. Greek philosophers told about their worldly affairs. So Aristotle was mastered that much various fields from political sciences, ethics, aesthetics, cosmology to botany. In other word, we should know their life to figure out what they say at all. Greek philosophy was not isolated from the society unlike contemporary philosophy. This book should be definitely helpful to know their time. As the title of the book implies, this deals with how the Greek saw their world. Each chapter describes the way they see elements of their world from the religion, the state, the individual, to the art. With closing the last page of the book, I bet you could illustrate what was the life of the Greek in your mind.

If you like Mary Stewart you will like this book. You get some true history with your romance not a bad combination. The background for this book is The War of Greek Independence that began in 1821 and ranges from Constantinople through the Greek Islands and mainland Greece. With all the European powers playing their hand at which side should win.

We journey with Phyllida Vannick as she escapes a harem, tries to locate her missing brother and save a sucidal, jilted English bridegroom. Hey it wouldn't be a romance without it.

I don't know how many times I've read this book and I still enjoy it everytime.

Graham Shipley has written an excellent book for students and others encountering the Hellenistic age (the three tumultous centures between Alexander's death and Octavian's victory at Actium) for the first time. Broadly there are two ways of looking at the history of Eastern mediterranean in this period. One is the `degeneration' framework which sees this period in general terms as a sad falling-off from the classical apogee of Greek achievement. The other is that which sees this as a period of rapid change when the civilization of near east and western mediterranean were drawn together through the rubric provided by the Hellenistic culture.This book falls firmly in the second group. An important aspect is that this book eschews the functionalist approach. Indeed the author warns through out against anachronisms and retrojecting analysis derived from the experience of modern capitalism, Imperialisam or christian descourse to understand the period. The book opens with a chapter revewing the approaches and sources and next traces Alexander and his successors to 276 BCE. The next chapter is a important one on kings and cities and examines the consequeness of the political changes of the period 338 - 276 for the old city states and details the ways which Cities and Kings found of co existing. It questions the received wisdom that the polis met its end at Chaironeia in 338 and shows how the Ptolemaic and Antigouid power relied on keeping cities contented. There are chapters on Macedonia and Greece, the Seleukid Kindom and Pergamon and Ptolemaic Egypt. These are comprehensive and the chapter on Ptolemaic Egypt draws a lot on papyrological evidence and re examines the conclusions reached by conventional wisdom on Ptolemaic Egypt viz that it had a highly interventionist administration or had a very bereaucratic and rational state economy . It also guards against temptations to interpret difficulties in late Ptolemaic Egypt in context of reinterpretation of 20th Century empire by Said and others as a result of `native resistance'. Other chapters are on religion and philosophy, literature and social identity and on Greek 'Science' after Aristotle. The book concludes with the coming of the colossus of north - Rome. The book has large number of maps and line diagrams and the text is supported by copious amount of notes and bibliography (150 pages to 400 of text) Overall the approach is refreshingly non-judgemental and allows the diversity of cultures, social forms, and landscapes to emerge. The important topic of Religion and Philosophy though is very summarily treated but that is a minor quibble. It's other competitiors in this field viz Peter Greens `Alexander to Actium - The historical evolution of the Hellenustic Age' falls firmly in the `degenerate' camp and doesn't take into account the recent scholarship. The `Hellenstic World' by F.W. Walbank is dated. All in all this book will be a standard introduction to the Hellenistic Age for quite some time to come.