I was a little disappointed with the plot of this book. I felt that Linda Chaikin could have done better. But I did love the very intriguing twist with the characters. Mrs.Chaikin has never interwoven her characters from others book series into others. I don't want to give away anything though so I'll keep quiet. All of you Linda Chaikin fans out there should read this book because I'm sure that you'll love it and find some parts to be very interesting(You'll understand once you've read it! I can't give away anything!).

This was a wonderful book. If you have read Linda's other novels and liked them, you will definately love this one. If you haven't I highly recommend it. Especially if you are into spies, intrigue, and mysteries!! :)...

This book is another great masterpiece by Linda Chaikin. Believe me you'll be surprised at some "interesting" things that Mrs. Chaikin puts in there. This is different than what she has done before but you'll be pleased at what she puts into the plots. Very well-written plot and unique characters. Paulette has far to go in the search for her missing husband. She forsakes all and places herself in God's hands to reunite with Garret. Her journey was remarkable and I was glad about how the story turns out. I hope Mrs. Chaikin would get an award for her A DAY TO REMEMBER series. This series deserves an award because you can tell that she researched this very carefully and they're not the same old plot with different characters all the time. I can't wait for "Friday's Child" to come out and I'll definitely read the whole series more than once!!! Great Job Mrs. Chaikin! God bless!

This was an excellent overall survey of the material, and a great reference work that can be return to again and again, to harden up on the facts, and to get titles of other books and journal articles on each of the specific subject areas. It can at times get a little confusing, with the avalanche of place names and the vagueness with which he describes many of the artefacts, but you still come out knowing a heck of alot more than you did before going in. Also, he has no particular axe to grind--no big theories that can be so annoying in this field. Overall, an excellent book.

I found this book very helpfull while studing Aegean Prehistory in University. Comprehensive and well documented with some very helpfull plates gives a summary of Aegean Bronze Age archaeological data. Enters not so mutch in details but covers many aspects of the vast Bronze Age data of Aegean. I would strongly suggest this book for archaeology students interested in the Aegean region

This is a good reference guide to one who wants to know more about Alexander the Great's army. The book is efficient in illustrations and text about the daily life of being in his army. Though i wouldn't recommend this as the definitive book of Alexander's army, it is a good stepping stone to read and search for a more complete book that could fill in the blanks left buy reading this.

There is a newer version of this book. Warry, "Alexander the Great," also published by Osprey, Jan. 2001.

This particular book is full of references from ancient greek literature quoted to illustrate various aspects of Alexander the Great's life. It has the most complete bibliography on Alexander and students will find it is a must buy for that feature alone. The author concentrates on the deterioration of Alexander from alcohol and his parallel life with the god of wine Dionysus. Very unusual indeed...

I find this book fascinating, full of interesting facts and references. A great reading for someone who is curious to find out more about the phenomenon we call Alexander the Great.

This book is actually three essays. Each essay is split into several subject matters and thus becomes a neat secondary source for any student of the subject at hand.
The first, by Jean Bottero, is superbly crafted for the general reader who wishes to learn more about, as he says: "History begins at Sumer". The language does not, unlike Clarisse Herrenschmidt's second essay, presuppose a detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. Bottero outlines his premise that Mesopotamian culture is a direct descendant of Semite (Akkadian mainly) acculturation of Sumerian culture. He argues that writing evolved as a mnemotechnical device beginning with ideograms and pictograms. He gives a pellucid explanation of the definition of religion, stating it presupposes a belief in the 'sacred' or 'supernatural'. I.e. a higher order that manifests itself in two ways: Either through religiosity - a reverence or love for the order, or centrifrugally - a fear of the order. What is particularly good about Bottero's writing is he makes statements and then spends some time explaining clearly what the terms of his statement mean. For example, many scholars would state the Mesopotamian religion was not historical and leave it at that. Bottero gives a concise and very understandable definition of the term.
The second, by Clarisse Herrenschmidt, far more than Bottero, presupposes knowledge of the subject at hand. Therefore, it is slightly less accessible to the general reader. Given her essay is the longest of the three this is a shame. Nevertheless, Herrenschmidt opens, spending considerable time explaining why proto-Elamic is untranslatable and then tends to run away like any excellent scholar into the intricacies of language and its development from the consonant alphabet to the Greek vowel-using alphabet of eighth century Athens, to the detriment of the general reader who will invariably get lost along the way in the tricky twists and turns of intellectual theorizing. Aside from that, the essay has a long discussion the development of consonants and states that an alphabet is ruled by the rule - one sign = one sound. Not entirely sure I agree with that, as the english alphabet has many variances of sound on its letters. Anyhow, there is an excellent brief history of the technical evolution of writing and its links to social recognition. Herrenschmidt basically states that, in a barbaric society, (which she never really defines) speech = power. From here Herrenschmidt goes on to major discussion on the Mazdean Avesta and from there to Greek. She ends by saying Greek was the language of culture, Aramaic the vernacular, and Hebrew that of the sacred corpus. The concluding section places far too much emphasis on the Greek dropping of the aspirated 'h' in eta c.403 B.C; for example, in the statement: "They thus prohibited the privatization of breath through writing, because speech was for everyone and that included the gods." What exactly does that mean? So, Herrenschmidt's essay is for the advanced student of ancient writing, not the general reader, particularly given its immense 'mathematical' and 'analytical' approach to the subject.
The third, by Jean Pierre Vermont, is much akin to Bottero's in style and, therefore, far more accessible than Herrenschmidt. The main thrust is to discover the origins of the Greek world given the 4 centuries of literary darkness after the collapse of Mycenae around the 12th century B.C to the appearance of the Greek hegemony in the 9th century B.C. He indicates that Greece moved from a society of the oral to the written and that its religion was governed by two facts: a polis with its own tutelary god and the general pantheon 'managed' from centers such as Delphi. Vermont places (rightly so) much emphasis on the introduction of prose in the 6th century B.C. and its subsequent consequences in that it meant philosophical discourses moved from the realm of the intellectual - much in the same way Herrenschmidt states that Persian cuniform was retained because its complexity gave individuals power over the whole with sacred texts - to the common people. Hesiod's Theogony is heavily drawn on by Vermont to demonstrate his thesis that the evolution in Greek writing was tied to a shift in social power. What becomes more interesting is the realization that the form of writing was influenced by a maturing need for catography. Vermont moves on to a discussion on the polis and the invention of the political and democracy. There is a good two page opener on the definition of the very word 'democracy' and the section ends up being somewhat semantical as it proceeds from there. Inevitably, as any serious scholar must do, Vermont dives briefly in to the Laws of Solon and thence into Homer.
To conclude, any student of ancient writing, reasoning and religion must read these essays. They are precise, clear and extremely good at their given niches. The general reader will find it very informative and Bottero and Vermont can be read by anyone with a rudimentary grasp of the ancient history. Herrenschmidt might become too involved with detailed knowledge of her subject matter.

This book consists of three long essays by different authors, one of whom is Bottero. The book is more technical than Bottero's Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, and if you're thinking of reading this book, I would recommend you probably read the latter work first before tackling this volume. It might also be a good idea to read a brief history of the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians to get at least a basic grounding in the history and something of a historical context, since, as I said, this book is significantly more technical, and perhaps, a little dry as a result, but it's still an impressive piece of scholarship and well worth reading.

Bottero's Everyday Life is also written by a team of authors, with Bottero writing several of the chapters. It's quite readable, as well as extremely interesting, and has chapters on Love and Sex in Ancient Mesopotamia, Religion, the Law, Food and Cuisine, Women's Rights, etc.

Overall, this work is a valuable contribution to scholarship in the area with much good information and some important theoretical discussions on the nature of thought and culture in ancient Mesopotamia.

The best part of this book is the photographs. They are plentiful, taking up as much room as the print, and useful, too. They help you to see which of the styles of architecture is which, the layout of a Greek home, and many other things that would be hard to visualize if told only in words. This is a convenient book to have at home -as are the other eyewitness books; a quick reference, and also a plain fun read. Though it is supposed to be for children aged 9 to 12, I think many teens would enjoy this book.

When I saw all the amazing photographs in the DK Travel Guide to Greece I figured their book on "Ancient Greece" would be equally impressive and I was correct. This book consists of a series of 2-page spreads dealing with various topics from Minoan civilization to Alexander and the Hellenistic age. Each spread has a basic paragraph of text from author Anne Pearson and then the rest is devoted to color photographs of various archeological treasures (or contemporary recreations) and informative captions. You will see dozens of examples of statutes and friezes, pottery and art of mythological figures taken from pots, many of which I have never seen before although I am have been actively looking for quite some time now because of a mythology course I am teaching. There are also contemporary photographs of historic ruins scattered throughout the book and recreations of Greek clothes, hair dressings, meals, and other aspects of daily life.

Readers young and old alike will find this book a great supplemental work whether they are reading a World History textbook or Homer's "Iliad." Certainly what you see within these pages will help you create more realistic images in your minds eyes when you read about the golden age in Athens, the ancient Olympic games, or the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. "The Los Angeles Times Book Review" described these Eyewitness Books as being "Like a mini-museum between the covers of a book," and that is certainly the case. Even better, the items pictured come from museums around the world, from the British Museum and the National Gallery to the Vatican and the Delphi Museum. I am planning a trip to Greece early next year and this book has certain raised my expectations for what I can hope to see in the various museums I intend to visit in Athens, Delphi, Mycenea, et al. I have particularly enjoyed seeing the ancient myths I have been teaching represented on urns and pots, several choice examples of which are pictured herein.

Billows has written an excellent book. Not only does he succeed in clearly illuminating a period of history too little studied - the wars of the Diadochoi, the Macedonian dynasts who had served Alexander and then fought over the remains of his empire after his death - but he also rehabilitates the character of a great man and gives us an incisive portrait of a statesman at work, laying the foundations of an empire. Antigonos Monopthalamos himself was ultimatly defeated by a coalition of all the other Sucessors, but he built up an administrative and political instrument that would serve as the template from which the Seleucids, themselves the descendents of another Diadoch, Seleucus, would rule for centuries until the coming of Rome. Highly recommended to students of history and politics.

This is a remarkably interesting scholarly biography of the man I've always found to be the most interesting of the Successors of Alexander. Antigonus the One-Eyed originally seemed one of the least likely of Alexander's Generals to come into the dead King's inheritance, but thanks to his shrewdness, military skill, and the mistakes of others, within ten years of Alexander's death he had taken control of two-thirds of the dead King's former realm. Twelve years later, all of the other Successors united against him in a great coalition, and Antigonus went down fighting (at the age of 80) at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 B.C. The ancients saw Antigonus's life as a cautionary tale about the dangers of hubris and vaulting ambition; Billows takes a more positive view.

If your interest in this book comes from the standpoint of an ancient history buff rather than an academic, you should understand that Billows's book started out life as a dissertation, and it's really two books in one. The first book -- which consists of the first 190 pages -- is essentially a well-researched biography that treats Antigonus's life and career in chronological order. The second book -- consisting of the last 120 pages -- treats Antogonus's foreign relations, economic and social policies, etc., and will be of more interest and utility to scholars. Billows argues that Antigonus should be better known not merely because of his dramatic life story and his status as the founder of the Antigonid line that eventually ruled Macedon from 277-167 B.C., but also because he laid the foundations upon which Seleucus I built the Seleucid Empire. It seems to me there is some truth to this, but Billows may push the argument farther than it can really be sustained, given that Antigonus controlled large swatches of the area that became the Seleucid Empire for as little as five or six years.

The University of California Press is to be commended for including excellent maps of the vast area of the Middle East across which Antigonus played out his life story, as well as including detailed plans of such Diadochoi battles as Paraitakene, Gabiene, and Gaza that show the composition of the rival armies in detail. The account of Antigonus's dramatic struggle with the wily Eumenes of Cardia -- a running series of battles and campaigns fought over a huge stretch of the Middle East -- is a high point of the book. Finally, the detailed bibliography in Billows's book will point the scholar or ancient history buff to numerous other references and scholarly discussions of individual battles and commanders.

In this series of essays, the author explores the nature of the Athenian democracy in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., which he persuasively argues was the "real thing," as opposed to the passive form that "We the People" now enjoy. The author goes to considerable effort to discredit the notion that there are "objective" views of history, preferring to emphasize the ideological filtering that inevitably occurs. In keeping with that line of thought, many of the essays take issue with any number of positions that misunderstand the nature of the Athenian democratic experiment.

The point of many critics is that regardless of the formal structure of a state, a narrow elite invariably governs or controls affairs, which is commonly know as the "Iron Law of Oligarchy." However, the author goes to great pains to demonstrate that economic inequality in the private realm was not allowed to overpower the Assembly of citizens, the native-born males of the Athens city-state. In addition, the protection of the dignity of all citizens was of utmost importance to all with the crime of hubris directed towards citizens by elites viewed as especially egregious. Most of the executive and judicial bodies were determined by rotation and by lottery, diminishing the possibility of an entrenched bureaucracy. Of course, educated elites with good speaking ability could be highly influential within assemblies, but they had to operate within the discursive context of the demos, the body of citizens.

A further misunderstanding is that the Athenian democracy was constitutional, that it was based on the rule of law and the separation of powers, in essence, a division of sovereignty with the legal system as the trump card. But the Athenian democracy was not based on a founding document or on an overriding concept such as "natural rights." Athenian citizens did not gain their political standing primarily through political institutions. The Athenian democracy had a socio-political context. Decisions made by the Assembly and judicial bodies were based on broad social standards as understood by the general citizenry and not on "established doctrines." The legalese that pervades today's legal system and acts as a barrier to average citizens' participation was not a part of Athenian judicial or legislative proceedings. Athenians relied upon their collective wisdom and individual common sense to make sound judgments. The author regards this as a "pragmatic" approach to governance.

The notion of democracy has taken on all manner of meaning in today's world. For some, it is voting every few years with no political input otherwise. It is even suggested that the right to shop freely is democracy at work. Businesses have taken to suggesting that they operate on democratic principles. None of these highly limited notions of democracy come close to realizing the level of citizenship and empowerment of Athenian citizens of 2500 years ago. That is not the theme of this book, but the stark contrast can hardly go unnoticed.

This is a fairly scholarly work. The author is not reluctant to sprinkle about Greek terminology, though usually with some definition at first usage. There is a sense of an ongoing dialogue with other academics with alternative views, which has resulted in some keen insights into some aspects of the Athens city-state. But because of the essay format, this is not a work that systematically describes all of the political facets of the Athenian city-state. As a reader interested in democracy, I found the book to be very interesting.

This book is not a new description of the constitutional framework of Athenian democracy: it's about how, after what the author thinka was a popular uprising (led by a scion of the old aristocracy) against Spartan satellization and a Sparatan-friendly aristocracy, the Athenians created institutional mechanisms that favoured diffuse direct participation in political affairs -such as political pay for jury work and attendance at the People's Assembly, as well as generalized use of choosing by lot to fill various public offices - and a matching ideology. To put it short, it's a book about the making of the epistemic (in the sense given by Foucault) of Athenian democracy.It's not about the class(slave-owning) foundations of Greek democracy, but how it was made to work by Athenian free citzens. A very speculative, immaginative analysis that ponders, above all, on the viability of a radical democracy. Highly recommended.

YES: this book is about the real Atlantis. It really did exist, but not in the literal way that Plato described it, and certainly not in the way that New Age speculation "theorists" want it to.

I really wanted to give this book a perfect five-star rating, as the subject matter is immensely important, and the author's enthusiasm makes this book a truly exciting experience. The long story made short is that "Atlantis" was in reality a small island in the east Mediterranean way back around 1600 BC. Thera was a part of the Minoan Empire, and, being a group of islands between Egypt and Greece, had not only the world's first navy, but aquaducts (long before the famous Roman water systems) and a surprisingly highly-evolved culture. Then one day, the volcano at the center of Thera exploded with as least six times the power of Krakatoa (the 1883 eruption that was heard over 2000 miles away), and within seconds 2/3 of the island was in the stratosphere.

This was all before even the Greeks became the dominant force in the region, and so the sudden disappearance of the Minoans (who dominated trade between Europe and Africa) not surprisingly became various stories passed down through the generations, which is where Plato heard it. Plato's description of an entire continent all the way out in the Atlantic that sunk into the sea turned out to be an embellishment on what was, by then, just a myth. He was essentially trying to make a point about how quickly even the most powerful civilization can crumble, and what he said was passed down through the ages, in one form or another, to us. This is how and why these Art Bell "experts" have hijacked this subject and nailed it onto their "theories" of other subjects that have been blown completely out of proportion, such as the Bermuda Triangle, life on Mars, Bigfoot, etc. Case in point: just because Atlantis was advanced by ancient standards, NO: THEY DID NOT HAVE AIRPLANES OR LASERS. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but REAL history isn't "Spear of Destiny" garbage: it's how real people really lived, not whatever garbage you want it to be.

Of course, this book was an emotional one to read: an ancient culture creating such high technology (a millenium ahead of its time), only to be totally annihilated in just seconds. If the downfall of Rome and the unsuing loss of knowledge and the onset of the Dark Ages is considered to be historically tragic, this story is then the most epic catastrophe EVER. The author points out that if they were doing what took another 1000 years for the Romans to figure out (such as running water through pipes), who knows what these people might have managed to do? Maybe we would have been on the moon 2000 years ago. We'll never know.

The downfall of this book that I hinted at earlier is that 90% of everything important is said immediately: none of what I've said here is a "big mystery" that gets unravelled through the course of the book. It's like getting hit from all sides with amazing (and very enthusiastic) information about who the Therans might have been, how the world was at the time, and the excitement that Atlantis did exist after all. As great as all of that is, the book suddenly takes a left turn into endless archaeological stories and theories that simply don't have much of anything to do with the subject. At first, it's the author trying to put Theran history into perspective (he says that people have a hard time comprehending what happened over 2000 years ago, and he's right), but he just starts beating this idea to death. He'll occasionally get back to Thera and the ongoing excavations, and then he'll launch back into a whole list of other things that become more and more distracting. By the last 100 pages of the book, it becomes a chore to get through to the end, in the increasingly dismal hope that he'll say more than just one or two things about Thera itself.

This book isn't written as much badly as just way off target. The author's enthusiasm will make you picture him as a kid playing in a sandbox for the very first time (which is probably how he'd actually describe himself), but unfortunately, he runs out of steam when he runs out of things to really say. On the other hand, this subject is fascinating and important, and I would, of course, still highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to find a huge missing piece of history, or to anyone trying to scrape that layer of filth known as "New Age speculation" off of some really solid history: the real thing is far more interesting than the National Enquirer version.

This is a beatifully written book. The author has a keen sense of the majesty of time and he very effectively imparts this greater view to the reader. He deals with the background to a very significant find in ancient civilization. However, to validate placing Thera (Santorini) in the context of Atlantis, Pelligrino cites Plato but suggests the learned man didn't understand math and referred to a culture destroyed not 9,000 years before but 900. Pelligrino, in insisting on a small Mediterranean island as Atlantis also challenges Plato's knowledge of geography. In the Critias Plato describes three distinct seas -- The Mediterranean, which Plato described as "merely a harbor, having a narrow entrance", the named sea (The Atlantic), and that other that "is the real sea (the Pacific), and the surrounding land that may truly be called continent (Asia)." In fact the Mediterranean could not have supported a climate such as that found in Plato's lush Atlantis 9,000 years before his time -- ice-sheets dominated all of Europe. As to inconsistencies with the legend, Pelligrino complains, "All we have is Plato's word." Untrue. There are other sources both in ancient times and currently. The most significant are Andrew Collin's GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS, Colin Wilson's ATLANTIS BLUEPRINT, and Ivar Zapp's research into the remarkable spheres of Costa Rica, ATLANTIS IN AMERICA, Navigators of the Ancient World. All point to an actual Atlantis just where Plato said it existed. On this point Plato's words seem likely to outive Pelligrino's.

This guy just never stops riding the shockwave - and with such elegant prose, too. He never tells you what is, as fact, but instead lays out all the evidence along with arguements for and against his own interpretations, then encourages you to think for yourself. The story here is an investigation of Frost and Marinatos' theory that the tale that came down to plato was the decline of Minoan civilization in the aftermath of the nuclear-winter-esque, 25,000 megaton explosion of the volcanic island of Thera (santorini) in 1628 B.C. The eruption and its devastating false winter-in-summer effects were documented and detailed as far away as China, and were credited with bringing down an entire dynasty. Plato did not write about the Chinese devastations. The Minoans were a lot closer; in fact, right at ground zero. Pellegrino's evidence suggests that Plato and the Egyptians were either writing about the Minoans (a modern name given to a civilization whose towns, with the impliments of daily life and even their food, were coccooned intact under mountains of volcanic dust), or Atlantis did not exist at all. Pellegrino's voyages into the Earth and back through time are so eye-opening, even mind bending, that you will never look at your world, or even your own back yard, the same way again. I know I won't. Like his other archaeology books, you simply cannot put this one down. They read better than any novel - and especially better than Pellegrino's own science fiction novels. The realities he finds down here on Earth are so amazing that I don't understand why he has to fly around making things up in, of all places, the star Trek universe. I guess everyone's entitled to do something a little kooky now and then, as long as they don't hurt anyone (Avoid "Dyson Sphere" and "Dust" like the plague). Someone with his talent for observation and communication shouldn't be wasting it in the literary ghetto of science fiction - or on chaos theory. With Pellegrino, everything eventually gets down to chaos, like that Malcolm character in "Jurassic Park"," who just happens to be based on him (even down to the point of sometimes getting a little too high on himself). The sister book, "Return to Sodom and Gomorrah" is just as great, if you skip the chaos theory chapter. His books on the archaeology of the Titanic are great too, but this one is his masterpiece.

This book has exactly the same text as the Illustrated Encyclopedia of ancient warfare by the same author, but there are no illustrations. If you can spare a few more bucks, by the illustrated version: it has a wealth of battle maps, color plates and other illustrated material which makes this text-only version pale in comparison, although it is still quite informative. I give it 4 stars while I would give the illustrated version 5.

The number of misconceptions about ancient warfare is legion. There is a tendency to see ancient battles as little more than bloody scrums, with none of the tactical art, deception, or finesse of modern battle. Indeed, the tactics and weaponry are often perceived as being static, nowhere near as fluid as those of today.

John Warry punctures all of these myths with his seminal work "Warfare in the Classical World", which covers the Greek and Roman art of war in a single slim, accessible volume.

Warry does not fall into the trap which often befalls military historians in that he strives to place each conflict in its proper political context. Surprisingly, there is not a single battle map in the book, as he is for the most part concerned with how armies fight and not the results of single battles.

In each section, Warry begins with an incisive commentary on the sources from which we have inherited our historical knowledge, probing the biases of each. He then describes the political scene of the day before analyzing the art of war as practiced at the time, finally wrapping up with a brief summary.

This makes for highly entertaining and thought-provoking reading, and allows the reader to grasp the evolution of land and naval warfare from the Homeric Age to the fall of Rome.

And what an evolution this was, from the individual, hand-to-hand combat of the Heroic Greeks to the extremely disciplined and varied tactics of the Roman Legion. Ancient warfare was anything but a static affair as brilliant warriors constantly sought the battlefield edge through new tactics and weaponry.

Take, for example, the evolution of the spear, from the short, thrusting weapon used by early Greek phalangists to the throwing spear represented by the Roman pilum, craftily designed so as to make the shields of the barbarian hordes they faced useless. Or the rise and fall of elephants in battle, first used by Persians battling the Greeks, then employed by the Carthaginians against Rome before falling out of favor with Hannibal's defeat at Zama. Talk about heavy cavalry!

This book will delight even the most casual interest in military history or the ancient world. For the professional soldier, this work is an essential reference which belongs on your bookshelf, if only to convince the boss that you do study your profession. Rush out and pick up a copy today.

A look at our past is a look at out past wars. All over the history, civilizations, kingdoms and states have emerged, survived or obliterated based in their skill to win battle after battle (not only at the battlefields but also at the political arena). I am afraid it's not different nowdays.

It's interesting to have a look at gifted generals whose best skill was to know the timely place and time for fighting and their pursuit of decesive wins. Overall, victory depends usually in just one man with his skills and shortcomings.

I love this book on account of its global outlook of wars as one of the weapons in the array of ancient leaders. Demografy, economy or beliefs are key factor that great generals were able to tip in their favor.

In this book, the author is bent on placing each leader or general into political, economical and social context. It is not only a catalogue of wars, outflaking movements and so on. There are plently of examples of great generals almost ever-winner that could not overcome other factors and eventually were defeated (as Anibal or Espartacus) by enemies, comrades or chiefs. On the contrary how geniuos as Julio Cesar or Escipion africanus could innovate and emerged victorious against all hurdles by fair means or fouls.

In the list of gifted people, there were really little known people who made great exploits (as Lucullus, the brother of Anibal and so on). Many factors drive life and glory and not always the best or better is the winner.

This book must be thought of as a global modern view that places each name and battle in a place in History and that directs you into reading ancient sorces of much narrow scope and less reliable but closer to real facts: Xenophon, Arrio, Julio Cesar, tuciddides and so many which are shed with a different light under a more encopassing view.

All in all, a pleasure to enjoy. By the way, how different in the real story of Spartacus from the famous film. Men, with our mistakes are the best sources or our grievances.