Robin Lane Fox

"The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome dominated the world some forty lifetimes before our own, and they continue to intrigue, inspire and enlighten us. The Classical World describes the vast sweep of history in which these two great civilizations prevailed - from the epic poems of Homer and the beginning of literacy through the foundation of Athenian democracy and the turbulent empire-building of Alexander the Great to the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire, the rise of Christianity, and the challenges this new faith faced in the Roman imperial age. Robin Lane Fox's telling of this great story focuses on the themes of freedom, justice and luxury which unified these civilizations, and approaches the classical worlds through the eyes of their classicizing enthusiast, the Roman Emperor Hadrian."--Jacket.

"The March of the Ten Thousand is one of the most famous military adventures in the ancient world. Its fearless army of Greek mercenaries marched through western Asia (modern Turkey and Iraq) in 401 BC to 399 BC, their hopes and hardships recounted by Xenophon the Athenian, an admiring pupil of Socrates. Xenophon's history of the Long March, or Anabasis, became a classic of Greek literature." "In this book, twelve leading scholars explore the Anabasis, a deceptively simple and profoundly rich source of social and cultural history and the mentality of the ancient Greek participants. The contributors explore a wide range of topics, from Xenophon's values, motives and manner as a writer, to the outlook of his companions as mercenary soldiers, from his descriptions of religion in soldiers' lives to their relations with women, boys and the many foreign peoples encountered during the march."--BOOK JACKET.

The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome dominated the world for centuries and continue to intrigue and enlighten us with their inventions, whether philosophy, politics, theatre, athletics, celebrity, science or the pleasures of horse racing. Robin Lane Fox's spellbinding history spans almost a thousand years of change, from the foundation of the world's first democracy in Athens to the Roman Republic and the Empire under Hadrian. Bringing great figures such as Homer, Socrates, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Augustus and the first Christian martyrs to life, exploring freedom, justice and luxury, this wonderfully exciting tour brings the turbulent histories of Greece and Rome together in a masterly study.

In graphic art format, presents the life of Alexander the Great, who became king of Macedonia in 336 B.C. and conquered the ancient world's largest empire.

This remarkable and daringly original book proposes a new way of thinking about the Greeks and their myths in the age of the great Homeric hymns. It combines a lifetime's familiarity with Greek literature and history with the latest archeological discoveries and the author's own journeys to the main sites in the story to describe how particular Greeks of the eighth century BC travelled east and west around the Mediterranean, and how their extraordinary journeys shaped their ideas of their gods and heroes. It gathers together stories and echoes from many different ancient cultures, not just the Greek - Assyria, Egypt, the Phoenician traders - and ranges from Mesopotamia to the Rio Tinto at Huelva in modern Portugal. Its central point is the Jebel Aqra, the great mountain on the north Syrian coast which Robin Lane Fox dubs 'the southern Olympus', and around which much of the action of the book turns.Robin Lane Fox rejects the fashionable view of Homer and his near-contemporary Hesiod as poets who owed a direct debt to texts and poems from the near East, and by following the trail of the Greek travellers shows that they were, rather, in debt to their own countrymen. With characteristic flair he reveals how these travellers, progenitors of tales which have inspired writers and historians for thousands of years, understood the world before the beginnings of philosophy and western thought.

An atheist presents his analysis of the Bible as truth and fiction.