Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities [Hardcover]

Paul Cartledge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0199233381 | ISBN-13: 978-0199233380

The contribution of the ancient Greeks to modern western culture is incalculable. In the worlds of art, architecture, myth, literature, and philosophy, the world we live in would be unrecognizable without the formative influence of ancient Greek models.
This highly original and stimulating introduction to ancient Greece takes the city as its starting point, revealing just how central the polis ("city-state" or "citizen-state") was to Hellenistic cultural achievements. In particular, Paul Cartledge uses the history of eleven major Greek cities--out of more than a thousand--to illuminate the most important and informative aspects of Greek history. The book spans a surprisingly long time period, ranging from the first examples of ancient Greek language from Cnossus in Crete around 1400 BC to the establishment of Constantinople (today's Istanbul) in 324 AD on the site of the Greek city of Byzantion. Cartledge highlights the role of such renowned cities as Athens (birthplace of democracy) and Sparta, but he also examines Argos, Thebes, Syracuse in Sicily, and Alexandria in Egypt, as well as lesser known locales such as Miletus (home of the West's first intellectual, Thales) and Massalia (Marseilles today), where the Greeks introduced the wine grape to the French. The author uses these cities to illuminate major themes, from economics, religion, and social relations, to gender and sexuality, slavery and freedom, and politics. And throughout, the book explores how these eleven cities differed both from each other and from modern society.
An innovative approach to ancient Greece and its legacy, both in terms of the time span covered and in its unique city-by-city organization, this superb volume provides the ideal concise introduction to the history and culture of this remarkable civilization.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cartledge, professor of Greek culture at the University of Cambridge, has created an intriguing overview of Greek history by providing synopses of 11 key city-states, each representing a different facet of Greek life and culture, such as politics, gender, and philosophy. Beginning with the earliest example of the successful polis, proto-Greek Cnossos on the island of Crete, and continuing through the near-mythical city of Mycenae; Argos; doomed Miletus; Massalia (present-day Marseilles), the first of the great Greek colonies; and through to the rise of laconic Sparta, it is easy to trace the development of Greek civilization. Classical Greece is examined in the descriptions of Athens, Syracuse, and Thebes. The description of Hellenic Alexandria is symbolic of the transition of the classical period into the Hellenistic age. A final discussion of the polis of Byzantion notes the decline of city-state independence. A list of significant individuals, a glossary, and a time line are beneficial. Other than labeling Athens, Ga., as that state's capital in comments on the proliferation of Greek city names throughout the world, errors are few. 20 b&w illus., 4 maps. (Jan.)
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Review

"Cartledge, professor of Greek culture at the University of Cambridge, has created an intriguing overview of Greek history by providing synopses of 11 key city-states, each representing a different facet of Greek life and culture."--Publishers Weekly

"Aiming for a general audience, Cartledge achieves a fast-paced, highly engaging romp through ancient Greece. An excellent choice for anyone seeking an introduction to the topic; for all its readability, this book doesn't skimp on the research."--Library Journal

"Amid the wreckage of the Greek economy and the deadly riots on its streets, it may be more relaxing to read of earlier struggles in that country, revolutions whose course is more or less settled and no longer careering at horrific speed. Cartledge's Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities is a rare work, a compelling historical narrative that is also a useful guidebook. The premise, as his subtitle indicates, is to help the historically conscious tourist by introducing places of trouble and strife, many of them ignored by travelers, that reveal how Greece, as we know it, began."--Peter Stothard, Wall Street Journal

"A concise, surprisingly nuanced survey...told with good effect through the history of eleven cities...While providing what is perhaps the best short introduction to the ancient Greek world, this book can also be read with profit even by seasoned students of the subject." -- New York Military Affairs Symposium Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199233381
• ISBN-13: 978-0199233380
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #539,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Cartledge is the inaugural A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Clare College. He is also Hellenic Parliament Global Distinguished Professor in the History and Theory of Democracy at New York University. He written and edited over 20 books, many of which have been translated into foreign languages. He is an honorary citizen of modern Sparta and holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor awarded by the President of Greece.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Quick City Tour January 1, 2010

By Charlus

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Paul Cartledge's engaging history of Ancient Greece fills the niche of a quick guide to the places, names and events that a reader may want learn about in order to get oriented to a vast and much covered topic. He does this in a readable fashion with maps and a handful of well-chosen plates. He admirably uses the latest in archeological scholarship to fill out his work, which nonetheless remains intentionally cursory.

As noted in the Product Description, his framework is 11 cities that he describes in the chronological order that they were important to the evolving history of the Ancient Greek world, enabling him to cover such topics as Ancient Mycenaean Greece, the colonization movements both east and west of mainland Greece, the conquests of Alexander and the Hellenistic world, and the rise and fall of the Byzantine civilization.

The chief criticism is inherent in the project itself. Names, places speed by so quickly that one is left knowing that one has passed through the countryside but is unable to say much about it. Having read other histories, I was aware of the vast amounts of material that needed to be edited out. And in fairness Cartledge devotes many pages at the end for an annotated section of suggestions for further reading.

But if you are in the market for a Cook's Tour of the Ancient World, this Baedeker will probably fit the bill until you have the leisure to come visit at greater length.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Scholarly Overview of Ancient Greece January 24, 2010

By G. Poirier

Format:Hardcover

It's been pointed out that this book is but a very short introduction to ancient Greece. Judging from its size and title, one can certainly agree. However, the level at which the prose is pitched is much more formal than the usual plain language that is more readily accessible to a broad readership. Also, because of the specifics of the topics discussed and the professional opinions expressed, scholars of ancient history may enjoy this book more than would a general reader who simply wishes to learn a bit of ancient Greek history. Aside from this, the writing style is relatively friendly, quite authoritative, often lively and even occasionally tongue-in-cheek. The book also has a rich and elegant vocabulary - so rich in fact that I occasionally had to re-read various passages with dictionary in hand. In addition, I found several passages to be rather convoluted, usually because of very long-winded sentences. The concept of focussing each chapter on a different ancient Greek city is a good one. However, each such chapter tends to concentrate mainly on a few highlights, issues and key individuals rather than an attempt at an abbreviated and evened-out chronological history aimed at the interested general reader.

In short, this book is not what I was expecting and, as a result, I was disappointed. I still gave it four stars because locked between its covers lies quite a bit of fascinating and detailed information. I intend to read it again in the future, but much more slowly.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Little Book May 3, 2010

By Peter Ramming

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

For a book of such brevity, this is a remarkably full accounting of the Ancient Greeks. As Cartledge observes, ancient mainland and Aegean Greece included over 700 individual city-states (poleis), as well as hundreds more Greek colonies and trading-posts along the rims of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Thus it is salutary that Cartledge chooses to approach ancient Greek history through the technique of considering 11 representative Greek city-states in 11 successive chapters, and an Epilogue. This is appropriate, as the polis remained the fundamental unit in over two millennia of Greek History, even when under the later hegemony of such Great Powers as Macedon, Rome, and Constantinople.
The poleis Cartledge chooses are as follows: Prehistory: Cnossos (on Crete) and Mycenae; Dark and Archaic Ages (ca. 1000-500 B.C.):Argos, Miletus, Massalia, and Sparta; Classical Period (500-330 B.C.): Athens, Syracuse (on Sicily), and Thebes; Hellenistic Age (ca. 330-31 B.C.): Alexandria; and, finally, Byzantion (later Constantinople and Istanbul). As Cartledge makes clear, this list of necessity leaves out many other worthy contenders such as a Black Sea settlement (though Byzantion is on the narrows of the Bosporus, which lead into the Black Sea); the significant North African city of Cyrene, on the eastern Libyan coast (though Alexandria is later placed some 400 miles east, on the coast of the western Nile Delta); or a city of Magna Graecia (mainland Italy), maybe Cumae, on the Bay of Naples.
Through the cities Cartledge DOES choose, he is well-able to narrate the history of Ancient Greece, including the Minoans on Crete; the Mycenaeans on Crete (after 1400 B.C.) and the mainland (Mycenae, Argos) who used Linear B, (deciphered as the earliest known written form [ca. 1400 B.C.] of Greek by Michael Ventris in 1952) mainly for taxation and inventory purposes; colonization; the rise of tyrants; the Greco-Persian Wars (ca. 500-479 B.C.); the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens (431-404 B.C.); the ascendancy of Thebes (early 4th c. B.C.); the rise of Macedon (ca. 338 B.C.); and the coming of Rome (2nd c. B.C.).
Professor Cartledge's mind is clearly brimming with a lifetime's learning, and he ranges with alacrity across this sweep of time and geography. This is the first book by Cartledge that I have read, and I quite enjoyed it. He has an engaging style, often leavened by humor. As the book was published in 2009, Cartledge is able to incorporate the most recent scholarship, often archaeological. We learn that a Linear B tablet was found at Thebes with a word that looks like "Lakedaemon," the southwestern region of the Peloponnese which includes Sparta, and is mentioned frequently in Homer as the home of Menelaos, King of Sparta, original husband of Helen (later "of Troy"). No Mycenaean palace (as would have housed King Menelaos), has yet been found in Lakonia, but recent surface finds of Linear B fragments in the vicinity of Sparta offer tantalizing prospects.
Also, in Athens, the recent tunneling for the new subway uncovered mass graves, probably from the plague that swept Athens in 430-29 B.C. and took the life of Pericles (builder [and rebuilder] of the sacred structures on the Athenian acropolis) and countless other Athenians.
In his narrative, Cartledge notes some interesting facts. He states that Sparta was by far the largest Greek polis in terms of land area, followed by Syracuse, and Athens/Attica in third place. He mentions that at the height of its "Athenian Empire," (ca. 440 B.C.) Athens was collecting 1,000 talents a year from its "allied" poleis, an huge sum not to be equaled by a Greek power until Alexander the Graet pillaged the seemingly limitless wealth of the Persian Empire after 331 B.C.
Cartledge also makes the important point that, to the "Old Greeks" in the eastern homelands, the colonies of Sicily, Italy, and the western Mediterranean, represented the "Golden West:" a region of rich agricultural lands and favorable settlement sites. Indeed Sicily, known as a breadbasket and land of sumptuous local coinages, exerted a powerful pull on the Athenians' imagination; and fantasies of riches led to the Athenians' ill-fated Sicilian naval expedition in 415-13 B.C. This horrific defeat at Syracuse planted the seeds for the Athenians' final defeat by Sparta in 404 B.C.
Cartledge brings the narrative full-circle by ending with Byzantion. Originally founded as a colony of Megara (on the eastern coast of the Isthmus of Corinth) in 688 or 657 B.C, Byzantion controlled the trade-routes to the rich grainlands of today's Ukraine and south Russia. Constantine moved his main capital from Rome to Byzantion (renamed "Constantinople") in 324-30 A.D. Here Latin was the official language until the reign of Justinian the Great (527-65 A.D.). Later, as the capital of the "Byzantine Empire," (through 1453 A.D.) the inhabitants spoke Greek, but continued to call themselves "Romans."
To me, Cartledge's book is a compact but rewarding read. However, as some other reviewers note, it may not be the ideal introduction to someone who knows very little about Ancient Greece. If you paid attention in a decent college survey of Ancient Greek History, much of the book should be familiar. But if there are too many names and places coming too fast, I would suggest reading Cartledge's "Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities" along with H.D.F. Kitto's "The Greeks" (1951), or Moses Finley's "The Ancient Greeks" (1964), both short treatments that will further flesh out the details. The maps in Cartledge's book are quite good, and there in a helpful Glossary, Who's Who, and suggestions for further reading. All in all, a very good book.