Customer Reviews

Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean

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Over the last few years I have gotten interested in the sources of the ideas of our current world. For instance, when reading about Jefferson, Adams and people that founded the US I find they are fluent in Latin and Greek and read the classics extensively.

I have read the Histories, the Pelloponesian Wars, much of Plutarch and survey books I could find and though I found the stories interesting I have been groping for some context. I felt like one of the blind men and the elephant, only apprehending the little piece I was in contact with and not having any idea what a whole elephant is like.

I came across this book by looking through ...(this very place) and it looked like it would give me an overall structure. The book succeeded beyond my expectations. Starting with Egypt and ending with the Byzantine Empire it covers the myriad civilizations around the Mediterranean during that period. It puts Solon and Dracon into their context. It explains how the Etruscians related to the Greek civilization, and then to Roman. It discusses the Phoenecians, the Latins, the Gauls, the Celts and all the various people that interacted with the Romans as their empire expanded and then the Germans, Huns and other that became important as their empire declined.

Much of what we know about the ancient world is relatively new because excavations are ongoing and techniques are improving. Besides that our thinking aout the ancient world is evolving as well. This book trys to understand the period it covers not just from the point of view of the wealthy, literate folks that wrote the classics, but from the point of view of craftsmen, farmers and slaves as well.

This is definately the book I had been looking for to get me started learning about the influence the past has had on the present. I may not know yet what the elephant of ancient history smells like because I have not been that close, but I have a pretty good idea what it looks like thanks to this book.

This is a great book to get an integrated view of the ancient world. I looked at many different books before reading this one, having previously devoured a number of more specialized books about the ancient world over the years, but wanting something more in the way of an overall perspective and context. This book is great for that.

I was mainly interested in the sections covering pre-Classical Period Greece, from 1500 down to the Golden Age (about 500 BC), but the other areas of coverage are superb also. Freeman also has an especially nice touch and fluency with the Greek history, and I wasn't surprised to find a separate book on Greek history by him next to this one on the bookshelf. There were also several gaps in my historical knowledge that this book plugged. For example, his section on the Etruscans, which I only had very fragmentary and superficial knowledge of, was also excellent.

The book benefits from much recent scholarship, and the author points out in the introduction that one of the main differences between a modern book on ancient history and older ones is the degree to which ancient civilizations like Greece can be placed much more securely in the context of their times, showing them not as isolated cultural entities, but as arising from the interplay of much more cosmopolitan influences as they interacted with, and were influenced by, their contacts, peaceable or otherwise, with neighboring or competing cultures. This is another one of the great scholarly strengths of the book.

I also found the author's deft touch and writing style a big plus, and although by necessity this is not a short book, it rarely got tedious or boring. That is notable by itself in a work of this size and nature. Overall, it counts as the best overall book on the history of the ancient world, and one of the most consistently interesting history books, I've ever read.

Many histories of this period respond to the lack of known detail about what happened by spending all their time droning on about social history. I wanted an narrative introduction to Greek and Roman history and this is it. The addition of Egypt is a welcome bonus. If you don't know your Marathon from your Issus, your Pompey from Ptolomy then this is the book for you. It serves as the ideal jumping off point to examine the particular areas that really spark your interest.

If you are constantly confused by this period of history, this is the book for you. It puts into context, the whole shape of the era. It makes you realise that someone like Cleopatra is closer to our time than the beginnings of Egyptian history. I have read the whole book through and it is a superb narrative. This is no mean feat, for if you where to write a history of the United States from Columbus to the present, it would be close to a third of the time that he covers. You can start to see the relationship between the writers of the period and the politicians. You can begin to way each period is interlocked with the next. But more than that, you can look up any period and be given a succint description to help you through.

My only regret was that this book was not published years earlier. I cannot recommend a book more highly.

This history is very useful to see both ancient Egypt and the Classical tradition separately and in tandem, making a fine study of the bridge between civilizations. Like acorns under a great oak tree, Greece and Rome resolve their beginnings in the field spawned by Egypt. This is a very usefully done work with excellent references and makes a good tool for the branching out into more specialized areas, without losing a picture of the whole.

In a quest to fill gaps in my historical knowledge I downloaded this book into my Kindle. I am very glad I did.

It is not necessarily surprising what I didn't know; I think in general maturity brings a realization of how vast the world is. It is rather more surprising what I thought that I knew. As a product of the 1980s public school system it is as if I thought the three civilizations somehow existed in a vacuum. That is really what I take away from this book - the interraction of the peoples around the Mediterranean over a span of 1000 years.

When I purchased this book I wanted a concise history that was not too "bogged down" in the details. Of course you get your Alexander, Caesar, Hadrian, etc. But I think Freeman does a nice job of nailing the essentials of the time and then later filling in some of the content before moving on.

Some other things about the book:

- As you would expect the book is about a quarter Egypt, a quarter Greece, and the rest is Rome.

- Freeman has his theories about why each empire 'failed' but does not present it as absolute fact.

- I think Christianity was covered fairly and historically.

- You really get a sense of how ineffective the Roman Senate was. I would be interested to read other books on the subject regarding this. Charles Freeman really makes it seem that the Senate loss most of its power early in the empire and really only existed as "window dressing" at the end.

- Freeman does a good job explaining 'continuity' of the populace even after the fall of the empires. I have always wondered about this and he is one of the first I have read to really explain it.

- He likes to explain the philosophers and learned men of the time which I personally found a little boring. But in context it makes sense since their writings are the reason we know anything about these time periods.

This is not what I would consider a light read, there are moments where I really had to force myself through. But considering the amount of time in history covered and the subject matter I really think Charles Freeman did a good job.

Charles Freeman's book Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean is an outstanding book. It is by no means a book for experts who hope to learn something new. It is, however, a great book for beginning college students to read. Freeman makes these ancient worlds come to life and make sense. I bought a used copy after reading a quarter of the book borrowed from the library. It is now in my reference section for me to continue to refer to in the future. I strongly recommend this enjoyable book to anyone who has an interest in Egypt, Greece and Rome.

This book covers Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in three multi-chapter sections and covers the Ancient Near East, the Hellenistic world after Alexander, and Europian "barbarians" in single chapters. The main topics--Egypt, Greece, and Rome--are, I think, treated quite separately, so there is no great advantage besides convenience to grouping them in one book.

I believe that the Ancient Near East--particularly the Persians and Jews--should have been a primary focus, and probably Egypt should not have. The Persian Wars and the rise of Christianity had huge impacts on Rome and Greece, and much of Greek culture was derived from Eastern culture. Ancient Eqypt was a unique and remarkable civilization but it was relatively isolated, and certainly it is possible to understand Greece and Rome without understanding Egypt.

The basic flaw of this book is that the chapters aren't tied together and that it has no overarching vision. For example, a theme like the similarities between the Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religions because of assimilation would have been very interesting and enlightening I think, but there is little of it.

The writing is a bit prosaic, though in general this book is written well. You can learn a lot from this book, but it is difficult to remember it all since it is too much a compendium of facts and too little a coherent story.

The book was exactly what I needed, it showed up very quickly and was extremely useful for my class.

I knew when I read the first page I had found THE book to prepare myself to teach a course on ancient history to my homeschooled children. "The training in taste and accuracy and thought, that lucid if somewhat factitious understanding of human institutions and human nature, which a close acquaintance with the Greek and Roman authors could give, were considered to fit the young supremely for the conduct of life. Those who had undergone the rigours of the traditional Humanist (ie classical) discipline in school and university were accepted by the majority of their contemporaries as an authoritative elite." In my home, we use the classical education model to promote in our children more rigorous analytical skills, mental discipline, and a wealth of knowledge about the world we live in. Charles Freeman has produced an excellent book to pass on the knowledge of the ancients (how to organize a community... a persons obligations to society vs family.. etc) that may be helpful to citizens of the 3rd millenium as we face the same ancient problems and see what has been tried before.