The classical world, in British historian Cotterell's view, encompasses not only ancient Greece and Rome, but also Egypt, Persia, India, and China. This encyclopedic compendium is long on thematic entries--for instance, précis of the condition of women in ancient Old World civilizations or the evolution of monumental architecture--but somewhat short on single-subject biographical pieces of the sort covered by, say, the Oxford Classical Dictionary. The thematic entries do make the book exceptionally useful for cross-cultural research, however, and Cotterell draws on the best recent scholarship, especially in anthropology and archaeology. --Gregory MacNamee
Review
Victor Davis Hanson Author of The Other Greeks, The Western Way of War, and with John Heath, Who Killed Homer?
There are numerous scholarly classical dictionaries; but very few are accessible to the general reader -- and fewer still incorporate the persons, places, and ideas of the ancient Chinese, Indians, and Near East. Thus Arthur Cotterell's illustrated companion to the classical worlds of both Europe and Asia is original and useful, reminding us not only how similar East and West were in antiquity, but also how very different the Greeks and the Romans were from the classical Asian civilizations. This is not only a valuable reference tool, but a fascinating book to read in itself.
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