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100/100 A very different view of the ancient world. Instead of looking at the Roman, Greek and Egyptian empires from their centers, like Rome and Athens, this is a view of those kingdoms from the civilizations that were on the edges, some that intermingled with the empires and some that came into direct conflict with them. 4/5 ⭐ #Read2025

The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome, by Guy de la Bedoyere (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A history of the Ptolomaic Empire, from its beginnings in the aftermath of Alexander the Great‘s death to its end under the famed queen Cleopatra

Review: There‘s a lot of excellent content here and I was excited for a volume focusing on one of the great Hellenistic kingdoms. ⬇️

This is a pretty good summary and description of the pyramids we know, trying to dig into their function somewhat and figure out why some of them failed. If you're fascinating by ancient Egyptian burial practices, this one's a winner.

This is just the 1st of 8 volumes. I went in expecting to learn a lot (and I did) but not expecting the humor and the quality of the prose. I‘m not jumping right in to volume 2, but I do hope to finish the whole thing by the end of 2026. Pic is the map on the endpapers of my edition.

And the relevance to our current situation keeps coming. Sigh.

I have a hard time taking these names seriously. 😀

Gibbon‘s prejudices are always on display, and sometimes humorous. 🍺

Let‘s hope it‘s not irrevocable. And this was written in 1776. Do we never learn?

I quite enjoyed this random pick from the library -- it digs into the civilisations and melting pots at the boundaries of the ancient civilisations we know best (mostly Egypt, Greece and Rome).

I always thought of this as something I “should” read, but didn‘t look forward to it (so it languished on my shelves for decades) but he‘s actually amusing. Just barely into Chapter 2 and I‘ve read at least four quotes out to my ever-suffering husband.