pickThucydides! Its been more than I haven't ever wanted to know about the Peloponnesian War, but we even made it through a mid-term together.
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pickThucydides! Its been more than I haven't ever wanted to know about the Peloponnesian War, but we even made it through a mid-term together.
pickA comprehensive history of modern Greece, well-written. I learnt much about where Greece sits in the wider context, including that it hasn‘t existed as a country until relatively recently - whereas there is a strong conceit of the Hellenic (or Greek) ancient history & culture. For a country that invented democracy, it seems to have been a hot mess for the last 200+ years. So many coups, periods of no government and reliance on imperial countries.
so-soIt‘s 410 BC & Xenophon leads a 10k strong army of Greek mercenaries, retreating from a failed attempt by their Persian paymaster, Cyrus, to seize the throne from his brother after their father dies. As they make their way back to the Black Sea & eventually Greece, they battle hostile natives & hardships caused by the terrain. Granted, it‘s a classic but it was a bit of a slog. It‘s repetitive & monotonous but, like Xenophon, I got there in the end
pickThe mountains look on Marathon –
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dream‘d that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians‘ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.
‘The Isles of Greece‘ by Lord Byron
Teams message with classics degree-holding coworker:
ME - What‘s a laconophile?
ME - Oh, he digs Spartans.
…
THEM - Probably a jerk. That‘s how it tends to go with Classics guys like him.
ME - I appreciate your learnéd insight.
THEM - Sparta guys are another version of WWII fanboys.
~
I didn‘t love this book.
pick“The power of fate is a wonder; dark, terrible wonder. Neither wealth nor armies, towered walls nor ships, Black hulls lashed by the salt, can save us from that force.” —Sophocles
This should be interesting.
pickThis is a fairly short, surprisingly readable look at the social aspects of the world described in Homer‘s epics. Whether that was truly some heroic age, or more reflective of Homer‘s own time is another question altogether. Writing initially in the late 1940s, with revisions in the 1970s, Finley incorporates lessons learned from the Linear B tablets to bolster/adapt his conclusions as appropriate. If you‘re a classics nerd, I recommend this.
In case anyone thinks scholars are dry and humorless…
