Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86111 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 672 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Framing this history of the classical world as he imagines the second-century Emperor Hadrian (who traveled the classical world and had a "classicizing mind") would have done, this scintillating survey seeks to understand Greek and Roman civilizations on their own terms. Oxford historian Fox (Alexander the Great) structures his study around the ancient concepts of freedom, justice and luxury, as they evolved from Homeric literature onward. The story arranges itself around two poles: democratic Athens, of which, for all its flaws, Fox is an unabashed partisan, and Rome, whose fatally unequal republic declined into the grotesque tyranny of the early empire. This intellectual framework provides an interpretive skeleton for a loosely structured, well-paced narrative history. (One disappointment, a major one for an "epic history," is Fox's sketchy, montage-like treatment of military campaigns.) Into the story the author weaves insightful passages on art, religion, technology, marriage and the prominent role of homosexuality in classical culture, along with set-piece profiles of statesmen and thinkers from Pericles to Plato to Pliny. Fox is a fluent, perceptive color commentator on the pageant of ancient history, while giving readers some idea of where the parade was headed. 71 b&w illus.; 10 maps. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Greek and Latin may long since have lost their central place in Western education, but the influence of the classical world on our own culture remains very strong. It's there in language and law, and far more vividly present in ideas and ways of thinking about the world. Both the name and concept of democracy came from the Greeks (even if in practice ancient democracies varied massively from each other and their modern counterparts). A century ago, people were fond of comparing the British Empire to that of Rome, and nowadays it is common to look at America in the same way. The great Greek historian Thucydides would have been delighted but not surprised by such analogies; when he chronicled the struggle between Athens and Sparta in the 5th century B.C., he claimed that the events he described would be "repeated in much the same way in the future."

In reality, the parallels are rarely so neat, and all too often people twist the past to confirm their own preconceptions. The Nazis used the writings of Roman authors such as Tacitus to bolster their ideological claims about the inherent moral and martial superiority of the German race. That was an extreme case -- at one point, Himmler even tried to seize the oldest manuscript of one of Tacitus's books -- but even today, commentators with different political backgrounds will often draw radically opposing conclusions from the same episode in Greek or Roman history.

We need to understand the past on its own terms before trying to draw any lessons from it, and for this and other reasons, Robin Lane Fox's splendid The Classical World is to be especially welcomed. Lane Fox, who teaches at Oxford, is that rarest of writers: a distinguished academic who is willing and able to address a general audience. This latest book presents a survey of Greek and Roman culture over some 900 years, beginning with the era of Homer and ending with the rule of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. It is not a narrative history -- events such as the Peloponnesian War or Alexander the Great's campaigns are skimmed over -- but the discussion has a chronological framework, ensuring that we are not presented with a simplistic view of unchanging attitudes and beliefs.

This is a big book, but the subject is truly vast. In spite of this scope, the book's pace never slackens, and it remains readable throughout. Lane Fox makes no attempt to hide the vast gaps in our knowledge; phrases like "in my opinion" occur frequently, warning the reader that other interpretations are possible, even if there is no time to discuss them.

Evidence or lack thereof dictates what we can say about the ancient world, of course. Important figures such as the Athenian statesman Pericles remain quite shadowy, and it is very hard to gain a sense of what the great man was like. Not until the entry of King Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great, do key characters in the story register more as human beings, although the sheer scale and speed of the latter's achievements will always make him something of an enigma. This changes when we come to the centuries of Roman dominance, when the reader gets far more vivid impressions of men like Pompey and Caesar, Cicero and Pliny, Augustus and Hadrian. This is simply a reflection of the sources Lane Fox has to work with, for biographies and even private letters survive from many of these men (it is invariably a question of men since even the most influential women of the imperial court remain vaguely known figures).

Although the scope of The Classical World is broad, it deals primarily with the lives and attitudes of the wealthy elite. We know relatively little about the less well off, even in democratic Athens, and we know almost nothing about the poorer inhabitants of other Greek cities. So we do not get much sense of the lives of the majority of the population, although this would be a little more feasible in the Roman era. Three main themes of The Classical World -- justice, liberty and luxury -- are each shaped by the perspective of the upper class. For instance, Roman justice was never supposed to be blind but to take full and favorable account of a person's wealth and status. Or consider another recurring topic, the importance of horses and hunting. Few academics mention such things other than in passing, but Lane Fox -- himself an experienced equestrian and hunter -- justifiably stresses these quintessentially aristocratic concerns.

Lane Fox's survey deserves to be widely read. Indeed, I cannot think of a better introduction to the subject for those with no prior knowledge. Whether or not you agree with all his interpretations -- and many will not -- no one will doubt that these are the considered opinions of someone with a deep knowledge of the subject. (Personally, I am unconvinced that the Roman Republic "could, indeed should, have survived" Julius Caesar after he had become dictator, or that it would have survived had Mark Antony been assassinated along with Caesar.) Still, Lane Fox's strong and clear narrative will stimulate those reacquainting themselves with this fascinating era as much as it enthralls newcomers.

Reviewed by Adrian Goldsworthy
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
Fox, the author of numerous works on classical civilization, is a masterful writer whose elegant but highly readable prose offers an evolving portrait of Greek and Roman culture over a period of roughly 900 years. Although he utilizes a broadly chronological approach, Fox goes well beyond the usual, dreary narrative of battles, dynastic changes, and political conflicts that often characterize surveys of the period. Instead, Fox focuses on the gradual development and transformation of various cultural aspects of Greek and Roman societies, and he discusses in often fascinating detail topics that are normally given short shrift in general histories. For example, he provides an excellent analysis of the social and political conditions influencing the "overseas" Greek polities, in Sicily, southern Italy, and Ionia. He examines puzzling historical problems such as Hannibal's failure to win the support of Italian client peoples who unexpectedly remained loyal to Rome during the Second Punic War. This is an excellent work of scholarship and literature and will be a valuable addition to ancient-history collections. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Solid overview until falling off a cliff near the end
Basically, in the last few chapters of what easily could have been a four-star book, if not quite a five-star, Lane shows the same scholarship problems he evidences much more severely in "The Unauthorized Version." (See my review of it for more.)

He is generally a great classicist, and a good popularizer and writer of classical history. But, he is WAY out of his league as a scholar of early Christianity. Starting in the chapter "Christianity and Roman Rule," he makes statements, and takes interpretative stances, that are simply unsupported by the best modern scholarship.

On the interpretative stances, the biggest wrong move, as in "The Unauthorized Version," his credulous acceptance of a high degree of historicity for the Gospel of John. He shows some degree of credulity about the other New Testament Gospels' historicity as well.

One example? He accepts that there were actually exactly 12 apostles, without stopping to think at all about the symbolic significance of a parallel to the 12 tribe of Israel.

Next, he misinterprets Luke 13:1-5. Contrary to Fox, the actual account says nothing about the Galileans murdered by Pilate being Zealots or any other kind of revolutionaries. The only thing Fox does get right is to note that, as Jesus said, their station and activities in life were irrelevant to why they died.

Next, per evangelical Christian sociologist Rodney Stark, there were probably less than 1,500 Christians in the entire world at the time Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, allegedly for a Christian disturbance. (Note: Tacitus, the source here, does NOT use "ChristOS," the normal Greek word for "Christ," but "ChrEEstos," an epithet often translated as "noble" or similar, and used for Apollo, amongst other things. It is arguable that the Latin-first Tacitus confused two Greek words, but, perhaps he did not. In any case, this could have been a Messianic disturbance with no connection to Yeshua bar-Iusuf of the village of Nazareth, assuming the "historical Jesus" even existed, and it shows Tacitus had little knowledge whereof he spoke on this.)

Of those 1,500 Christians, reasonably, no more than 300, at best, would have been in Rome, out of a population of 1 million. It's ridiculous to think that "Christians," rather than "Jewish Messianism," could have been the cause of either Claudius' expulsion or Nero's persecution. (And, if the Jews were expelled, when did any of them come back?)

Finally, earlier in the book, Fox shows a tin literary ear and a weak understanding of philosophy. On the latter, he's too generous to Socrates as a philosopher, and one doesn't have to be as critical of Socrates as Izzy Stone to know that Fox is almost gushing.

On the literary side, for Fox to call Plato "the greatest prose-writer in all world literature" is something I will kindly let pass without further comment.

And, on the scope of things, less than 600 pages of body text for a book this broadly ranging means Fox is painting with a single, thin application of watercolors.

It almost seems he constrained himself into a subtitle's alliterative straitjacket. Why not "Alexander to Antoninus Pius" or "Macedon to Marcus Aurelius" instead? Lop 500 years of time off the front end of the book and focus it more.

In short, compared to "Pagans and Christians" as Fox's top work, this is somewhat a disappointment.

A great overview
I knew a lot about bits and pieces of classical culture and history, but this book put it all together nicely. It would defenitely be best for people who have an interest in the topic going in. It gets a bit encyclopedic in places, but overall a good and informative read.

Fill-in the gaps in your knowledge of history and have fun doing it
I enjoy reading history and decided on this book to give me information about an era I know little about, ancient Greece and Rome. This work is an excellent introduction to this topic and is quite enjoyable to read. The chapters are generally twelve pages or less, so it is convenient to sample the material in small doses. And those doses prove to be fascinating enough to tempt the reader to push on through succeeding chapters even as the eyelids grow heavy at night.

This is a narrative history which chronologically traces the developments of both societies. It is heavy on political events, but provides enough social history to make the period come alive. Fox's work can serve as a fine springboard for later reading in more concentrated areas that the reader may wish to explore. For the person with an interest in history, Professor Fox lays a basic foundation and provides a strong sense of understanding what made Grecian and Roman societies work. In an engaging style, he helps us understand how many traditions, practices, and values evolved in western civilization.