Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24925 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

From Library Journal
In this survey of ancient Greek history and civilization, Martin (classics, Coll. of Holy Cross) skillfully blends social, cultural, political, and military data to create a panoramic view of the Greek world. He moves chronologically from prehistory through the end of the Hellenistic era to 30 B.C. His work serves two purposes: it acts as a companion piece to the software database Perseus: Interactive Sources and Studies on Ancient Greece (Yale Univ., 1996. rev. ed.), to which the author contributed material, and it serves as an introductory text for anyone interested in classical studies. Novices will find the work both comprehensible and entertaining. For readers interested in pursuing topics such as the philosophy of Plato or the Peloponnesian War, Martin includes an annotated section of suggested readings that is quite helpful. This abundantly illustrated work is recommended for libraries housing the Perseus program and especially for public libraries whose classical sections consist of a handful of Michael Grant titles and dog-eared copies of Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way.?Rose M. Cichy, Osterhout Free Lib., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Free of suffocating scholasticism, this stolid narrative is well suited for a small library needing an overview of ancient Greece. Naturally, Martin writes most about the more fully researched periods, the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., encompassing the Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War, and the subsequent Macedonian conquest of an enervated Greek civilization. But he starts with the earliest habitation of Hellas, as well as archaeology can discern it through Stone Age remnants. Cautiously noting how problematic interpreting fragmentary evidence can be, for example in inferring social structure, Martin proceeds to describe the earliest widespread Greek cultures, the Minoan and Mycenaean. Emerging from the dark time into which they collapsed was the famous Homeric Age, when the two epic poems were put into writing. A summary of them, and of the other principal literary works of Greece, stud the political developments Martin steadily recounts: Athenian democracy is capably introduced to new readers. Photographs and maps enhance this solid first lesson about the ancients. Gilbert Taylor

From Kirkus Reviews
A limpidly written, highly accessible, and comprehensive history of Greece and its civilizations from prehistory through the collapse of Alexander the Great's empire. In brisk fashion, Martin (Classics/Holy Cross Coll.) narrates the highlights of what little is known about the Stone Age in Greece, the prehistoric Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, the rise of Mycenean culture, and the Dark Age that looms as a lacuna between approximately 1200 b.c., when Mycenae mysteriously collapsed, and about 750 b.c., when Greece's Archaic Age began. In the Archaic Age, Martin relates, the foundations of life during the classical period were laid: the institution of slavery, which spurred the growth of a leisure class; the emergence of city-states; the establishment of laws; and the development of various types of polity all contributed to both the creative culture and the political tensions that characterized Greece during later eras. Although broadly discussing political, military, and social history, Martin emphasizes the cultural achievements of Athenian civilization during the Golden Age and the impact of the horrendous 27-year Peloponnesian War, which sapped the military strength of Athens and effectively finished the city as a power. Martin also traces the rise of the mercurial Alexander the Great and the rapid creation of his magnificent, far-flung, and ephemeral empire and its disintegration after Alexander's death in 323 b.c. into numerous kingdoms, culturally diverse but all with a Hellenistic flavor. This concise but wide-ranging narrative takes us up to the death of Cleopatra VII, the last Hellenistic monarch of Egypt, in 30 b.c., and the emergence of Rome as the dominant Mediterranean power. A highly readable account of ancient Greece, particularly useful as an introductory or review text for the student or the general reader. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Trees Should Not Die For Books This Moronic
It baffles me the good reviews on this book as in the first chapter, the words, "PERHAPS, COULD BE and MAYBE" are how the writer writes about history he states, "we just do not know".
Then Mr. Martin continues on in succeeding chapters to inform the Greeks that they do not know their own history as Dorians, who are spoken of, had their own language, invaded Greece, "do not exist".
This is beyond the dumbing down of America, this is the complete moronic view of history! If Mr. Martin does not know about the subject then he should not be writing about the subject nor should others be leaving feedback that this waste of trees for paper is anything but 1 star.

For the record, to prove I know the subject, one only has to look at the "Phoenicians" whom Mr. Martin does mention, but never correlates that this "lumping of peoples" details the facts and archeology found in the Bible.
The invasions of Greece and subsequent changing of character to one of MILITARY KINGS, ELDERS and ELECTED OFFICIALS mirrors exactly the traditions found in the Israelite nations, which include the first Republican form of government which so many people like Mr. Martin refer to "democracy" which is not people rule but MOB RULE.
The key line in this Biblical connection is "every man did what was right in his own eyes as there was no king in Israel". That is individual voting rights at it's genesis.
Furthermore ancient sources factually connect the time of Greek upheaval to the period when Assyria conquered the Israelite kingdom of the north which contained the seafaring people of the Danites.
This tribe of Dan had 2 groups. One exiled in ships touching on many coastal areas to Ireland with the Lebanese (Phoenicians) where they were called the Tuatha de Danaan or Tribe of Dan. Today they can be found in Denmark which means Mark of Dan.
Jewish scholars have long pointed out that Dan spent time in Greece and that the Benjamites were sojourners there. Many have eluded to the fact that the Spartans who practiced homosexuality and are termed "Dorian invaders" by the Greeks are in fact the ancient base of Spartans.

This is where Mr. Martin also comes up with the most heinous of disgusting conclusions when he speaks of Spartans taking children from their parents as boys to live in military camps with older males. Mr. Martin then lists the activities which included "physical love". THERE IS ANOTHER NAME FOR THAT ON WORLD LAW BOOKS AND IT IS CALLED CHILD MOLESTATION.
Yes Mr. Martin terms pedophiles a "physical love".

How on this planet Yale which published this book and others who give this book publication and glowing accounts is beyond the pale of morality.
Check it out, PAGE 78; LINE 18.

Mr. Martin also concludes that the making of metal artifacts for war and agriculture was due to everyone wanted them for prestige and NEVER CONCLUDES ONE HAS METAL DUE TO THE FACT IT IS A MUCH BETTER IMPLEMENT THAN ROCKS OR FLINT.

This is the absolute nonsense found in this book which beyond boring. This book is the dumbing down of professorship in the United States and our academia should be ashamed to put something like this out.

This book is so surpassed by the original Greeks in their writings and for example the book, The Tribes by Yair Davidy has more Greek information in passing WHICH IS ACCURATE that people should not waste time nor money on this nonsense.
I paid 30 cents for the hardcover and that was 30 cents too much.

One does not author books nor go to schools to hear, "might be, could be, probably or I don't know" nor does one want conclusions that people had plows because they were pretty and everyone had them.

I can not strongly enough not recommend people buying this book. If it would not cost more to send the letter for a refund to Yale, I would be demanding a refund from them as this was not history nor even a discussion. This was pure uninformed scribbling.
If this is the product of American secondary education at billions of dollars just turn out the lights and give the people beer money as this book inspires no thought nor reaches a discerning mind.

It is a pure void of information and morality.

An absolutely fantastic overview of ancient Greece
Thomas Martin's book "Ancient Greece" is an absolutely fantastic book if you're interested in getting an overview of ancient Greece, how it started and progressed and why people are interested in studying about it. At just over 200 pages of text, Martin somehow manages to cover a huge amount of information, yet keep it extremely interesting. The only shortcoming is that in my paperback edition the pictures are all crummy black and white and grainy. Additionally, all the images are grouped together, so the images aren't there when you read the associated section in the text.

I'm not sure where you are coming from, but I had just read the Odyssey and the Iliad and wanted an overview in order to understand these texts better as well as snoop around for other texts to read. Mission accomplished, Herodotus' "Histories" and then Hesiod's "Works and Days", staying clear of Thucydides because it just seems too difficult to read.

Included in the text, as the book begins, is a description of the geographic characteristics of Greece and how that led to the development of individual, strong Greek city-states. Additionally, we hear about the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. The Hellenistic period, which occurs after Alexander the Great unified much of the old Persian Empire (and probably more) with the Greek "homeland" seems like it gets short shrift compared with the Classical or Golden eras, though you get just enough information to a) get excited about those areas and b) get leads for other areas to investigate.

You can't do much better than this.
There are certainly no shortage of history books dealing with the Greeks but Professor Martin's book deserves special notice. He knows just the right balance of detail and readability that actually makes reading history compelling and engrossing. In short, the author gets to the point faster and better than any other author of the subject that I've read and this makes the experience of reading the book through much less difficult than one might expect for a history text. Whenever I have a question about ancient Greek history this is the text I pick up first. A superb book - Highly recommended.