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Ancient Greece

TubbaBlubba said:
Yes, I can absolutely understand that point of view. But if my goal was to understand Roman history, it would be pretty far down on my list.
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Why? Is the information factually incorrect? Remember, "Roman history" is an enormously broad subject--most people are interested in a fairly narrow slice of it. If what you want to know is major wars, the emporers of the time, and the major issues at the time, Gibbon isn't a bad reference. Nothing he's said contradicts anything my more recent books say, when it comes to facts (interpretations are another story).

Lukraak_Sisser said:
Sure, it tends to blend myth with fact, but it also gives a good insight on how the greeks thought at the time.
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That's just as important as anything else when studying history. If you fail to understand it from the perspective of the people living through it, you've failed to understand it in some pretty serious ways.
 
I got my 3 volume reprint of curious questions. Its high quality but no lithographs. For 24 bucks I am still happy though the lithographs in the originals were great!
 
Although it's also (no-doubt) dated, I think that Vol. 2 of Will Durant's Story of Civilization covers Greece very nicely. (I'm basing this on you wanting to make your way through Gibbon, which is even more voluminous but Durant's volume is no piker... it's pretty thorough.)
 
I'd say start with Minoa and Mycenae (prehistory, more or less) before reading about the classical period. Then you might try actually reading something written by Homer somewhere along the line. There's also a lot of historical philosophy available (Plato and Aristotle are the obvious ones, but Epicetus' Discourses make a nice tie in with Rome due to the Roman interest in stoicism -- it also ties right in to Early Christian philosophy later on).

I don't have any actual books to sell you on though... it's been years since I've studied such things, and even then it was from philosophy and art history standpoints (both, actually but at different times). Some of what I once thought I knew may even be considered outdated by now, but I suspect that the writings of the Classical Greeks themselves haven't changed if you want to dig in to the actual material itself, rather than just getting someone's opinion on it (translations may vary some though). Don't get me wrong though, there isn't much entertainment value in that sort of reading from the perspective of someone with a more modern mindset, if that's what you're looking for.
 
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Jules Galen said:
May I reccomend a series of Yale Lectures by the Historian Donald Kagan?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL023BCE5134243987&feature=plcp
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Manopolus said:
I'd say start with Minoa and Mycenae (prehistory, more or less) before reading about the classical period. Then you might try actually reading something written by Homer somewhere along the line. There's also a lot of historical philosophy available (Plato and Aristotle are the obvious ones, but Epicetus' Discourses make a nice tie in with Rome due to the Roman interest in stoicism -- it also ties right in to Early Christian philosophy later on).

I don't have any actual books to sell you on though... it's been years since I've studied such things, and even then it was from philosophy and an art history standpoints (both, actually, but at different times).
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Elf Grinder is currently on a month-long suspension so won't be replying any time soon.
 
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